Glen Innes Elks coach Sam Price conceded his team were outplayed by the Armidale Blues on Saturday.
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For their round four New England Rugby Union third grade clash, the Elks hosted the Blues and, after a strong opening half, were beaten convincingly in the second stanza.
The final scoreline read 43-14.
"They played very well, they put a lot of pressure on us at the breakdown and they controlled the pill when they had it and they turned it into points," Price said.
"It was 14-12 to us at half-time so the scoreline probably doesn't reflect at least two-thirds of the game but for the last part of the second-half they just ran away with it.
"We were just buggered and they could spread the ball wide and missed tackles just started to show."
After winning their opening two matches, the Elks have missed the points in their last two.
Price said ball control was poor and they were made to pay for it.
"Same thing, when we did have the ball in our hands, in the first-half, we looked dangerous and we capitalised and scored a couple of points," he said.
"We didn't hold the footy for consecutive sets.
"We didn't build any pressure in that second-half at all and they just utilised that possession.
"The last two games in particular, sometimes we looked like we want to score on every play and threw that last pass that wasn't there rather than taking the ball to ground at times."
The Blues had a vastly different team to the one the Elks faced in round one but Price lamented there were no excuses for their performance.
"I had heard there was a number of first graders in that team but that happens," he said.
"Teams don't have any other games when they play us. It is probably going to be more prevalent that we won a few games at the start of the season but that is just the way it is, it is not an excuse for us.
"We just need to be better."
The Elks head to Tamworth this Saturday looking for redemption.
Notoriously bad travellers, Price admitted he has no idea how the Elks will line up.
"They have had a really strong to the season so hopefully we can come out and fire and go well," he said.
"It will be a struggle because we haven't always travelled real well.
"I have no idea how many numbers we have got."