THEY may have gone down 50-5, but the Warwick Water Rats fought hard for the entire game against USQ at the weekend.

The visiting competition favourites started the game strongly and had a large scoreline advantage by half time.

The Water Rats came back re-spirited in the second half and put the pressure on their opposition.

Co-coach Ryan Smith said it was late in the second half when the home team scored their try.

“It was a really good team effort – they hauled it over the try-line,” he said.

“Overall the boys played well. The first half there were a couple of mistakes and we lost a couple of tries, but in the second half it was good to see the boys re-group and hold their own.”

Man of the match went to Alex Costello, who Smith said was in the midst of a “stellar season”, two points went to Craig Pettiford and one point went to Roger Ngariki.

Smith said this week’s training would concentrate on the forwards before their next clash against St George.

“They’re performing week-in and week-out and it’s good to see, but there’s a few little things we can tinkle,” he said.

This weekend’s clash against St George will be another home game.

“It’s a big advantage for us to be playing at home. You don’t struggle with players when it’s a home match,” Smith said.

“The crowd always gets behind us and it’s good to hear that support.

“Hopefully there will be another big crowd this weekend.”

There will be junior fixtures again Saturday morning from 9am, reserve grade at 1.30pm and A-grade at 3pm.

A special golden oldie match will also take place between Warwick and Stanthorpe players aged 35 and over, which will kick off at 12pm.

“It will be a bit of a social game and it’s the get-together afterwards the players enjoy the most,” Smith said.

“Having the juniors before is great and most of them stay around for the senior games in the afternoon.

“It would be great if we could get some of the senior squad to come down, watch and help the juniors in the morning too.”