Forwards trio Agapei Eukaliti, Jeremy Segol and Tyla Murvai were key reasons why Hastings Valley ran riot in a 61-5 hammering of Kempsey on Saturday.
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Eukaliti scored four tries while Segol and Murvai were always a handful in the middle of the field as the undefeated ladder-leaders extended their winning sequence to six matches.
It's not often those doing the all the dirty work and putting in the hard yards get all the accolades when a team wins by 50.
But the most concerning aspect for the rest of the Upper Mid North Coast Rugby Union competition is that the Vikings are focused on tweaking little parts of their game so they're not too predictable.
Captain Lyndon Gale reckons they can still get better.
"We're always trying to get better at training and things will change because we're not going to stick to the same structure the whole year," Gale said.
"We'll tinker with things as we get closer to the finals."
For the opening quarter of the game an undermanned Cannonballs defended stoutly and only trailed by two converted tries before the floodgates started to open.
Then it was all one-way traffic.
"Our focus was on discipline and just not trying to do too much and push the pass or anything like that and I thought we were really good in that aspect," Gale said.
"It was only 14-0 after 20 minutes or something so Kempsey definitely came to play as they always do up there."
But once the Vikings got their foot on the throat they were ruthless even if Cannonballs coach Jared Fuller couldn't fault the effort of his side.
They were tough, but in the end thoroughly outclassed.
"They put 60 points on us at the weekend and good on them, but we were tough," Fuller said.
"We had five under-18 players back up and play [first grade] and the average age of our team was not even 22. You're going up against the undefeated team in the competition.
"It's hard for these kids, but they're going to be better for it in the long run.
"Lewis Tyne was massive in a beaten team and worked hard all day. Matt South and Iulio Tavete were also very strong in the centres."
Kempsey lost star forward Harry Mainey to injury as a result of last weekend's Country Championships which made an already difficult task almost impossible.
It took the tally of unavailable players to 13 since round one.
"Since the start of the season we've lost all those players," Fuller said.
"Some of those will be back and some won't for varying reasons so it's basically a whole side."
Fuller expressed his frustration and disappointment at the impact supplying players to the representative program had on his club and not on others.
"That whole thing doesn't sit well with me at all," he said.
"We're struggling, but still trying to commit players to the representative program and we go up against the Vikings who are fresh as a daisy and undefeated.
"Somehow we have more players playing in the rep program than them."
The Cannonballs have now lost five of their last six matches, but the coach has no intention of giving up on the season just yet.
"People are hurting off the back of a loss like that, but at the same time we're not throwing in the towel," he said.
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