Western Rams beaten by Newcastle Rebels in Country Championships semi-final

It was a highlight-reel worthy effort but, unfortunately for the Rams, there were few other memorable moments in what finished a heavy loss to the Newcastle Rebels.

Despite Bresac's early effort helping make things 6-all early on, an ill-disciplined and scrappy Rams side never truly got into the match at a warm Collegians Park.

Western continually shot itself in the foot by either dropping the ball in attacking areas or giving away penalties and gifting possession to a Rebels side all too keen to make the most of its opportunities.

Newcastle went on to score an emphatic 46-18 victory and book a championships grand final date with the Riverina Bulls.

While Newcastle was always going to start a hot favourite, the nature of the result was hugely frustrating and disappointing for Western coach Cameron Greenhalgh given he had assembled the strongest representative team the region had seen in a number of years.

"The dressing room is down, as you'd expect, because they know it's something they let slip," Greenhalgh said post-match.

"I think the boys realise they were every chance if they played their best footy.

"It's how you turn up on the day and we didn't turn up. The build-up had been good and everything was in place but there's a couple of bounces of the ball and they scored, and a couple of calls went against us and then we got a bit frustrated in our footy.

"In these type of games, if a side gets on top and has the bounce of the ball they can put some points on you and that's what happened."

The match wasn't without drama as Rams prop Clay Priest and Newcastle hooker Luke Huth were both sent-off after trading blows inside the first 15 minutes.

Greenhalgh pinned no blame on Mudgee enforcer Priest, stating he defended himself and "it's one of those things that can happy on the footy field".

What was a little harder to forgive was the sheer amount of errors inside the first half hour.

As well as ruining their own chances of scoring, the Rams also coughed up the ball inside their own half and it all forced them into a huge amount of energy-sapping defence in the warm conditions.

The Rebels skipped out to a 22-6 lead approaching half-time but a try for Rams centre Corin Smith following an in-goal fumble from Newcastle winger Joe Woodbury provided a brief boost.

Nick Greenhalgh's conversion made the margin 10 at half-time and ensured a sense of belief was restored.

However, it didn't last as Newcastle scored just two minutes after the restart through replacement rake Ryan Glanville.

"At half-time I thought we'd addressed everything and the boys' mood seemed really good and I thought if we scored first in the second half we'd put them under pressure," the coach said.

"But we couldn't pin them in their own half ... the errors began and we let them in when we gave up the ball on the first or second tackle.

"The boys are disappointed."

Jeremy Thurston, who went into the match after a brilliant six-try performance in the previous round's win over Greater Northern, jinked and stepped his way to Western's only four-pointer in the second half.

That came inside the final 10 minutes when the result was already assured but time still remained for one last Rebels try to wrap-up a 28-point victory.

Thurston, despite some uncharacteristic handling errors, looked dangerous at times running the ball while five-eighth Jack Littlejohn was full of effort in both attack and defence, and back-rower Justin Toomey-White was gallant in a beaten side.

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