IF the standard of play produced on Saturday by both the Harbour Knights and Walcha is indicative of what to expect come semi-final time, rugby union supporters should get excited.

The season might only be two rounds old but both teams are tipped to be the competition leaders.

Both the new Coffs Harbour team and Walcha scored five tries each on the way to a thrilling 31-all draw.

Even Knights co-coach AJ Gilbert, who played his heart out at number eight, had to admit that a draw was possibly the best result at Bayrange Rugby Park.

“As much as I hate a draw, that score line reflects the closeness of the game,” Gilbert said.

Walcha led 19-12 at the break but flyhalf Dave Nicol scored one of his two tries shortly after the resumption to tie the scores up.

The arm wrestle continued throughout. When either side made a line break that threatened to create a try, desperate cover defence from the opposition would stifle the attacking foray.

With little more than 10 minutes remaining the Rams took the lead through Pat Keen who dived over from short range to give Walcha a 31-24 lead.

Keen was given a yellow card shortly after while the Knights were in attack and the home side took advantage of having an extra man.

Walcha defended as best it could but eventually Tyran Stevenson found a way through down the left-hand side to tie up the score line again with only three minutes left on the clock.

The Knights had one last crack at snatching a memorable victory but were denied after getting as close as possible to a match-winning try.

“Unfortunately they held us out right at the end. We crossed over but they held us up,” Gilbert lamented.

“The last-minute scrambling defence was brilliant from both teams and it was all the way through the last 20 minutes, even the whole second half.”

Tomorrow the Knights travel to Armidale to face Robb College.

By Brad GREENSHIELDS