And it was the Colts opponents, the Scone Thoroughbreds, that galloped into second spot following the 26-18 result they inflicted on the Greta-Branxton squad at Scone Park.

It was a result the Colts brought upon themselves following a lacklustre performance in the round-seven fixture described by coach Matt Lantry as “terrible”.

“We weren’t good enough, actually, we were absolutely terrible for the first 50 minutes,” Lantry said.

“I wasn’t exactly sure what to put it down to, the one thing I could think of was that we had not played for three weeks.”

The Colts had come off a bye after the June long weekend break, which meant they had not played since May 30.

Lantry said the Colts had addressed the issue at training but it did not make a difference during the first stanza.

The Thoroughbreds scored two tries to lead 10-0 at the break and added a third four pointer shortly after to extend their advantage to 14.

It took until the 54th minute for the Colts to open their account and it was second-rower Mark Bercini who charged down a kick and sprinted 30m to score underneath the posts.

A try to utility Jo McCormack, who had replaced the injured second-rower Sam Russell during the first half, saw the scoreline reduced to 14-12 when he ran through untouched from a classy Joey Griffiths short ball.

Centre Jon Newton had a try disallowed from the ensuing set of six and the Thoroughbreds replied from a 40-20 to make it 20-12.

The Colts rallied once more through fullback Ron Bell and his four pointer made it 20-18 with four minutes remaining, but a mistake from the kick off handed possession to the Thoroughbreds and they sealed the victory with a try out wide.

Lantry said he was disappointed with the scoreline, the performance and the neglected chance to move up the ladder, but he remained calm about the situation.