Matt Martin 'outstanding' in Country Championships opener on Saturday

In the course of the Colts' 26-10 victory at the Goulburn Workers Arena on Saturday, Martin came off the bench to do some crucial work in defense and contributed a try of his own in the second half.

"Matty was outstanding for his first rep game," Giteau said.

"I was very happy with his effort. I thought fundamentally he was very good, he did all the basics really well. He's in the side again this week, and I think he'll only get better the more experience he gets."

Martin was one of three Goulburn Bulldogs players in the squad, alongside Steve Cummins and Joel Ambrose, and rose to the occasion in front of his home crowd against tough opposition.

"[The Roosters] were very competitive last year so I was expecting them to be the same this year," Giteau said.

"Particularly with the ball [in hand], I thought they were pretty good."

The Roosters were dangerous when on the offensive, and consistently pressured Monaro's defence. This, Giteau said, was not helped by the Colts' habit of trying for ambitious tackles.

"Our scrambling defense was really good," he said.

"We just have to do a bit better job at making tackles rather than trying to dominate tackles. We burned a bit of juice trying to make big tackles all the time, and a lot of times when we went in to make big tackles they'd bounce up and get a good play at the ball.

"That's something we'll work on this week and try to improve for the Riverina game."

This weekend's match against Riverina is, on paper, a relatively straightforward affair for the Colts.

Against the Illawarra South Coast side on Saturday, Riverina fell to a 46-0 defeat and now sit a distant last on the ladder.

But Giteau knows better than to take opposition sides for granted, regardless of past scorecards.

"The score was probably not a true indication of the game, I thought Riverina were pretty competitive for the majority," he said.

"It was just a few bits that Illawarra were a bit too good in. [Riverina have] definitely got some good players there and they kept going for the 80 minutes.

"It's not going to be an easy game for us, if we improve on what we did last week ... I think we'll be okay."

The structure of the Country Championships has changed in 2020. Only two rounds will be played by each team in the lead-up to finals, meaning every try scored and goal kicked has value.

The Colts currently sit in fourth place on the ladder, and a big win this weekend could see them leapfrog the Western Rams and possibly the Northern Rivers Titans into second spot.

The Monaro Colts Under 23s will take on the Riverina Under 23s at Leeton Number One Oval this Sunday, March 15, from 2pm.

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