Orange CYMS star Murphy was simply sensational in the under 18s side's 34-10 win over Monaro at Parkes' Jock Colley Field.

Playing at fullback rather than his usual spot at halfback, Murphy scored a hat-trick, had a hand in a number of other tries and kicked five from six conversions.

The performance was just what the Rams needed after a hugely disappointing loss to the Macarthur Wests Tigers the week before.

"It was good after a rough game last week," Murphy said of the performance.

"That's a very good comeback. We needed to smash these last two games to hopefully make finals and have a crack at them.

"Our structure was way better and we kept playing on the front foot. It was a good performance from the team."

While there were few weaknesses on show during what was the Rams best performance of the Laurie Daley Cup so far, Murphy still stood head and shoulders above his teammates.

Making the performance event more impressive was the fact he hadn't played fullback in a number of years and the switch between Murphy and regular No. 1 Tyrone Tattersall from coach Kurt Hancock came as something of a surprise.

"I got to have a go at them by myself and got a few tries so that was really good," he said.

"Hank (Hancock) just did it and he spoke to us this morning and said have a crack. I played there when I was younger and it was good fun.

"You can play your own game back there."

Monaro opened the scoring through Thomas Campagna in the opening minutes of the match but that sparked the Rams into life.

A slick move to the left resulted in a try for Rams centre Harrison Scott and Murphy's conversion put Western up 6-4.

The Rams got caught with the ball on the fifth tackle a number of times during the first half but seven minutes form the break the attack click and Murphy went himself to cross.

His kick made it 12-4 and the Rams looked set to go into the sheds with that lead, only for Monaro winger Sean Ward to nab an intercept and race away to help cut the lead to two points.

The late try didn't leave the Rams reeling as they came out of the sheds full of intent.

The hosts dominated the ball and were rewarded when Michael Smith went over and shortly after captain Lachlan Lawson made a break which led to Murphy showing some neat footwork on the way to going in under the sticks.

Murphy then showed he had much more to his bag of tricks than just the ability to find the tryline as he produced a pinpoint grubber into the corner for Scott to pounce on and bag a second.

At 30-10 the Rams were in total control and then with 12 minutes to go Murphy produced a smart darting run to gather in a fine grubber from halfback Jamie Thorpe and complete his hat-trick.

The victory gave the Rams a much-needed shot of confidence ahead of next weekend's meeting with the Greater Northern Tigers at Gulgong.

Western needs a big win in that one and hope other results go in their favour to be any chance of playing finals.

"Hopefully we score another big win like this next weekend and then we'll have a good shot of finals," Murphy said.

"We just need to keep our heads up and get around each other. If there is a mistake, those things happen so we need to get around each other and we need to stick to our structure like we did today."

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