The Rams were their own worst enemy in the 22-point loss to the Illawarra South Coast Dragons in the opening round of the Andrew Johns Cup at Cowra's Sid Kallas Oval.

Nerves for the first game of the season were apparent, with the Rams knocking on in their first set, only for the Dragons to drop the ball on their first hit-up in reply.

While the Rams managed to get plenty of possession early in the contest, they were unable to convert it into points.

In contrast, the Dragons capitalised early, through some quick hands and strong running, with Toby Rumble crossing the line in the sixth minute.

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That was part of a procession as Cooper Harrison and Billy Hahn going over in the 16th and 25th minute respectively and the scoreline could have been worse for the Rams had Clay Baldock been able to land more than just one conversion.

Given the warm conditions at Cowra, the intensity dropped off in the second half and the Rams were never able to build pressure and get back into the contest.

South Coast again made the most of their few opportunities, with Byron Pitt crossing before Samson McAllister-Wood and Bailey Marks also went over to make it a commanding lead.

It wasn't until the final 10 minutes that Western got on the board, as a Fletcher Hunt bomb from 45m out was taken by flying fullback Ronan Hunt-Cameron, who gave it on to Parkes centre Malakai Folau for the try.

That was as good as it got for the Rams and the ill-discipline, resulting in Cody Crouch and Folau being placed on report, made things worse for Woolnough.

"It's very disappointing," the coach said.

"We didn't train like that, that's not what we were about and we can be a whole lot better than that.

"There were too many mistakes, you can't give a good side like that much possession and expect to win a football game.

"There were way too many mistakes, too many penalties, poor discipline and those two combined, it's a disaster."

He said simple fixes before next week would put the side in good stead.

"Just ball possession would be a start and there's a bit of discipline to go with that," he said.

"We're a much better side than that, a much better side.

"Illawarra are good but we made them look better than they really were."

On the flip side Dragons coach Aaron Hertsch was delighted with the performance put on by his side.

"The defensive display today was pretty good considering our warm-up games weren't that great but they really applied themselves today," he said.

"The defence won it for us. Our front rower Noah (McNally) was really good and I thought the back end of that second half, our halfback (Jackson Rieck) lifted up."

Hertsch said his side was well placed for their next match but there was some work to be done.

"It's definitely something we can work on (handling errors), our completions were down but I think they just hung in there and it got them through," he said.

"We've got the Tigers next week so that will be another challenge in itself.

"They're a bit bigger team and more physical through the middle so we'll have to fix our defence up a little bit and our contact."