TWO red cards and three yellow cards were issued in Orange Emus' heated 26-18 Blowes Clothing Cup victory over a physical Cowra Eagles on Saturday.

Played at Endeavour Oval, Emus flanker Scott Udy earned two yellow cards - the first for his part in an opening-half melee and the second for repeat infringements - and was subsequently issued with an early shower while Cowra prop Gabe Brown was handed a red card for punching in the first half.

With his side up 13-12 and with 27 minutes remaining in the match, Eagles' No.8 Charlie Dunhill was given a 10-minute stint on the sidelines for repeat breaches of the rules, a moment the hosts never looked back from as they eventually secured an eight-point victory.

"There was plenty of passion out there," Eagles skipper Chris Miller said.

"I think discipline on our side definitely lacked and (Emus) were pretty good on capitalising on that."

Emus co-coach Paul Ringland wasn't surprised by the physical nature of the contest, one in which tempers flared at almost 60-second intervals approaching halftime, with the Cowra coaching staff and match officials also exchanging words at the break.

"It always is (heated)," Ringland said.

"They really tear in and compete hard at the ruck, they always give us a really good physical battled ... it's just footy, it's good."

Out to prove a point after last weekend's thrashing at the hands of Bulldogs, the highly-vaunted Cowra pack muscled up early with monster props Brown and Dan Burnham leading the way.

It led to the Eagles earning the lions' share of territory, and, with Jimmy Montgomery terrorising the Emus ruck defence, the penalties soon arrived as fullback Troy Jeffs shot the visitors out to a 3-0 lead before Mitch Budge scored out wide to take the advantage out to eight points,15 minutes into the contest.

Momentum began to swing soon after though, with Burnham brought from the field with a neck complaint.

He didn't return.

The ensuing reshuffle took a large chunk of the mettle out of the Eagles' pack, and a nice counter-attack at the half-hour mark resulted in Michael Mann bringing up Emus' first points via a five-pointer in the corner.

Perri missed the conversion to see the scoreline remain at 8-5, but the next five minutes would effectively decide the result.

VIDEO: What the coaches and captains said after full time:

With Emus camped in Cowra territory, tempers flared as Udy and Brown came to blows on the 22-metre line at the northern end of the ground.

The pack eventually separated, and when the dust settled Udy was handed his first yellow card of the match before Brown was deemed to have landed punches in the scuffle, with the red card bringing an end to his stay on the field while also sending the second of Cowra's hugely influential props packing for the match.

Simply for Cowra, and as good as the rest of the impressive Eagles line-up is, they're a shadow of the team that opened the season with four straight wins with both Brown and Burnham off the field.

Emus scored late in the first period through Perri to lead 12-8 at the break, and the visitors dug deep to score first in the second half through Anthony Yeo, but the hosts proved too strong at Endeavour Oval as second half tries to Keith Howarth and man of the match Rob Thorburn edged Emus to victory.

"It helped, obviously their scrum early on was dominant," Ringland said, noting the drop in Cowra's set piece without their two bookends.

"It wasn't too dominant but they were definitely on top of us. They had to make some changes and we capitalised."

"The red card didn't help," Miller added.

"We're still positive though. We're still playing well and the principles are there, we've just got to keep building on the foundation we've built and go back to basics.

"We've got to play smarter footy, that's for sure."

ORANGE EMUS 26 (Michael Mann, Adam Perri, Keith Howarth, Rob Thorburn tries; Adam Perri 3 conv) def COWRA EAGLES 18 (Mitch Budge, Anthony Yeo, Chris Miller tries; Troy Jeffs pen goal)