The first grade side took a while to find its stride in the first competition game of the season.

With the grounds sodden, the Platypi’s preparations for the opening of the 2017 Blowes Clothing Cup campaign were described as less than ideal.

But the club’s assistant coach Phil Prior gave the boys credit for sticking out the full 80 minutes and coming from behind for the win.

“We were very sluggish in the first 40 minutes,” he said. “There was a lot of ball going to the ground, dropped passes, (Dubbo Roos) scored two nearly length-of-the-field tries just from our mistakes.” 

Fortunately the Platypi got it together in the second half, a converted try just before full-time sealing the victory in the club’s first home game of the season.

Highlights for Prior were the strength of the front row.

“Kyle Sharpe, Jarrod Hall and Charlie French were outstanding,” he said.

“And our new recruit Ned Brockmann in fullback is a real talent, he’s quite an exciting prospect.” 

The home side dominated the scrum throughout the game but line-outs went about 50-50 with the visiting side and will be a focus at this week’s training sessions. 

“We will stick to the basics, we need to brush up on the line-outs and our one-on-one defence,” Prior said.

“The scrums were excellent but we will work on those too.” 

In the other grades, Forbes seconds beat Dubbo Roos 31-0 and colts won 20-19, while in the juniors the under 13s won 38-15; the under 15s won 34-22 and the under 17s won 54-12.

In round two, Forbes heads to Orange for a rematch of the 2016 grand final with Emus.

In this weekend’s other games, Bathurst beat Charles Sturt University 58-10, Parkes trounced Mudgee 95-14, Orange defeated Cowra 38-10 and Emus beat Dubbo Rhinos 68-3.

“There were a couple of upsets in the first round,” Prior said.

“Parkes flogging Mudgee … I don’t know what to read into that. Maybe they’ve recruited really well.

“But we don’t go looking over fences too much, we try to look after our own backyard.”