Orange Emus handed reigning Blowes Clothing Cup premiers Forbes a second straight defeat in Saturday afternoon’s grand final rematch, running in seven tries to one to hammer the injury-hit Platypi 41-5 in front of a healthy Wade Park crowd.
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Playing before Eastern Suburbs’ Beach to Bush Regional Round clash with Parramatta rather than afterward, as last year’s edition went, the greens produced what coach Paul Ringland labelled their “best performance of the season” to extend their unbeaten start to the season to four games.
Winger Tom Green, fresh off earning NSW Country selection, scored a hat-trick to take his try-scoring tally to eight so far this season, while Nas Havealeta, Harry Hamilton, Levi Russell and Harry Cummins all crossed the stripe as well.
Granted, Forbes lost mercurical halfback Mahe Fangupo to a knee complaint, didn’t have Cockatoos prop Charlie French and suffered a couple of injury setbacks too so Ringland says his side will take the win with a grain of salt.
Although, he did admit it felt good, considering the Platypi upset the then-undefeated Emus 28-20 at Endeavour Oval in last year’s decider.
“I can see why they didn’t want to play us in front of a big crowd under lights, they weren’t ready for it even in the early afternoon with not many [at Wade Park],” a somewhat frustrated Ringland fired, taking aim at the fact the clash was played from 1.10pm onward as opposed to on dusk.
“It was our best performance of the year by far, a pretty complete effort really. There was still a few little things we can improve on but we couldn’t have asked for much better.
“It feels good to get one back on Forbes, even though they lost their key player and we know it’ll be a different story when we go over there, I’m stoked with it.”
Forbes skipper Jack Hammond was slightly more diplomatic, simply saying his side was “outclassed”.
“Emus were just too good for us, they outclassed us,” he said.
“It certainly doesn’t help when key players go down at pretty important stages of the game but I don’t want to use that as an excuse. Emus were the better side, they deserved the win and we need to work harder to get back up to that level from here on.”
The round four clash was somewhat of arm wrestle early, although Emus crossed through Green not long into the clash to move ahead 5-0, Nigel Staniforth missing the kick.
Forbes hit back, locking the scores up before Nas Havealeta crossed and then replacement hooker Matt Findlay put Green away for his second with a slick cut-out ball and Harry Hamilton scored after that as well, giving the greens a 26-5 lead at the break.
“We asked the guys to lift their intensity at the start of the game, we’ve been getting better there each week but [on Saturday] we really hit the mark in that aspect,” Ringland said.
“That intensity lasted throughout the game and everything we put in place for [Saturday] worked perfectly.”
Green scored his third in the second half while Levi Russell and Harry Cummins also bagged tries, securing the massive win for the greens.
It wasn’t all roses for the hosts though as five-eighth Kyran Bubb – who was yellow carded in the opening half for a shoulder charge too – suffered suspected broken ribs, he’s facing a fair stint on the sidelines.
“That wasn’t ideal but he’s a tough bloke, fingers crossed it’s not as bad as first thought because he’s slotted into that playmaking role really well and was good on Saturday. He brings a bit of mongrel into the side, which we haven’t really had a lot of in recent season,” Ringland said.
The victory pushes Emus further ahead on top of the ladder, the greens are now nine points clear on top thanks to Dubbo Kangaroos also beating Bathurst Bulldogs 27-19.
Forbes sits on 11 points with Roos, while Bulldogs slip to fourth.
- ORANGE EMUS 41 (Tom Green 3, Nas Havealeta, Harry Hamilton, Harry Cummins, Levi Russell tries; Nigel Staniforth 3 conv) def FORBES PLATYPI 5