MEMORIES of the last year’s drawn match between Central West and Central North was squashed on Saturday when the Blue Bulls recorded a dominant 36-0 victory in their trial in Orange.

In the 2009 Caldwell Cup qualifier, the two sides played out a 22-all draw but Central West went through to the semi-finals as they had scored the first try.

Central North was relegated to the Richardson Shield which they went on to win.

Saturday’s trial, which was the curtain-raiser to the Waratahs and Fiji match, was all Central West.

The Blue Bulls ran in six tries including three to winger Luke Harding.

Central West showed some great attacking flair while Central North only had one real opportunity to score but a forward pass let them down.

Blue Bulls co-coach Dean Oxley said he expected to win this comfortably.

“To be honest it was (what I expected) because of the quality of the trials,” Oxley said.

“We’ve had a few internal trials and quite an effective training session during the week. But also our players have done the work prior to Christmas.”

Central North co-coach Garry Walsh wasn’t disappointed with the performance of his side despite the loss.

“They (Central West) were a lot better drilled than we were. We haven’t had any training sessions with these guys yet so there’s absolutely no structure in the unit yet,” Walsh said.

“So we were very impressed with the way they defended. We had no ball, we struggled to maintain our set piece today, and whatever set piece ball we got, we got under pressure which meant the inside backs found it very hard to operate. (Central West) had enough ball to score 70 or 80 points.

“Once we get the line-out functioning and the scrum up and running we’ll look a different team. We don’t need to be winning games in January, we need to be winning games at the end of March.”

Narromine’s Harding opened the scoring for the Blue Bulls with less than a minute remaining in the opening quarter when he made a break down the middle to score and Scott Burgess converted.

Harding was in for his second mid-way through the second quarter after some great lead-up work from the forwards found a gap and then put the winger in.

Central West led 12-0 at the major break and it was another Narromine player, No.8 Lachlan McCutcheon, who scored the first points in the third quarter when he charged out from the back of a scrum to dive over.

From the ensuing kick-off, Central West ran up the right line and eventually put flanker Wayne Miller over to make it 24-0.

In the final quarter Moeses Makasini scored for the Blue Bulls after Narromine centre Luke Brown carved through the Central North defence.

Harding had the final say in the dying minutes of the match when, after a break up the right side, the ball went to the winger who chipped over his defender and then won the foot-race to score.

Harding was happy with his performance after making a vow to be more involved in the match.

Oxley said he and co-coach Warren Petty now have the difficult task of culling the squad back to 26.

Experienced players such as Bathurst’s Matt Waterford, McCutcheon and Parkes’ Heamani Lavaka couldn’t be overlooked according to Oxley, but he added other positions were going to be harder to decide on.

“We’ve got a really hard decision with the hooking position,” Oxley said.

“Al Hattersley (Orange Emus) and Adam Rayner (Mudgee) both have great qualities.”

The Blue Bulls’ next trial will be against the Canberra Vikings and will be played in Parkes.

n CENTRAL WEST 36 (Luke Harding 3, Lachlan McCutcheon, Wayne Miller, Moeses Makasini tries, Scott Burgess, Stephen Locke, CJ Smyth conv) def CENTRAL NORTH 0.