ORANGE EMUS 12

WITH a host of penalties, plenty of dropped ball and new combinations that have not quite gelled, the Bathurst Bulldogs’ season opening 31-12 win over Blowes Menswear Cup rivals Orange Emus on Saturday night reached few heights.

However, there was one surprise from the game as come full-time at Ashwood Park both coaches were full of praise for their opposition.

Bulldogs mentor Murray Hooper saw enough from the Emus, who did at times look dangerous when quickly recycling the ball from the breakdown, to float the notion they may be stronger than Orange City.

Emus also held the Bulldogs to just three points in the second half after they trailed 28-12 at the break.

“The second half dragged on a bit probably, but look, Emus are going to be a good team this year. I think they looked good and they will be competitive. I actually at this point in time hope they are the better of the two Orange teams,” Hooper said.

“It wasn’t as clean as we would have liked, we are happy with the win. We are happy with the points, I would have preferred a bonus point, but a win is a win.”

Hooper’s opposite Paul Ringland spoke of the Bulldogs’ class, admitting the defending premiers were good at capitalising on his side’s mistakes.

With just over a quarter of the game gone and his side leading 12-11, Ringland watched on as a possible third Emus try was disallowed for obstruction.

From there the Bulldogs added two converted tries and a penalty before the break to take control.

“There are some positives to take out of that, but we came here for a result and didn’t get it. We just didn’t have any ball, any ball we had we gave away,” Ringland said.

“To their (Bulldogs’) credit they’ve got class and size and strength and speed and they punished us.

“We looked really good early, it could have been three tries to two, but we got one disallowed and that could have turned the game.

“If we turned at half-time with a lead it could have been a different story, but after that they took control from there and really punished us.”

The opening exchanges were dominated by Bulldogs as Emus failed to secure the ball from the kick-off.

After 50 seconds Bathurst led 3-0 on the back of a Ray Lange penalty and after six minutes it was 8-0 when a strong run from new scrum-half Tom Hollis set up a Scott Johnston try.

When Emus finally found themselves with the chance to attack as Bulldogs were caught offside they were unable to capitalise, the hosts winning the line-out ball against the feed.

Two minutes later when Emus had a second line-out inside the Bulldogs’ 22 they again turned over possession, but the visitors persisted and it was a case of third time lucky.

An excellent Mick Goodall offload put centre Josh Hunt into space and fullback Joel Plummer arrived in support to get Emus on the board.

Three minutes later they were in again as Plummer chipped ahead and the bounce sat up nicely for winger Toby Wright.

He hit the ball with speed, beat a Bulldogs defender and ran around to score under the sticks. Harry Fardell converted and Emus led 12-8.

While a second Lange penalty closed the margin to one point, Emus forced the turnover from the resulting kick-off and took play just metres out from the Bulldogs’ line.

The visitors appeared to be over again after some strong phasing from their forward pack, but it was disallowed due to obstruction and from here momentum swung back in Bulldogs’ favour.

Hayden Tidswell linked with Phil Tonkin and Jake Gallaway to take play deep into Emus’ territory and drew a penalty. This time Bulldogs opted to kick for touch and the tactic worked as three phases after the resulting line-out Tidswell was over.

Hollis added another try shortly after and when Lange booted his third penalty of the evening after the half-time siren it put Bulldogs ahead by 16 points.

The only score of the second half came from Lange’s boot - a penalty goal with 29 minutes left - as after this it was the whistle which dominated.

Emus did have the better of the chances as the clock ticked down and came within in centimetres of the Bulldogs’ line on several occasions, but strong defence and some poor handling kept them out.

❏ BATHURST BULLDOGS 31 (Hayden Tidswell, Tom Hollis, Scott Johnson tries; Ray Lange 2 conv, 4 pen goals) def ORANGE EMUS 12 (Joel Plummer, Toby Wright tries; Harry Fardell conv).