First-half fireworks guides Emus to win

A POINT-A-MINUTE first-half running rugby clinic from Orange Emus was enough for the form side of the Blowes Menswear Cup to record their third-straight win on Saturday.

Emus ran in six first-half tries to put the Parkes Boars to bed in their 59-26 win at Endeavour Oval.

However, on the back of a favourable penalty count and some flimsy Emus defence Parkes were able to throw the ball around in the second stanza and finish the game the better team.

Emus co-coach Matt Greatbatch was happy to get the win but said the lacklustre performance in the second half was a concern.

“It was a bit disappointing - the second half,” Greatbatch said.

“Instead of putting them away I think the Parkes boys - they got up and they were the better side in the second half. It is a disappointing way to finish it but I’m pretty happy with the result.”

A trademark of the Emus’ stunning return to form has been the side’s scrum and against Parkes the Greens bullied the Boars at the set piece, allowing No.8 Keith Howarth to score the opening two tries of the match.

When centre Jaime Kelso took Boars winger Mitch Leckie high he was yellow-carded and Parkes were on the board with a penalty try bringing the score to 14-7 after 20 minutes.

But with two tries to BJ McKenna, a five-pointer to Tom Goolagong and a brilliant running try finished off by TJ Cunynghame, Emus had the match sewn up at 40-7 at the break.

Fresh legs in the second half allowed the home side to immediately pick up where they left off with tries to replacement half Louis Fardell and captain Al Hattersley but that was about as good as it got for the Greens for the next 30 minutes.

Ill-discipline and poor ball retention allowed Parkes a mountain of possession and they converted their chances with three second-half tries - two to Leckie, who used his speed to get on the outside of his opposite brilliantly.

Greatbatch said the heavy penalty count against his side would be looked at during the week.

“It’s something we do need to address and unfortunately it has come off the back of our scrums, which we find is our most dominant set piece, and for us to be getting penalties on our own feed is something we do need to work at. Obviously (referee) John Colgan has seen something there, so we’ll need to have a chat with him and see where we need to fix that up,” he said.

Emus will be tested with their next four games against four of the competition’s top five sides and Greatbatch claims despite winning their last three, including a win in Narromine, the Greens aren’t getting too far ahead of themselves at the halfway mark of 2010.

“It is something to build on but we’re not getting too carried away yet,” he said.

“It helps (winning the last three games). The week off will help a fair bit. We have a few niggling injuries with knees and Tommy Hatts (Tom Hattersley) and Andrew Swain, so the week off is going to do us the world of good.”

Parkes coach Wayne Osborne believes the 2010 Boars are a work in progress and showed what they are capable of in the last 40 minutes.

“In the second half we went back to basics and tried to carry that ball over the advantage line and I think that paid off for us,” Osborne said.

“But consistency is our biggest problem. We tend to give away too many soft tries early on and our heads go down because we are behind on the scoreboard.”

For Emus Ben Parkes terrorised the Boars’ line-out all day, while backs Will Oldham and BJ McKenna were standouts.

Parkes were served best by winger Mitch Leckie and fly-half Dan Ryan.

In Saturday’s other Blowes Menswear Cup games CSU Bathurst defeated Dubbo Roos 26-21, Bathurst Bulldogs hammered the Eagles 62-20 in Cowra and Forbes crushed the Rhinos 53-7 in Dubbo.

ORANGE EMUS 59 (Keith Howarth 2, BJ McKenna 2, Tom Goolagong, TJ Cunynghame, Louis Fardell, Al Hattersley, Mitch Dansey tries; Will Oldham 6, Harry Fardell conv) def PARKES BOARS 26 (Mitch Leckie 2, penalty try, Nick Westcott tries; Dan Ryan 3 conv).