GO HARD: Orange City's Angus Brotherton yells encouragement to prop Nathan Short has he tackles his Bathurst Bulldogs opponent.
RUGBY UNION
By NICK McGRATH
DEATH, taxes, the sun coming up and Orange City taking care of business.
The 2012 Blowes Clothing Cup minor premiers brought up its 16th win of the 2012 Central West Rugby Union season at Pride Park on Saturday, defeating a gallant Bathurst Bulldogs 42-19 in a sometimes scrappy affair.
In what was probably not the Lions' best win in 2012, Orange City still managed to cross for six tries, four of which came in the first 27 minutes to snuff out any hope the visiting Bulldogs had of snatching a victory in the first period.
One week out from the beginning of the semi-finals, the undefeated Lions just keep getting the job done.
"They did. We got a bonus point in the first 20 minutes, 28 points in 28 minutes sort of thing. That was really good. We can take that out of the win," Lions assistant coach Andy Hillan said.
"We started really well then got a bit scrappy. We gave away a lot of penalties in the second half and they got back into it. We switched off there for a little bit but these things happen.
"They worked really hard around the corner and our defence just didn't stick with them most of the time."
They didn't have to for the first half hour.
Orange City proved near unstoppable for most of the opening half, running in tries to Duncan Young and John Colgan as well as a double to Sione Lafo'ou - taking the flyer's tally to 29 tries in 2012.
After missing all five conversion attempts in their 25-19 win over CSU the week before, Young booted four from four on Saturday to take the Lions' lead out to 28-0 inside the opening 30 minutes.
But the Bulldogs soon bit back.
On the back of a run of penalties and the string of possession that followed, Bathurst's young No.8 Peter Fitzsimmons bustled his way over the line for the visitors' first five-pointer of the game with Stephen Locke's conversion taking the score to 28-7.
But in the second half the match deteriorated.
In total 14 penalties - 10 against Orange City - were blown in the second period as dropped ball and ill-discipline plagued a half which saw Young score his second try and Ollie Stone touch down out wide for the home side.
Locke and speedster Bart Bogart crossed for the Bulldogs to round out the 42-19 score line.
"Unfortunately what we did, we came out and conceded 28 points in the first 20 minutes and we simply struggled to get back in the game from there," Bathurst mentor James Horsburgh said.
"But full credit to our blokes. We came out in the second half and we showed we can match it with the best of them but unfortunately we just needed to start the game better."
Orange City's backrow of Gus Brotherton, Duncan Young and John Colgan were outstanding while skipper Michael Sparks led the side well, splitting the Bulldogs' defensive line on a number of occasions to set up tries.
The Lions pack, though, set up the foundation for the win.
"That's right. And our backrow worked hard today. They were working hard, it was just the other guys that weren't getting around the corner hard enough," Hillan said hinting the Lions will work hard on defence in the lead-up to this weekend's derby with Emus.
Horsburgh, however, found little wrong with a defence that has resulted in the Lions going 17 rounds of the 2012 regular season without a loss.
"Their defence is near indefeasible. The way they manage to hold a defensive line is a compliment to them. They've managed to shut teams down simply with their defence - that's always the sign of a good team," he said.
"They're going to take a fair bit of stopping there's no doubt about that."
n ORANGE CITY 42 (Sione Lafo'ou 2, Duncan Young 2, John Colgan, Ollie Stone tries; Young 5, Lafo'ou conv) def BATHURST BULLDOGS 19 (Peter Fitzsimmons Bart Bogart, Stephen Locke tries; Locke 2 conv).