ORANGE Emus extended their Blowes Clothing Cup unbeaten run to seven games on the back of a sterling wet weather performance on Saturday.
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In diabolical conditions at Endeavour Oval Emus ran in nine unanswered tries against CSU Bathurst, securing a dominant 60-nil win.
Defying the slippery conditions a sparkling opening period had Emus ahead 15-nil on the scoreboard after as many minutes, through a Nigel Staniforth penalty goal and tries to Rob Thorburn and Simon Badgery, the latter of which Staniforth converted.
A valiant CSU unit lifted after Emus' opening raid, finally exiting their own half on the back of some scintillating back line work. However, they remained unable to string effective phase play together, gifting the greens possession and territory.
Relentless pressure from the hosts - including being held up over the line twice - translated into more points when winger Tom Green crossed in the 27th minute after latching onto a Tim Alison offload.
Staniforth was unable to add the extras, and the score remained unchanged until the half time break.
The second half was all Emus as the hosts piled on 40 more points - one for every minute played.
The onslaught started with a penalty try in the 46th minute when CSU collapsed an Emus scrum on its own try line, with flanker Nick Dutton yellow carded as a result.
Emus exploited the one man advantage, with Alison scoring two converted tries in the space of five minutes.
The score blew out to 55-nil when Emus' hooker Tom Goolagong continued his try-scoring streak, crossing in the 67th and 73rd minutes, before Alison snared his third right on full time.
Emus coach Andrew Logan gave his troops a glowing review after the game, highlighting the greens' defence and set piece as "crucial" in the win.
"I'm very, very happy with that," he said.
"The players' commitment and application under those circumstances was incredible. We played positive rugby all the way to the end. In those conditions it's easy to shut up shop, but we didn't.
"Before we went out, we spoke about our platform of defence and the set piece, everything comes off those two things, if they work well it gives us the opportunity to play and to put pressure on them. The boys did both very well."
Refusing to blame conditions, or a lack of execution, for the loss CSU Bathurst coach James McLaren branded the students' performance "embarrassing".
"We owe the people who paid entry an apology," he said.
"Commitment levels seem to be a problem, we saw that in the performance. It wasn't up to Blowes (Clothing) Cup level.
"I think we need to question what we're doing as a club. Most of these guys pour their heart and soul into this, and I question whether some others do.
"That performance is not acceptable, it's embarrassing really."
ORANGE EMUS 60 (Tim Alison 3, Tom Goolagong 2, Tom Green, Simon Badgery, Rob Thorburn tries; penalty try; Nigel Staniforth 6 conv, pen) def CSU BATHURST 0