THE Bathurst Bulldogs put a terrible record against the Dubbo Kangaroos in the Central West Rugby competition behind them on Saturday at Ashwood Park.
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In defeating the Kangaroos 31-13 in windy conditions, the Bulldogs made it two wins and one loss for the season.
A four-try haul from Bulldogs fullback Phil Tonkin secured the victory for the home side, who went to the break down 13-7.
While Bulldogs co-coach Shane Cantrill welcomed the win, he said it still left plenty to be desired.
“We haven’t beaten them in three years, so it was good, though they weren’t at full strength ... They were lacking players, obviously ANZAC Day being hard to play for some. Our club was in a similar predicament but not as badly, being the home side,” he said.
“We defended well in the first half, but that was only because we turned possession around a lot, so we were forced to do so. In the second half we came out and controlled possession a lot better.”
Dubbo came out the stronger side and quickly raced to a 13-0 lead with the breeze in their favour, a converted Eli Kinscher try backed up by a pair of penalty goals for Charles O’Connor.
Tonkin scored the first of his tries 10 minutes before the break after the Bulldogs finally capitalised on a run of possession, getting them on the board.
It was one-way traffic after the break as the Bulldogs, now with conditions on their side, kept the pressure constantly on the visitors.
Tonkin was quick to find try number two, then the Bulldogs went clear on the back of a pick-and-go try from prop Chris Plunkett.
Tonkin wasn’t content with his hat- trick try – which also secured a third-straight bonus point for the team – and scored late on a blind side play to push the final margin out to 18 points.
“We’ve still got a lot of work to do and it’s still early in the season. We’ll be working on our ball handling skills, for sure,” Cantrill said.
“We had wins in our lower grades as well, so it was a really strong day for the club.”
The wins in the lower grades also helped the Bulldogs – now on 50 points and two clear of Orange City – to a narrow lead in the club championship standings.
Dubbo captain Shaun McHugh said it was a case of the Bulldogs making better use of the conditions.
“We had low numbers travelling down and had a lot of second grade players going into firsts,” he said.
“We started well with the wind behind our backs, but we didn’t utilise it as well as we should have. We probably should have got something closer to 20 to 25 points, but the Bulldogs defended very well.
“The blokes who went down put their hand up and had a crack. They did well, but in that second half we just couldn’t kick it out of our own half, the headwind was that strong.”
BATHURST BULLDOGS 31 (Phil Tonkin 4, Chris Plunkett tries; Steven Locke 3 conversions) defeated DUBBO KANGAROOS 13 (Eli Kinscher try; Charlie O’Connor conversion, O’Connor 2 penalty goals)
