ORANGE Emus had to mount two comebacks in their Blowes Clothing Cup victory over Dubbo Kangaroos on Saturday.

The defending premiers took the lead early in each half before Emus came back on both occasions, eventually winning 33-17 at Endeavour Oval.

Emus captain Nigel Staniforth admitted his side was slow out of the blocks.

"We made it tough on ourselves but Dubbo are a good team. They're going to be right up there in the year as well," Staniforth said.

The Roos dominated the first 20 minutes and spent much of it in their attacking half.

On the back of this Simon Heggarty scored in the eighth minute when what could only be called a "sprinting maul" pushed the Dubbo flanker over.

Emus earned their first penalty of the game in the 20th minute and three minutes later prop Nas Havealeta charged over to score.

Staniforth kicked the extras to make it 7-5.

The captain delivered a moment of brilliance in the 28th minute when he managed to chase down flying Roos winger Blake Sharpe and not only brought him down, but managed to roll him in the in-goal before he could score what looked to be a certain try.

Staniforth didn't see it the same way as the crowd.

"It felt old and slow," he laughed.

With five minutes left in the half, hooker Keith Howarth burrowed through a gap to score, and Staniforth's conversion gave Emus a 14-5 lead.

Dubbo closed that to 14-10 on half-time when Sharpe pounced on a loose ball, which everyone else seemed to be allergic to, and sprinted 35 metres to score.

The visitors had the better start in the second half as well with centre James Gilmore scoring and Charles O'Connor's conversion giving his side a 17-14 lead.

Once again, Emus came back, this time flanker Andrew Cosgrove scoring from a quick tap, and Staniforth's boot added the extras to make it 21-17.

Emus No.8 Rob Thorburn then scored two tries in just over two minutes, his first coming off a strong pass which put him through a gap and over next to the posts.

His second came from some free-flowing play which featured almost every player involved juggling the ball, including Thorburn, who held on to dive over for his second.

These were the final points for the game as Havealeta was held up with 11 minutes left on the clock.

"We didn't compete for the whole game," Dubbo coach Vince Gordon conceded.

"While we were competing at the breakdown, we were in the game and actually led the game. As soon as we didn't compete it allowed the Emus to get a run on, which they were pretty good at, and shift the ball wide quickly and got over the top of us."

Gordon said his players would work on their fitness as well as their energy at the breakdown before the next round.

"We've got a bit of work to do there, but very encouraging from where we've been over the last couple of weeks and certainly positive signs for the future," he said.

Staniforth said he was happy with the way his side stayed in the game rather than giving up once Dubbo was in the lead.

"Over the last few years we probably would have walked away from that and just heads down," he explained.

"First half was ok, second half, first part wasn't that great but then we got into it and just stuck to it and that last 20 was a lot better."

ORANGE EMUS 33 (Rob Thorburn 2, Nas Havealeta, Keith Howarth, Andrew Cosgrove tries; Nigel Staniforth 4 conv) def DUBBO KANGAROOS 17 (Simon Heggarty, Blake Sharpe, James Gilmore tries; Charles O'Connor conv).