ACROSS the first and last 20 minutes of their Blowes Clothing Cup clash with Orange Emus on Saturday, CSU Bathurst bested their fancied rivals 12-5.

What happened in between wasn’t so rosy. The visitors ran in a total of 10 tries to two in a 64-12 thrashing to pile on the misery for the students at University Oval, while backing up their potentially season-defining win over Bathurst Bulldogs last week.

“We were a little bit scrappy early on and probably didn’t start with the intensity we needed, and we got a bit of a wake-up when CSU scored an early try,” Emus co-coach Graydon Staniforth said.

“From then on we started to stick to our guns, we didn’t push the passes too much and after that first 30 minutes we scored three quick tries into the break and that put us well clear.

Right winger Carter Hirini starred for Emus with three tries as well as a couple of other breaks, and No.8 Alo Finau matched Hirini’s try-scoring efforts and was powerful any time he had the ball.

Initially it was CSU with the ascendency as their own No.8 Michael Thompson went over following an Emus mistake, and the students clung to their 5-0 lead for the first 15 minutes.

A turnover in their own half gave their opponent a good chance to level up, and they did that through Finau, and though Nigel Staniforth’s kick missed, the momentum had visibly shifted in an instant.

A few minutes later, former CSU lock Nick Hughes-Clapp stormed across for his team’s second, and with their confidence growing the Orange team ran in a third moments later when Hirini proved far too quick for the CSU defence.

At 19-5 down, CSU’s defence in the middle wasn’t so much of a problem but any time Emus took the ball to the edges, they looked in trouble.

Approaching half-time, Finau scored his second as Emus’ scrum drove straight over CSU’s try line, and on the whistle they made it five tries in 25 minutes with Hirini’s second.

For the hosts to have any chance of a miracle win they needed to be first to score after the break at 31-5 down, but their fate was sealed by half James Simmons who crossed almost immediately.

Perri and flanker Andrew Cosgrove helped themselves to tries in the minutes that followed, and Hirini made it a hat-trick on the hour mark.

Emus were scoring at close to a point a minute at that stage and a massacre was on the cards but CSU did mount some good resistance and picked up a second try through prop Jack McKenna.

ORANGE EMUS 64 (Carter Hirini 3, Alo Finau 3, Nick Hughes-Clapp, Andrew Cosgrove, James Simmons, Adam Perri tries; Nigel Staniforth 7 conv) def CSU BATHURST 12 (Michael Thompson, Jack McKenna tries; Cam Backhouse conv).