TOO big, too fast, too strong and too clinical.

That was the simple assessment of Orange Emus’ 41-12 Blowes Clothing Cup bonus point win over Dubbo Kangaroos at Apex Oval on Saturday.

The six-tries-to-two result was a fair assessment of a match where Emus controlled things from the outset as they dominated field position and gave their electric outside backs a chance to shine.

All bar one of their five-pointers came from the outside backs as winger Carter Hirini’s double was backed up by tries to fellow flyer Tom Green and centres Isaac White and Nigel Staniforth. 

No.8 Scott Udy was the other scorer while Staniforth also nailed four conversions and a penalty goal for a personal haul of 16 points.

For the home side, the loss was soured by a leg injury to half Tim Phillips that required him to be assisted from the field, while lock Simon Hegarty battled a back complaint and had to be replaced in the early stages.

“I thought it was a pretty complete performance by our boys against a pretty good team,” Staniforth said afterwards.

“We were able to control the game through the forwards and then us boys in the outside backs took advantage but overall, it was probably one of our better efforts of the season.

“This was a big win for us because it’s never easy to come to Dubbo and beat the Roos. The last time we came up here to play them they beat us in the grand final, so today’s result is a good gauge of where we are at as a team.”

The win keeps Emus in second spot on the ladder behind cross-town rivals Orange City, while the Roos remain just outside the finals positions in sixth spot.

Coming from the snow of Orange, playing at Apex on a 15 degree day must have felt tropical for the visitors and their dominance started from the opening exchanges as the Kangaroos were unable to get the ball out of their own half.

The pressure eventually told when White went through a gap to score, with Staniforth’s conversion giving Emus a 7-0 lead.

Despite bombing a number of opportunities, Emus were next to hit the scoreboard when the big centre bombed a penalty goal from beyond 40 metres and then shortly later he added a try to make the score 15-0.

When Hirini scored the first of his double eight minutes before half-time the buffer was out to 22 points but the Roos were given some hope when fullback Hena Tuatea scored a long-range try against the run of play to make the half-time score 22-5.

The early stages of the second half were tough but when Udy finished off a stunning pushover scrum the game was as good as over, although while the No.8 was credited with the try, props Steve Fergus and Nas Havealeta received all the kudos.

A length-of-the-field effort from Moa Kavaefiafi brought the Roos’ faithful to their feet and also drew applause from the visiting fans but that was as good as it got for the hosts as Emus ran in further tries to Green and Hirini to ultimately run out 29-point victors.

“They got us in pretty much every facet of the game today, which is disappointing after we put in such a big performance to beat Bathurst last week,” Roos skipper Shaun McHugh said.

“Right from the word go we were on the back foot, we tried to kick our way out of trouble and that didn’t work and they were just too good.”

ORANGE EMUS 41 (Carter Hirini 2, Isaac White, Nigel Staniforth, Scott Udy, Tom Green tries; Staniforth 4 conv, pen goal) def DUBBO KANGAROOS 12 (Hena Tuatea, Moa Kavaefiafi tries; Tuatea conv).