THE Bathurst Bulldogs have finally jump-started their season in the Central West Rugby Union first grade competition after a thumping 61-7 win over Narromine on Saturday away from home.
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The ’Dogs haven’t exactly been awful this season, given that their defeats had both come at the hands of competition powerhouses Orange Emus and Dubbo ’Roos.
But with a bye tacked onto the end of those losses, Saturday’s win must have felt like a long time coming.
“To Narromine’s credit they kept going for the entire 80 minutes and had a real go despite being without a host of players,” Bulldogs president John Maynard said.
“But to be honest, going into a game like that, if we hadn’t won convincingly I would have been disappointed.
“We have played arguably the two best teams in the competition in our first two games. We led Dubbo at half-time and were certainly not bashed up by Emus, so we weren’t panicking or anything like that.
“We scored some really good tries and generally played good rugby throughout the game on Saturday.”
The game as a contest was over as soon as it started against the Gorillas, who were without around 10 first-graders, including three who are out for the season with injury.
By the time the half-time siren blew, the ’Dogs were keeping pace with the stopwatch, having racked up 40 points at the break.
The Gorillas came out enthusiastically in the second half and managed to score a converted try to open proceedings, but the Bulldogs were quickly back into stride and added another three themselves.
They can expect a sterner test this weekend at home against Mudgee, but will be glad to be in the winner’s circle and to have built some attacking momentum.
“We had a lot of very good performers,” Maynard said.
“Peter Fitzsimons was outstanding, Brendan Nelson at breakaway had a very good game, Sam and Jack Roberson were both excellent, but generally speaking we were strong across the park.
“Mudgee will be a bigger test, they will show us a lot about exactly how well we are going.
“It was a good day for the club all-round. Our colts had a good win against a pretty talented Narromine side and second grade had a comfortable win, so it was a good day.”
BATHURST BULLDOGS 61 defeated NARROMINE GORILLAS 7
