RUGBY LEAGUE
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COWRA slumped to their fourth straight Group 10 loss on Sunday as Orange CYMS, officially, opened their account with an emphatic 44-10 victory at Sid Kallas Oval.
After banking their first two points after Lithgow forfeited last week, CYMS posted eight tries to the Magpies' two after battling hard too find the ascendancy during the game's opening stages.
But the win may have come at a cost, with gun backrower Kyran Bubb stretchered off with what appeared to be a serious knee injury and prop Simon Osborne sent off late in the game for a high shot.
"It's a knee injury it looks pretty bad he [Kyran Bubb] doesn't stay down often and now we have Osborne on report," Sullivan said.
"We started strong and ran away late in the first half and again in the second.
"That was through our defence, they got frustrated especially with the wind in the first half. They're always tough over here and without their half-back it was always going to be tough while we were full-strength. It was a complete performance apart from our kicking game."
A dejected Magpies player-coach, Rory Brien, said his side lost the forward's battle which allowed CYMS to capitalise.
"We fell away in the middle, they started rolling down the middle with their big forwards," Rory Brien said. "That's the main focus in the game, to win the forwards game and then the backs get the shiny stuff when you get good ball.
"Our forwards fell away after 25 minutes. The first 25 minutes we were right in there, they had no answer to our defence and to fall away like that is heartbreaking and something we have to work on."
CYMS opened the scoring early through Mick Sullivan, who played a supporting roll after kicking to Jerome Harrison on the short side, gathering an offload from Larsen Marobe.
Both side's then settled into the contest with the Magpies defence, in particularly, being strongly tested.
The pressure lead to Marobe and Tim Mortimer, coming off the bench, crossing in the closing 10 minutes before half-time.
Facing a 16-point deficit after the break, Cowra five-eight Warren Williams took on the line himself and breezed through CYMS' defence and Caley Mok added the extras to shorten the visitors' advantage to 10.
Cowra needed to be next to score but CYMS hit back thanks to some slick ball movement from right to left allowing Ben McAlpine to cross.
Further second half tries to Mitch Davis, Brock McGarity, Sam Hill and Ryan Griffin sealed CYMS' first win of the season.
Brien added his side is hoping to turn things around in coming weeks.
"I'm seeing improvement but not rapidly we're slowly moving forward and not to mention we've played four of the best teams straight off the bat," he said.
"I'm happy with some things I'm taking positives but there is a lot of negatives we need to fix. People have to remember we have a young team all under 25, we have good juniors coming through. It's a slow process, at the moment, to turn things around."
ORANGE CYMS 44 (Mick Sullivan, Larsen Marobe, Tim Mortimer, Ben McAlpine, Mitch Davis, Brock McGarity, Sam Hill, Ryan Griffin tries; McAlpine 6 conv.) def Cowra Magpies 10 (Warren Williams, Zac Browne tries; Caley Mok conv)