The Lions had little possession but were undisciplined off the ball in the opening 40 minutes, conceding countless penalties and two yellow cards to boot and that showed on the scoreboard as Roos went into the half-time break leading 20-3 at Pride Park.

But as Lions skipper Logan Brockmann said, his side was simply “fed up” and at the break made a point of flipping the game on its head in the second period.

The Lions did just that, crossing first in the second half and then “rolling on” to score three more five-pointers to push ahead 27-20 with about 20 minutes to go.

“It just sort of, changed,” Brockmann said.

“We made a real effort to change what we were doing because it wasn’t working and that allowed Dubbo to score plenty of points, but what we did in the second half obviously worked, everything went our way and we took advantage of it.”

Dubbo did score a converted try in the later stages of the second half to draw level at 27-all, but Brockmann said by that stage he had complete faith his side would still get the job done.

Feleti Wolfgramm’s last-gasp effort, which was the last play of the game, made sure of that and secured the 32-27, bonus point win for the Lions.

“It’s nice to get that first win, get that monkey off our backs,” Brockmann said.

“I guess, you probably don’t read into it too much because it’s so early in the season but we needed a win to get into the swing of things and to do it like that is really pleasing, you know, it showed a lot of character because we probably had every right to roll over and we probably might have in previous seasons.

“The most pleasing thing for me in those terms is that kind of win has come from such a young group, and it shows the culture we’re building up here. I don’t think I’ve been a part of a City side that’s had this good a culture, we’re working hard for each other and backing each other up and I’m really pleased for the boys that we could over the line in that one.”

Once again Brockmann singled out centre Sam Dwyer as one of the Lions’ best, also making a point of mentioning fullback Barton Young, who capped a sterling effort with a runaway try in the second half.

“Those two were really good, excellent in fact, but everyone was good. Everyone has to be to win those games,” Brockmann said.

“It was our Ladies’ Day too and the crowd really deserve a rap I don’t think I’ve heard it that loud up there and that definitely gave us a bit of a boost.”

Unfortunately, Brockmann explained, the Lions have lost prop-come-flanker Darcy Garlick to a knee injury, although it’s unclear how long he’ll be sidelined.

“It didn’t look great, and that will hurt us because he’s been very good this year,” Brockmann said.

“Hopefully it’s not too bad because he’s had a bit of bad luck with injuries old Darce, we’ll keep our fingers crossed.”

Orange City faces Cowra on the road after next weekend’s general bye for the NSW Country Rugby Union Championships at Warren, then Bathurst Bulldogs.

Considering the Eagles were thumped 79-0 by Orange Emus on the weekend, Brockmann said his side will definitely look at that road trip as a chance to pick up a second win in a row.

“Well, you’d like to win all of them in a row no matter who you play,” he laughed.

“But yes, we’ll be looking to go back-to-back there. You don’t read into that result too much I’ve heard Cowra was short on Saturday, and they’re always tougher at home but it’s probably a good way to come off the bye.

“I guess that bye can be good and bad. It’s good to help the niggles, having a week off, but we’ve got some momentum now. We’ll train though, we’ll do something and try and keep that this week.”