There’s no doubt about the individual talent in the Dubbo College rugby league side but it was its ability to work as a team and strength in depth which led to a dominant win over Orange High on Thursday.
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The tie against the Hornets was all but over heading into the match at Apex Oval, the final event of the two-day Astley Cup tie, but Dubbo put icing on the overall result by scoring a 52-10 victory.
The likes of representative players Elijah Collis, Colby Peckham and Jarrod Peachey were all standouts but Brodie Ford bagged a hat-trick while all those who came off did a job for the Craig May-coached outfit, the hosts streaking away late to take the match right away from the Hornets.
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“We got ourselves in the grind early in the first half and we always knew that was going to be tough,” May said.
“But we had a lot of depth coming off our bench and I thought in the back end we really finished off the game and we finished full of running while Orange ran out of gas.
“We had a lot of good players out there and we’ve worked hard. There’s no year 12 (students) here … it’s a credit to them.”
The hosts shot out of the blocks and scored early through Ben Cook and then Collis showed his class when darting out of dummyhalf and racing 30 metres to set up a 12-0 lead.
Orange hit back through the hard-running Nathan Swain but a Clayton Daley try made it 16-4 at the break.
The match was taken out of Orange’s reach early in the second stanza when Ford and Peachey both scored and while the Hornets stuck at it and hit back, it soon became one way traffic.
Colby Peckham, who was a powerhouse taking the ball forward all game, collected a fine Cook offload in his own half and managed to keep the Orange defenders away as he ran to score while Ford’s third came from a slick, left-to-right flowing move.
That was one of a number of tries which came off the back of plenty of teamwork.
The win somewhat made up for a tough defeat the Dubbo side suffered last week.
““We had a bit of up-and-down season, we got knocked out in the round of 16 in the statewide competition in Tumut last week,” May said.
“We were really unlucky there, getting beat on the last play of the game. But we turned up today.”
Kyjuan Crawford also impressed in Dubbo College colours once more, again showing off his sharp-shooting ability when nailing a number of conversions from the sideline, while Pollack brothers Mason and Marlin were full of running for the Orange High side.