Defending Blowes Clothing Cup premiers Forbes pulled Orange Emus’ pants down in a big way at Endeavour Oval on Saturday afternoon, the Platypi powered to a 37-21 victory on the back of a typically-scintillating performance from Mahe Fangupo.
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The mercurial halfback scored his side’s first two tries and played a crucial role in a number others, ignoring the knee complaint that’s bothered him since round five to lead his side to an important victory, both for their confidence and their precarious situation.
Forbes jump back to third with the victory, also thanks to Dubbo Kangaroos’ loss to Bathurst Bulldogs, and while they’ll still need to beat Cowra at Grinsted Oval next weekend to guarantee a semi-final berth, the win gives the Platypi a little breathing space.
A loss would’ve been an astronomical setback, but history now shows the Platypi took that out of the equation anyway.
Their win over the greens was more convincing than the 16-point gap suggests too, the Platypi were at one stage leading 34-7 before Emus cut into the gap with two late, converted tries.
“I think we had been building towards that performance a little bit, especially in the last few weeks. We’ve been working pretty hard on a few new, different things in terms of structure and it’s really starting to pay off,” Forbes skipper Jack Hammond said.
“It’s big result for us, I do still think Emus are the benchmark in this competition but (a lack of) discipline hurt them and we were good enough to take advantage.
“It’s just about winning now, we obviously want to be playing finals football so we just need to get the job done against Cowra. [Saturday’s] win gives us a fair bit of momentum going into that one.”
Discipline certainly did hurt the greens, they were on the wrong end of a whopping 21-10 penalty count, with three of the penalties they did receive coming in the first seven minutes and another three in the last six.
Nick Hughes-Clapp and Louis Carr both spent time in the sin-bin as well as a result, and in fact four of Forbes’ six tries came directly after penalties.
That combined with a less-than-impressive defensive effort and ordinary ball handling left Emus coach Paul Ringland a frustrated man after the game.
He, co-coach Jeremy Wallace and skipper Nigel Staniforth gave their troops an almighty spray after the game, although the greens’ coach was slightly more diplomatic in his post-game interview.
“It wasn’t good enough, our performance. Forbes out-played us and out-enthused us all over the paddock,” Ringland said.
“We just seemed a step behind the pace for a lot of the game. We started well and finished well, but we just weren’t good enough for the rest of the game, it took being down 34-7 for us to really switch on and play some good rugby.
“We’ve got a lot to work on before a tough trip to Dubbo next week.”
Emus actually started the much better side, scoring first through Lachie Harris in the eighth minute after enjoying three piggybacks up the field from penalties.
Staniforth kicked the extras, but from then until the 68th minute when Levi Russell scored Emus’ second five-pointer of the afternoon it was one-way traffic.
Fangupo scored in the 10th and 14th minutes before creating some space for Simon Uphill to dart over in the 24th, Uphill kicking two conversions to give Forbes a 19-7 lead.
Emus had a chance late in the half from a rolling maul five metres out but were stopped short, the margin remaining 12 points at the break.
Forbes made the most of a rolling maul of their own in the 45th minute, Tohi Nusipepa diving over from the back of it. That came directly after Hughes-Clapp was penalised and sent to the sin-bin.
Eleven minutes later Carr was given a 10-minute sit-down after what referee Richard Madden deemed a late shot on Uphill, and Grant Rees scored the first of his second-half double from the lineout after Fangupo’s touch-finder.
Rees went over again in the 66th minute, once again straight after a penalty, and Uphill’s successful kick pushed Forbes’ lead out to 34-7 and ended any hopes of an Emus’ comeback.
The greens did trouble the scorers through Russell and then Simon Badgery in the 76th minute, but it was too little, too late.
Uphill sealed the 16-point win with a penalty goal on full-time, after missing a longer attempt just a minute earlier.
While Emus remain on top of the ladder and in the box seat to claim the minor premiership, the defeat has left the door ajar for the second-placed Bathurst Bulldogs.
If the Bathurst side scored a bonus-point win over Orange City in next weekend’s final round and Emus lose to Dubbo without a bonus point of their own, Bulldogs would leapfrog the greens into top spot and earn major semi-final hosting rights too.
- FORBES PLATYPI 37 (Mahe Fangupo 2, Grant Rees 2, Tohi Nusipepa, Simon Uphill tries; Uphill 3 conversions, penalty goal) def ORANGE EMUS 21 (Lachie Harris, Levi Russell, Simon Badgery tries; Nigel Staniforth 3 conversions)
Matt Findlay
Formerly a sports specialist, I'm based at Orange and shift between wide-spread range of subjects here and, often, across the entire Central West region of NSW as well. I have almost a decade of experience in the media and marketing industries both here in Australia and internationally, along with journalism I have experience in content strategy, brand development, and digital and social media. Along the way, I've been fortunate to win a handful of media awards and be nominated for several others too.
Formerly a sports specialist, I'm based at Orange and shift between wide-spread range of subjects here and, often, across the entire Central West region of NSW as well. I have almost a decade of experience in the media and marketing industries both here in Australia and internationally, along with journalism I have experience in content strategy, brand development, and digital and social media. Along the way, I've been fortunate to win a handful of media awards and be nominated for several others too.
