Orange Emus' focus remains on finding a way to take down Bulldogs at Anne Ashwood Park, with a narrow, 20-17 victory over the greens on Saturday afternoon the Bathurst side claimed their first Blowes Clothing Cup minor premiership in recent memory.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The greens haven't beaten Bulldogs at their Ashwood Park kennel since 2017 and they'll make the trip there again for the major semi-final in three weeks, regardless of the final-round results this weekend, the Bathurst side also securing hosting rights with Saturday's win.
Scott Johnston's last-ditch five-pointer, Bulldogs' veteran five-eighth scored with little over two minutes remaining, was the decisive factor on the weekend as his side made the most of a one-man advantage in the dying stages.
It was a good game to watch, frustrating at times because a few things didn't go our way, but ... that's life.
- Emus coach Pete Bromley
With his side leading 17-13 Emus' skipper Nigel Staniforth was sin-binned with 11 minutes to go on Saturday and along with giving Bulldogs an extra man the yellow card also, crucially, took away the greens' kicking option in the clutch.
They almost held Bulldogs out while Staniforth was sidelined, before Johnston stepped his way through with two minutes and 40 seconds remaining on the clock.
"I copped a good on across the chops for my trouble," Johnston laughed, it was an errant forearm from a desperate Emus defender trying to stop him from scoring.
"I was lucky enough to score the try, but there was a lot of good lead up work our forwards did beforehand, it was just nice to be in the right spot to get over."
It was Johnston's try and Will Oldham's subsequent conversion that sealed the victory, but it was Bulldogs' defensive effort that was probably the critical role in denying Emus keeping the race for the minor title alive - although even if they'd won it would've been unlikely they'd have leapfrogged Bulldogs.
The Orange outfit had the better of the possession and spent big minutes camped inside Bulldogs' 22 in both halves but only managed to break the hosts' line twice, one of those coming when Harry Webber was in the sin-bin himself.
Webber came up with a massive defensive effort after returning to the fray too, with Emus leading 17-10 and around 20 minutes remaining he miraculously held up Emus centre Tom Joseph after he sliced through on the left flank.
Although after Oldham nailed a penalty to make it 17-13 Webber was arguably lucky not to be given a second yellow card after being penalised for taking Louis Carr out off the ball 15 metres out from his own line after Emus' halfback won the race to a loose, toed-through ball.
Staniforth was shown yellow not long after and Johnston crossed to secure Bulldogs' thrilling win, one that came following the club's third and second grade victories, marking their Memorial Day in emphatic fashion.
- Are you a Central Western Daily subscriber? Then why not CLICK HERE and join our new Central West Sports Subscribers Facebook group?
"I think our defence was what did it for us today, it felt like in the first half we didn't touch a lot of ball, but we were just in front at half-time," Johnston said, Bulldogs led 10-7 at the break.
"I just think when you play against good teams, you can't afford to give that much ball to them and I think we were lucky. A lot of times they had the opportunity to score a try and it was just through sheer determination someone would get there and stop them."
Given they controlled big chunks of the game and held the lead until the dying stages it was a tough loss to swallow for the defending premiers, their second at the Bathurst ground after going down 21-15 in round four as well.
- MORE IN RUGBY: Hamilton's hat-trick heroics inspire Wallaroos in perfect lead up to Black Ferns series
- ALSO READ: Defending premiers move closer to minor title after holding out Hawks in frenetic thriller
- ALSO READ: 'That was for Lee': Pracey-Holmes' heartfelt tribute after steering Van Den Bos' mare to win
"It was a good game to watch, frustrating at times because a few things didn't go our way, but that's sport, that's life," Emus coach Pete Bromley said.
"They have been three close games, all three of them. We lost by a couple of points here, we won by a couple when they played at Emus and we lost by a couple of points again here.
"There's nothing much between the sides, it's just on the day who can finish the game off and we just ran out of puff at the end.
"It was a good game, both sides were willing and very combative and that's the good part about the footy, it's always a war out there for both sides."
- BATHURST BULLDOGS 20 (Adam Plummer, Scott Johnston tries; Will Oldham 2 conversions, 2 penalty goals) def ORANGE EMUS 17 (Tom Joseph, Charlie Henley tries; Nigel Staniforth conversion, penalty goal)
WANT MORE ORANGE NEWS AND SPORT?
- Receive our free newsletters delivered to your inbox, as well as breaking news alerts. Sign up below ...