With Lithgow Workies playing their part by knocking off Bathurst Panthers, Orange Hawks' thumping of the battling Blayney Bears on Sunday afternoon catapulted the two blues to the top of the Group 10 premier league table.
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Combined with Workies' defeat of the defending premiers Hawks' 46-16 victory over the Bears draws Hawks level with Panthers in terms of competition points, but the Orange outfit pushes ahead thanks to the points difference boost the win brought with it.
Although it's still narrow Hawks now have a 26-point buffer on Panthers in those terms and all eyes now shift to next weekend when the two blues host the Lithgow side in a tantalising, round 16 showdown.
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Like they have in a number of games throughout this season Blayney somewhat ran with the new competition leaders in the first half, but fell away as fatigue set in after the break.
Hawks still did enough to lead 24-10 at the break after running in four tries to two in the opening 40 minutes, with Jordan Baker crossing for two of them before completing his hat-trick midway through the second half.
Rakai Tuheke and Brett Morgan also scored in the first half while Matt Boss grabbed a four-pointer just after the break, Lawrence Fogg following that up with a quick-fire brace.
Baker scored his third of the match 10 minutes out from full-time and Duncan Young kicked his seventh goal of the afternoon to cap the 36-point win.
- ORANGE HAWKS 46 (Jordan Baker 3, Lawrence Fogg 2, Matt Boss, Brett Morgan, Rakai Tuheke tries; Duncan Young 7 goals) def BLAYNEY BEARS 16 (Jade Hooper, Chris Shephard, Unknown tries; Steve Lane 2 goals)
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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.
