After two years of grand final heartbreak, there were tears of joy for CSU Bathurst after they hammered the Orange Barbarians in Saturday's decider to finally claim a much-coveted New Era Cup title.
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As the full-time siren sounded at Diggings Oval Mungoes players sprinted from the bench to embrace their teammates, while other CSU guns collapsed on the ground as they were overcome with emotion.
The decider was over well before then though, the hooter bringing the demolition job to an end with the scoreline at 30-nil.
Winning feels amazing, to do it with this bunch of boys after the past couple of years feels great.
- CSU Bathurst's Sam Groom
CSU made a brilliant start to the decider, with fullback Sam Groom scoring a try in the second minute on the back of a 50-metre run and from there the Mungoes were never troubled.
Groom could hardly talk at the end, truly overcome with what had just occurred.
"You know when NRL players win grand finals and they start crying and you don't know why, you just won, but there is so much emotion that went into the past couple of grand finals and winning feels amazing, to do it with this bunch of boys after the past couple of years feels great," Groom said.
Considering the grand final is set to be the last for a number of the Mungoes, Groom said it's the perfect way to send those finishing players off.
"I was talking to [Billy Dickinson] over the year, we have been through three grand finals together and it was his last year and all we wanted to do was win it together, it feels awesome," Groom said.
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"For him and for some of the old boys like Zac (Leach Deahm) and Oscar (Thorburn), it could be their last grand final and it feels awesome to get it for them as well."
Barbarians' cause wasn't helped early when winger Brent Kuczinski was helped from the field after suffering a head knock in a tackle.
CSU dominated possession and territory and that allowed skipper Dickinson and the rest of his troops to unleash, the Bathurst side's next try coming from a long-range pass to Lachlan Balcombe, who scored in the left corner.
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Four-pointers continued coming think and fast and while the were Mungoes were left down a man after Krissy Kennedy was sin-binned seven minutes from the break, the Barbarians couldn't take advantage.
Mungoes slotted a penalty goal not long in the new half before a Dickinson line-break gifted Balcombe his second, the former's goal pushing the lead to 26-nil.
With five minutes remaining hooker Callum Flanagan, who was awarded man-of-the-match, capped the victory off in breaking five tackles to score a superb try.
"The way we came into training last week we really got around one another, we didn't talk, we knew what to do and then today we had no nonsense in the warm up and just carried that into the game," CSU president and lock Jacob Watkin said.
- CSU BATHURST 30 (Callum Flanagan 2, Lachlan Balcombe 2, Sam Groom tries; Billy Dickinson 5 goals) def ORANGE BARBARIANS 0
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