There's no other way to say how Tom Nell's feeling after Orange City's first Blowes Clothing Cup win in two years, with the Lions knocking off Forbes on the road with a 22-5 victory.

It was the club's first top-flight win since 2017, and one Nell said sent the Orange City faithful into raptures on the final buzzer.

"The Orange City section of the crowd went wild, on the field we were hugging each other," he said.

"For some of us who've been there a long time, some of the blokes who'd been there since 2013, it was actually quite emotional."

The Lions had been ill-disciplined in recent weeks, and gave away a penalty on kickoff - with another six to follow in the next 15 minutes - but Nell said his teammates were able to turn it around.

"We had to nip that in the bud, we all got angry and aggressive but directed it the right way," he said.

As for the actual play-by-play?

"I don't remember a lot of it to be honest, I was just so caught up in the moment," Nell laughed.

"I think we scored about 15 minutes in and again in the first half but they got one on the board early in the second half."

However, Nell went over the line with not long to go and as he slid over the line under the uprights he knew the side was home.

"We were red-hot from there out and I thought we had it."

The side was being pushed over in scrums last year, but against Forbes it was the Lions who were on top, pushing the Platypi pack aside.

Keegan Harding and Tom Fenton starred in Nell's eyes, as did Lewis Dwyer, who attracted praise from across the board after being a late in on the day, stepping into the inside centre role.

Coach Viv Paasi also gave Fenton a mention, as well as skipper Josh Tremain - playing his first game in 14 months - as well as Dwyer, who'd never played in the role his coach asked him to.

"He's never played there before but we asked him to after a late withdrawal and he was great," Paasi said.

He also lauded Tom Francis, as well as Aden and Noa Fraser who made their debuts in the top tier, while Steve Widders starred in the number 15.

"It's good to get the win and get the monkey off our backs... it had been eating a bit and getting pretty heavy, that monkey," he said.

"Our forward pack did really well and our backs were able to capitalise on it.

"It sounds really simple but it just all clicked."

He said he was incredible proud of the opening stanza of the game, with the Lions defending for eight or nine minutes in their 22 but not conceding, and while the side gave away "overenthusiastic" penalties, Paasi said after the 20-minute mark his side hardly put a foot wrong.

It marked a good day for the club, with the Colts winning 33-10 and second grande winning 17-12, with the women going down 44-15.