Ferguson Cup: D'Aquino's hat-trick inspires Orange Emus to upset win over Bathurst Bulldogs

Orange Emus' secured a huge, break-through victory over old rivals and defending premiers Bulldogs at Bathurst on Saturday, five-eighth Nikki D'Aquino starring with a hat-trick of tries in the 35-19 triumph at Ann Ashwood.

The 16-point triumph marks a huge turnaround from their earlier meeting in 2020, when the Bulldogs' girls flexed their muscle on route to a 45-14 thumping of Emus at the same ground.

Bulldogs coach Tuma Aisake said Emus were simply more aggressive than his outfit, which now sits in third place on the ladder behind the greens and runaway competition leaders Roos.

"They were good, I think they had a bit more mongrel than us, they wanted it more than us, we didn't have that mongrel," Aisake said of Emus.

"We were just waiting for things to happen, we were just watching, we just weren't there. I'm not sure what happened, I don't know, but there's a lot of work for us to do.

"Emus were a lot better than what they were when they played here before, give them credit, they didn't want to lay down, they kept fighting.

"We talked about what we wanted to do, but the next minute, under pressure, it didn't happen."

Looking to consolidate second place on the Ferguson Cup ladder given the semi-finals are fast approaching, it was Bulldogs who scored first on Saturday.

From an attacking line-out 10 metres out from Emus' line, Bulldogs spread the ball to Brydie Comiskey who charged over.

But from the kick-off strong Emus defence forced an error from Bulldogs and the Greens attacked. D'Aquino crossed and converted to make it 7-all at quarter-time.

It was in the second quarter, with Mereoni and Tabua Tuinakauvadra bringing aggression to both their defensive an attacking work, that momentum swung in Emus' favour.

They took the lead 20 seconds into that period when Jesyca Pearson crossed after strong lead up work from Jacky Lyden and Tabua Tuinakauvadra.

Though Lyden left the field with a leg injury soon after, when D'Aquino took a quick penalty tap to catch Bulldogs' defence napping and ran away down the left wing to score, Emus led 21-7.

A Daisy Morrissey try for Bulldogs on the stroke of half-time made it 21-14 and the hosts renewed their efforts early in the third quarter.

Mel Waterford pulled off a string of crunching tackles and when Bulldogs skipper Ali Stanford crossed in the left corner after a quickly taken penalty, the host were back in it at 21-19.

But that's as close as it got.

Emus prop Alex Walker scored between the sticks and D'Aquino iced the win when darting down the blindside of a scrum to score her third.