It's a case of so close yet so far for Orange CYMS in the under 18s as it continues to look for its first win of the season.
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While round two delivered them two points due to a forfeit from Wellington, an official win has yet to come after falling short against Lithgow on Sunday in a 10-10 draw.
"We just can't quite get off the mark," coach Cam Jones said.
Lithgow shot out of the blocks with two tries before Arnie Tancred scored for CYMS before half-time to make it 10-6.
With 90-seconds to go, Jayden Lee scored right on the sideline to even up proceedings with the conversion unable missed as the game ended in a draw.
A try on the weekend made it three in two weeks for Tancred as went in twice against Hawks in round four. Jones said the centre has made massive progressions over the last year. "He's been in real good form," he said.
"He's grown a fair bit over the off-season, he's always been that bigger sort of body but he's grown into it this year.
"He's got that power and speed, good hands and a fair bit more confidence this year being the older age as well which is good to see and he's willing to have a crack and try things which has been paying off."
With CYMS entering a bye weekend this round, Jones believes team-work will be the main issue to fix at training.
"We've got some great talent there, we've just been a little bit one out," he said.
"You see the same issues with teams in the NRL that aren't going so well, I think Trent Barrett might've said 'everyone trying to solve it themselves and not having confidence in the team mate to help them solve it'.
"The main objective is getting them playing as a team, I've got no doubt we'll feature at the back end of the year it's just putting those things together pretty quickly rather than giving ourselves to much work to do later on.
I've got no doubt we'll feature at the back end of the year
- Orange CYMS under 18s coach Cam Jones
"We've got a fair bit to do defensively and our ball handling has been ordinary, so it's very simple areas and if we can fix those things we'll be right."
After playing in the NSW City vs Country under 18s match on the weekend, halfback and captain Nick Murphy was unavailable against Lithgow and will be out again for CYMS' round seven game against Cowra after earning a one-match suspension during the representative fixture.
Despite the absence of Murphy, Jones said his replacement Oli Maunder was more than capable in the role against Lithgow.
"He's a natural half or five-eighth, he started the year at centre because I wanted him on the park," he said.
"Flynn Packham has played five-eighth for us, and they combined well together on the weekend considering they never played together before," he said.
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