For the first time this season, Orange Emus have won two games in a row and it's no coincidence fly-half Dan Jackson has been in the driver seat on both occasions.
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After a hamstring injury ruled him out of round one, Jackson has had to fight for his position through second grade and there was no doubting his quality on Saturday after scoring a hat-trick in Emus 36-29 victory over Dubbo Roos in the Blowes Clothing Cup at Endeavour Oval.
"He played well, he's a good organiser and still a young guy so it's good to have him around the club and playing well for us," coach Peter Bromley said.
"That's the first time we've had the same 10, 12, 13 combination for a couple of weeks so they're getting better and better."
While Emus were victorious, the day didn't start well for them as Roos went the length of the field five minutes in thanks to a huge run from Calub Cook with Tim Beach pushing up in support for Dubbo to lead 7-0 after five minutes.
Emus hooker Michael Kennedy hit back for his side straight away and after 16 minutes Emus were in again through Thomas Dewhurst to make the score 12-7.
Just as Emus looked to lead at half-time, Dubbo prop Sam Hunt had other plans as his pick and drive put the away side ahead at 14-12.
Straight after half-time, Jackson had his first try in front of the Emus faithful, taking advantage of an overlap and stepping inside to score.
After 53 minutes, Emus were ahead 24-14 thanks to a Sam Greatbatch try down in the right corner.
However, a few minutes later the home side had one man in the bin and a penalty try awarded against them.
Roos then made it 24-24 with a penalty goal in the 65th minute and it was game on.
While Dubbo had the momentum, Jackson had other ideas.
The fly-half's second try came in the 68th minute, going straight through a hole off the back of a terrific Harry Cummins run.
His hat-trick was then four minutes later off a short-side play as Emus lead 36-24.
Dubbo fullback Calub Cook scored with five minutes remaining to make matters interesting but the home side held strong to seal a 36-29 victory.
A satisfied Bromley said it was an extremely important result heading into next week's derby.
"It's finally good to get some consistency ... the bye came at the wrong time for us but it's good to get momentum again before we go up against Orange City," he said.
In a see-sawing affair, the coach believed his side's own mistakes continued to let Dubbo back into the game.
"We were almost our own worst enemies, we scored points then let them back in by being soft and giving away penalties," he said.
"You can't do that against quality sides and you saw that today, we played good football but they were still within seven points ... you don't need to give Cookie (Calub Cook) too many opportunities like that to keep scoring tries.
"I thought we deserved to be up at half-time, we were playing good football but once again we gave them the opportunity to come back into it, gave them a 14-12 lead and had to fight again to get the momentum in the second half."
A disappointed Dubbo Roos co-coach Andrew Wise said his side's inability to be clinical and hold the ball proved to be its downfall.
"There was errors from both teams, I was saying to the lads it's a case of one step forward two steps back - (there was) unforced errors, putting pressure on ourselves and not taking the moments when we had opportunities. We had three line-outs right on their line and just couldn't convert it into points," he said.
"I can't fault the attitude of the playing group, they'll definitely have a dig right till the end but we just can't afford to let a classy side like Emus have that many points on the board."
- Orange Emus 36 (Dan Jackson 3, Michael Kennedy, Thomas Dewhurst, Sam Greatbatch tries; Nigel Staniforth 3 conversions) defeated Dubbo Roos 29 (Tim Beach, Sam Hunt, Penalty Try, Calub Cook tries; Calub Cook 2 conversions, Calub Cook penalties)
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