He's only had a handful of first grade appearances but Nick Murphy is making the right impressions early in his career.
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Debuting with a hat-trick against Lithgow on June 19, the electric utility back scored a double in a try-scoring blitz from his Orange CYMS side as they defeated the Bathurst Panthers 42-16 in the Peter McDonald Premiership at Carrington Park on Saturday.
Panthers had rallied from an early 14-0 deficit to get back within four points at the break, but from the very first set in the second half in all headed south for the hosts.
An all-round strong performance from the CYMS pack, plus electric moments from fullback Murphy and five-eighth Josefa Lasagavibau, helped the Orange men recorded a momentum-building success ahead of next round's top-of-the-table game against Mudgee Dragons.
Meanwhile, for Panthers, it leaves them needing victory against Lithgow Workies in next weekend's last round of the regular season in order to also join in the finals action.
It was always going to be a tough contest for Panthers side who not only lost centres Keelan Bresac and Jeremy Gordon after their loss to Dubbo Macquarie Raiders but also had Josh Rivett ruled out in the days leading up to the match due to injury.
Panthers manager Danny Dwyer said playing with continually rotating combinations is a tough thing to work with.
"We only completed two or three sets in the first 15 minutes of the second half and CYMS had five or six in that time and they were able to score on a couple of occasions. That's when it blew out," he said.
"We've brought a lot of boys up from 18s and reserves to fill the spots left by our injured guys. We're always having to shuffle things around lately. We had Benny Gunn, Tommy Lemmich, Dylan Miles and Kevin Large all backing up after playing lower grades.
"I feel that we're playing a bit low of confidence at the moment. Every time we put back to back sets together and work the ball downfield we look dangerous but at the moment we're defending for long periods of time, which is gassing us, and we can't get ourselves back in the game."
CYMS captain-coach Daniel Mortimer said it was great to see his team turn up at Bathurst ready for the challenge up the middle of the park.
"We've put really good patches together but let teams back in during a lot of games this year. It leaves things as a tussle right towards the end sometimes, so it's nice to go on with the job and get a comfortable win and not let up," he said.
"Those half points only came because we did the hard stuff. We won the ruck in the middle and we completed high.
"I thought our middles were outstanding tonight. They not only matched Panthers there, but I think they got the better of them. That doesn't happen often.
"I thought young Nick Murphy had a good game. He thrives in space and we were able to give him that on the back of some tough forward work."
CYMS opened the scoring in the eighth minute when Liam Wilson made a sliding catch of a Panthers kick towards the sideline, and when he wasn't wrapped up by the Bathurst defence he was able to get up and sprint more than 80 metres down the left wing for the first try of the night.
Panthers enjoyed a strong passage of play over the next 10 minutes as they forced a pair of goal line drop outs and were denied a try down the right wing only thanks to a desperate defensive effort from Wilson and Marcel Ikinofo.
CYMS were soon rewarded for that defensive effort when some fancy footwork from Murphy saw him make a line break and he then wrong-foot Panthers fullback Noah Griffiths to score his side's second try and take the score to 12-0.
A penalty goal from Patrick Williams gave his side some room to breathe both on the field and on the scoreboard.
CYMS then conceded errors on three consecutive sets to let the Panthers work their way downfield and eventually score their first points.
A tough run and brilliant offload from Jia Siakisoni allowed Ben Gunn to score in the right corner.
Panthers then got proceedings back to 14-10 when Aiden Ryan went right through the middle of the CYMS defence 30 metres out from the Orange try line and scored near the left sideline.
CYMS were able to open the scoring six minutes into the new half when a cut back inside from Josefa Lasagavibau allowed him to pick a gap and score under the posts.
Two sets later CYMS were in again when a chip kick found the hands of Mortimer, who was able to the run the ball in behind the uprights to give Williams an easy conversion for the 26-10 lead.
CYMS continued to run over the top of a tired Panthers defence as a try to Liam Kennedy with 20 minutes to go effectively sealed the result.
That didn't stop CYMS from keeping the points coming.
Ikinofo palmed away a would-be Panthers tackler on their own try line to make it 36-10.
Panthers found a consolation try to player-coach Jake Betts, who scored off a grubber kick, but that was quickly cancelled out by another excellent solo try to Murphy with four minutes to go.
Adding extra salt to the wound for Panthers was the post-siren sending off of Claude Gordon.
ORANGE CYMS 42 (Nick Murphy 2, Liam Wilson, Josefa Lasagavibau, Daniel Mortimer, Liam Kennedy, Marcel Ikinofo tries; Patrick Williams penalty goal; Williams 5, Wilson conversions) defeated BATHURST PANTHERS 16 (Ben Gunn, Aiden Ryan, Jake Betts tries; Noah Griffiths 2 conversions)
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