Bathurst Bulldogs' scrum is key in 34-10 win over Orange Emus

In an often scrappy 34-10 Blowes Cup victory over Orange Emus on Saturday at Ashwood Park, the power of the Bulldogs scrum was something to marvel.

Bulldogs won against the feed, Bulldogs marched Emus back, Bulldogs set up tries all off the back of its scrum.

And when Bulldogs scored with 12 seconds left on the clock to snatch a bonus point win for the fifth time this season, it came thanks to the work done by the scrum.

"I'm very, very happy with our scrum. It's pleasure to coach a team when there's go forward like that," Bulldogs co-coach Dean Oxley said.

"I've coached and played in sides that haven't had that dominance or even parity, it's very hard to construct. It's all credit to our pack.

"I'm really happy to see the boys stick to the job, we had the goal of getting the two points obviously and then trying to get that bonus point and we got that in the last second of the game."

It was Emus' second loss at the hands of Bulldogs this season but while 24 points separated the pair at full-time, the visitors did enjoy more possession than the margin suggested.

But whereas Bulldogs converted on possession, Emus couldn't do the same. Coach Nigel Stanforth knows that is something his men need to improve.

"We lacked a fair bit of energy there and a bit of cohesion. We were just waiting for Bathurst at times and obviously they take their opportunities," he said.

"So we've got a bit to do there, we just have to keep working hard.

"Just patience and execution and going through our phases, Bathurst has good defence, but okay, we have to work through it."

That good Bathurst defence was on display from the opening minute. While Emus won the ball from the kick off after the hosts knocked on, the eight phases they then threw at Bulldogs did not lead to territorial gain.

Instead Emus made an error, gave Bulldogs back the ball and seven minutes later following a scrum, the Bathurst side had the opening try via Peter Fitzsimmons.

Four minutes later Bulldogs launched an attack from a line-out. Bryce Rue found space down the left wing then threw an inside ball to put Dan Woods over.

While Emus responded soon after as Angus Cudmore sliced straight through and Dan Jackson converted to make it 14-7, responding in the scrum was a different matter.

Bulldogs won the next two scrums against the feed and a try to Jason Corliss followed in the 19^th minute.

For the remainder of the half it was Emus who dominated possession and had much of it inside Bulldogs' 22.

But all they had to show for it was a penalty goal which came after Zac Taylor was yellow carded with two minutes left on the clock. At that stage Emus' Simon Badgery was also spending time in the sin-bin.

Nine minutes into the second half Bulldogs were again reduced to 14 players as Corliss was shown yellow for a high tackle, but it didn't cost them any points.

Weekes penalty goals in the 55^th and 60^th minutes instead increased Bulldogs' advantage to 27-10.

The all important bonus point try came via Hunter Davis at the death.

"Emus, they beat us at the breakdown in round one, but we've gotten better throughout the competition. When they were backs to the wall and Emus came at them for a very long time and we held them, you could see the jubilation in the team when they win the job," Oxley said.

"Our good work was taken away at times by some indiscretions and we've got to get better at that, but our attitude in defence couldn't be any stronger.

"While we like to score points, we focus on defence because that's where we win game."

While Emus suffered back-to-back defeats for the first time this season, they were missing some key personnel like centre Josh Bass.

Staniforth also said the less experienced members of his squad will learn from what Bulldogs threw at them.

"They stuck to it today there's new guys in a few spots, so they got exposed today and had a bit of a crack. So the effort was there, but we've got to execute in line-outs and scrums, like our line-out was really off today," he said.

"Obviously not having another ball player like Bassy, he was out this week, hurt us a little bit. But we'll keep working hard."

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