THE Bathurst Bulldogs claimed their fifth straight local derby victory over CSU in the Central West Rugby Union on Saturday, out scoring the students 35-20 at University Oval.
Not since round three in 2007, when the students finished strongly to win 25-12, have the Bulldogs suffered defeat at the hands of CSU in the regular season.
In the second clash in 2007 the Bulldogs reversed their earlier defeat, winning 23-17, before easily taking care of CSU in 2008 (42-15 and 34-24) and continuing their unbeaten run this year (18-7) under lights at Ashwood Park back in April.
Saturday’s round 12 match was no different as the ’Dogs scored six tries to two and remained in third place on 48 points behind Narromine (60 points) and the Dubbo ’Roos (50 points) with CSU fourth on 41 points.
“I’m very happy with the result, I rate CSU, they are a pretty good side and after the first half I thought it was going to be tight,” Bathurst Bulldogs co-coach Mick Burgess said.
“But to come out and win by that score is pretty impressive, especially considering we only kicked one conversion.
“So it could have been a bit more, but I’m happy with the bonus point win.”
On Saturday CSU five-eighth Jeff Stewart kicked accurately to give the students a 3-0 lead 15 minutes into the match before their own indiscretions allowed Scott Johnston to level the scores two minutes later.
With sleet coming down, handling errors became a problem for CSU, stifling their unusual flamboyant attack and making them rely on Stewart’s boot to give them a 6-3 lead midway through the first half.
But when the skilful fly-half was taken from the field with a corked thigh 12 minutes before half-time, it signalled a change of fortunes for CSU.
Five minutes late Bulldogs second rower Kelamani Otutaha broke through some soft CSU defence and linked up with winger Tyson Smith.
The speedster then showed good composure to draw the CSU fullback before passing the ball inside to prolific point scorer Paul Miller to grab his first of two tries.
While it was the only five pointer of the first half, the ’Dogs took full advantage of a CSU mistake from the restart to score their second try through Luke James.
Even when Tim Kafusi was given 10 minutes in the bin for a late tackle, the Bathurst juggernaut rolled on as sustained pressure from the forwards allowed Miller to cross again and take the lead out to 18-6.
Only poor a conversion rate from Johnston kept CSU in match but it was not a major concern as Smith, Kafusi and Jono Cody bagged a try each late in the match to seal the 15-point win for the visitors.
After the game Burgess said in the grand scheme of things the focus of the match was not to beat their cross-town rivals, but rather aiming for second place in the competition.
“I think it is more important for our squad to be in the top three,” he said.
“I think Narromine might take some running down, but we are looking at that second spot and now we have a bit of space on CSU with that bonus point.
“But we’ve still got a couple of hard games coming up, so I told the guys to enjoy that win but we’ve got Rhinos next week.”
BATHURST BULLDOGS 35 (Paul Miller 2, Luke James, Tyson Smith, Tim Kafusi, Jono Cody tires; Scott Johnston conversion; Scott Johnston penalty) defeated CSU 20 (Jason Welburn, Simon Dowling tries; Matt Coote 2 conversions; Jeff Stewart 2 penalties)
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