RUGBY UNION
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BATHURST Bulldogs will have a prime opportunity to claim their first win of the Central West Rugby first grade competition when they face the Parkes Boars at Ashwood Park tomorrow.
After being handed a 45-28 defeat at the hands of the Orange Emus to start their season, the Bulldogs get their first round of home football and a chance to set things right.
Parkes don’t provide the most intimidating resume coming into tomorrow’s game having been on the end of a 78-5 pummelling from Orange City.
But before thinking about how to find their way past Parkes the Bulldogs have been busy trying to cut down on their errors, both in attack and defence.
“The boys are pretty disappointed with how we played last week. We had a good run during the week and hopefully we can get the goods this time,” co-coach Scott Johnston said.
“I guess one of the positives was that we still scored 28 points. By the pointy end of the season 28 points should be enough to win you games. Obviously defensively though we need to improve. We missed too many one-on-one tackles.
“I also thought that at times when we had the ball we looked a bit lost with what roles we were trying to take.
“Our continuity was another big thing. We dropped a lot of ball.”
Johnston also refuses to call it an easier fixture for the Bulldogs knowing that the Boars will be resupplied in numbers for their trip.
“From what we’ve found out there were about six or seven guys out from the Parkes first grade side last week,” he said.
“I expect Parkes to be very physical and they always bring in a big forward pack. They always seem to play well against us as well. Having them and Dubbo in our first three rounds means we’ll be going through a lot of physical football.
“We’ve got to be winning our home games this year, it’s as simple as that.”
Only one big change will be made for the Bulldogs this week with the return of Tom Joseph to inside centre while Johnston shifts out to the number 13 jumper.
The opening Bulldogs first grade home game will get underway at Ashwood Park from 3.15pm tomorrow.
BATHURST BULLDOGS: 1 Chris Plunkett, 2 Mark Donnelley, 3 Sean Fogarty, 4 Izaak Breen, 5 Lachlan Bull, 6 Alistair Fryer, 7 Peter Fitzsimmons, 8 Adam Dwyer, 9 Tom Hollis, 10 Steven Locke (c), 11 Josh Lees, 12 Tom Joseph, 13 Scott Johnston, 14 Justin Mobbs, 15 Phil Tonkin