Missing their two key playmakers in coach Michael Sullivan and Matt Rose, CYMS looked for long periods as though their relatively ordinary record at Carrington Park would continue before coming away with a 28-16 win.

Handling errors continually invited Panthers into the game and when the men in black took a 12-6 lead early in the second half and a 16-12 buffer mid-way through it, their recent superiority over CYMS looked set to continue.

On the back of a rampant Simon Osborne, though, as well as the likes of Ben McAlpine and Trent Rose, the competition heavyweights escaped with the points.

"To complete at about 50 per cent and still win is a bit of a positive I guess,"?Sullivan said. "We showed a lot of commitment in defence and, really, we had to, given how many errors we made."

Panthers had the better of the game early and spent most of the first 15 minutes camped in CYMS' territory but were still on the back foot after a concussion to half Joey Bugg ended his afternoon.

He was smashed by a rampant Osborne in what was a recurring theme all game.

Against the run of play, CYMS opened the scoring 17 minutes in when Trent Rose collected a Tim Mortimer kick and scored.

The teams then traded errors and penalties before a desperate home side held out four straight sets from the visitors and promptly went up the other end and scored through prop Greg Behan.

Locked at 6-all at the break, Panthers were first to score afterwards as Jeremy Gordon sent Jay McLintock over with a great pass.

CYMS winger Semisi Katoa got his team level again only for Sandon Gibbs-O'Neill to put Chris Shephard over and re-establish a Panthers lead.

Osborne came back onto the field, though, with immediate effect, a massive charge leading to a Robbie Mortimer try on the left edge and with 12 minutes to play CYMS reclaimed the lead with Tim Mortimer scooting across.

Four minutes from time, Tim Mortimer iced the match by shifting the ball to McAlpine who dived over for his team's fifth try.

"It is disappointing to lose, errors hurt us at crucial times and CYMS were able to take advantage of ours, we couldn't quite do the same with theirs," Panthers player-coach Todd Barrow said afterwards.

"But I couldn't be prouder of our team. We lost Joey Bugg five minutes into the game, Greg Behan missed a lot of it getting a cut treated and wasn't 100 per cent. I thought we really had a go today."

Panthers were well served by Behan, Brent Seager and Jake Betts while Jeremy Gordon again was strong, along with Ben Gunn who was good in defence off the bench.

ORANGE CYMS 28 (Trent Rose, Semisi Katoa, Ben McAlpine, Robbie Mortimer, Tim Mortimer tries; Ben McAlpine 4 goals) defeated BATHURST PANTHERS 16 (Chris Shephard, Jay McClintock, Greg Behan tries; Jeremy Gordon 2 goals)