RUGBY UNION
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ORANGE City co-coach Steve Hamson has praised his side’s “smart pack” ahead of the Lions’ Blowes Clothing Cup road trip to Parkes tomorrow.
The Lions boast arguably one of the smallest packs in this year’s premiership, but have remarkably bucked the forward-orientated rugby trend and rocketed to the top of the 2015 ladder on the back of play Hamson says is “technically” better than the rest of competition and a superior fitness level.
Heading into tomorrow’s opening game of the second round, Hamson said Orange City will continue to play the sort of smart rugby that helped the Lions beat Orange Emus by 23 points in their last start in a bid to maintain a place as the competition’s pace-setters.
“We’ve just got to do the simple things right,” the two-time premiership winning mentor said.
“We know we’re not the biggest side, so we’ve technically got to be better than some of the big boys.
“We try and avoid the breakdown as much as we can and just play smart rugby ... we don’t have the big boys to play dumb.”
The last time the Lions faced the Boars a 78-5 mauling was the result, hat-tricks to Lions stars Joe Lasagavibau and Cameron Cole inspired the 73-point thrashing in early April.
Knowing full well Parkes lift infinitely at home - they beat heavyweights Orange Emus there in round three - Hamson believes the Boars’ physicality will pose a stern test of both his side’s innovative forward play.
“Parkes will probably use that as motivation,” he said looking back at round one.
“It’s a place we’ve not played well at in the past as well. We’ve used a couple of get out of jail cards up there, so we’re not expecting it to be an easy game.”
Tomorrow’s game begins at 3.15pm at Northparkes Oval.
ORANGE CITY: 1 Darcy Garlick, 2 Chris Senior, 3 Keith Lawson, 4 Scott Smith, 5 Chris Barrett, 6 Mitch Pearce, 7 Duncan Young, 8 Josh Maley, 9 Tom Nell, 10 Cameron Cole, 11 Sam Coote, 12 Mesui Lemoto, 13 Jake Davis, 14 Sione “Mo” Amone, 15 Joe Lasagavibau.