If you see CSU Yellow centre Brad Wright smiling this week it is not just because he scored five tries on Saturday or that his side posted a 78-6 win over Orange Barbarians, it is because he now feels the Mungoes can win the 2015 New Era Cup.

It has been a mixed season for CSU Yellow with eight wins and seven losses from 15 rounds, yet over the last month they have found form.

Saturday’s big win at Diggings Oval was Yellow’s third in a row and it has them sitting in fourth on the New Era Cup ladder with one round remaining. 

They are two points clear of fifth-placed Kandos, a team the Mungoes will face this Saturday.

“At the moment we are going really well, but there was a point there we were really struggling with players not being able to show up with injury and other commitments. Now we are starting to get our players back, we have been winning,” Wright said.

“A couple of weeks ago we almost beat Blackheath at home and they have ended up the minor premiers. Then we did beat Wang [Wallerawang] at Wang, so that was a really good result for us.

“After beating Orange on the weekend we are fourth and we are looking at a home semi. To do that means we have to beat Kandos at Kandos and they are basically playing for their place in the semis, so it is going to be a cracker.”

Having posted a 30-point win over Lithgow Giants a week earlier, Yellow went into Saturday’s match with confidence.

It was a big day for the university club with their league tag outfit and CSU Blue in action as well, so Yellow were keen to impress.

They certainly did that as they ran in 15 tries against Orange, Wright crossing for five of them himself. 

His centre partner Dean Hodges and halfback Brad Dewar each picked up a brace, with the other tries shared amongst the backs and forwards.

While Orange did manage to score early in the piece before Yellow really pulled away, the students dictated terms for most of the contest.

“It was just an error on our line. They picked it up and dived straight over, but we made sure it didn’t happen again,” Wright said.

Dewar combined well with five-eighth Jacob Parslow, but Wright said it was the Mungoes’ big men who laid the foundation for their biggest win of the season. It eclipsed their 72-10 effort against the Giants in round seven.

“We’ve had to reshuffle our whole side because of problems with numbers, but our halves are now really starting to gel and our forwards, you can’t underestimate how important they are to us. Even the guys who come off the bench are great for us and give us a massive boost every game,” he said.

“It’s kind of coming together for us at the right time of year, we are really starting to click and yeah, I am excited about it.

“We hopefully can now go on and win the premiership. Because we didn’t go so well at the start of the year people sort of counted us out, we were the underdogs. It is going to be good going into the finals as underdogs, there is less pressure on us.”

Kandos will head into Saturday’s final match on the back of a closer 30-18 win over the Giants, while the only prior meeting against Yellow resulted in a 44-22 win to the Mungoes.

Still, Wright is taking nothing for granted.

“Kandos are always a dangerous side, especially when they are at home. They won the comp a couple of years ago and they have just kept it going since then,” he said.

CSU YELLOW 78 (Brad Wright 5, Dean Hodges 2, Brad Dewar 2, Tom McDevitt, Phil Thurgood, Jacob Parslow, Filimone Tuilau, Joseph Dunlop, Shem Purdy tries; Dean Hodges 6, Tom McDevitt 3 goals) defeated ORANGE BARBARIANS 6 (Josh Whiley try; Beau Baker goal)