ORANGE City has staved off a willing CSU Bathurst to come away from the Blowes Clothing Cup's second round with an unconvincing 29-10 win at Pride Park.

Aside from the opening 10 minutes when Taylor Smith scored a quick-fire brace and the final 15 minutes when Lions' backrower Feleti Wolfgram waltzed in a double of his own, the visiting students more than matched it with arguably one of the competition's benchmark outfits.

Lions skipper John Colgan was open in his assessment of his side's performance, adding the Lions are far from the polished product this early in the season.

That's understandable.

But the most pressing aspect of the Lions' play would have to be their scrum, which lost two tight-head feeds against the willing CSU pack while also conceding a try off a rolling maul in the first half.

"We're getting there," Colgan said of his side's own forwards.

"We're a smaller pack, we really need to work on our technique but we've got little fellas like (hooker) Jakey Johnson, just the biggest heart we just drive all day.

"We've got to keep working on it though."

What doesn't need much tinkering with is Orange City's ability to shift the ball wide.

Gun fullback Joe Lasagavibau linked twice in the one movement with winger Taylor Smith to help open the scoring after just 90 seconds, while Smith completed his double by the eighth minute when he scooped up a loose ball and raced 40 metres to score untouched.

Both tries came off CSU errors.

And once the students tightened their ball retention and built pressure with multiple phases, they were strong competition for the Lions.

That pressure soon turned to points a touch after the 26th minute when impressive No.8 Paul Lasslalo benefited from the terrific mauling of his tight-five, scoring the students' opening points to make it 10-5.

The score stayed at 10-5 until half-time and once play resumed, again, almost 90 seconds into the half, Lasagavibau beat three would-be one-on-one tackles to score a relatively soft try - Jake Davis had a horror day with the boot, missing all three of his conversion attempts - taking the score to 15-5.

Contentiously, CSU hit back in the 50th minute when a Cam Backhouse cross-field kick was regathered and put down by Chad Ashton in the corner after it appeared an Orange City defender was taken out going for the ball.

The try was allowed, while 10 minutes later Orange City had a five-pointer of their own pulled back late after a forward pass call from the sideline official.

The drama brought the crowd into the contest, which made for an enthralling affair, one Feleti Wolfgram, City's form player of the opening two rounds, sealed with a bonus-point result after scoring a late double - both conversions were landed by Keegan Harding and then Sam Dwyer respectively.

CSU mentor Pip McIntosh was pleased with his side's willing performance, but coming away from the contest with no points wasn't good enough.

"Once we realised we could compete with them, we took it to them, won a few tight heads, rolling maul off a line-out ... for these young fellas it's good," McIntosh began.

"But to get 29-10, I'm not happy. They can pat themselves on the back and think they're going alright but that's not what we're about this year. We're there to compete."

Colgan admitted to being a little stunned by the enthusiastic students, who were best served by Lasslalo, Ashton and bustling five-eighth Jack Keppel.

"Absolutely. We started really well, maybe too well and to credit them, they were fit, and they pushed us and hit back and put a lot of pressure on us," Colgan added.

"Our first-up tackles let us down, our defence. Their big boys, we should have been on their legs."

ORANGE CITY 29 (Feleti Wolfgram 2, Taylor Smith 2, Joe Lasagavibau tries; Sam Dwyer, Keegan Harding conv) def CSU BATHURST 10 (Chad Ashton, Paul Lasslalo tries).