COWRA Eagles downed CSU in their Central West Rugby Union first grade contest on Saturday in Cowra, running out 17-7 winners after trailing early against the students.
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The two teams went into the match both with a win and two defeats from the opening three rounds, and while competitive in their defeats, both were in need of a win to ensure they didn’t lose contact with the top of the ladder.
For CSU, the outcome was less than ideal as fundamental errors proved costly against the more disciplined hosts.
They were on the front foot early as speedster Chad Ashton scored after chasing down a kick that had been toed through by one of his team-mates.
Co-captain Cam Backhouse added the extras to give his side the ideal start, but from there they were outplayed in most facets of the game by the Eagles.
“We got on top of them with that try in the first couple of minutes but for a while after that, they had most of the ball; they were winning all the line-outs as well although we managed to keep the scrums fairly even,” Backhouse said.
“They got back to 7-all before half-time, but we had a big wind behind us so it probably wasn’t a good enough position on the scoreboard.
“They scored twice in the second half and, really, we threw the ball away too much and allowed them to just play field position.”
After CSU’s disastrous 2015 campaign in which they ‘won’ the wooden spoon, each of the three straight losses to Orange City, Forbes and Cowra were probably improved performances in comparison to the losses they were going through at that stage.
But under Pip McIntosh, the students have made it clear that being competitive isn’t good enough, and winning is again the priority.
They have had some legitimate excuses over the last couple of weeks with many players unavailable due to university holidays, but according to Backhouse, Saturday’s effort was unacceptable.
“Against Orange City we played well but just fell away a bit towards the end of the game, but we weren’t great against Forbes and Saturday was pretty poor,” he said.
“Our phase play was terrible. We were getting through three or four phases and then panicking and throwing the ball away. In the first two losses that aspect of our game was fine, but not this time.
“We still had some positives. There were good performances in some areas. Josh Arrow at number eight was outstanding, and so was Tom Greenaway at flanker. They both got through a tonne of work.”
COWRA EAGLES 17 defeated CSU 7 (Chad Ashton try; Cam Backhouse conversion)
