THE CSU Mungoes remained undefeated in the Mid West New Era Cup thanks to a narrow 28-24 escape  against Villages United in the Bathurst derby on Saturday at Paddy’s.

A try with less than a minute to go from Oscar Thorburn put his side ahead after it looked as though Villages had produced a brilliant comeback win.

The hosts trailed 8-0 midway through the first half and 18-4 at one stage in the second before coming back to level at 18-all.

Again the sides traded tries, but a penalty goal to Villages gave them a two-point advantage with only a couple of minutes on the board.

However, a long range CSU movement saw the ball end up with speedy back rower Thorburn and he crashed over to hand his side a vital win against a side they can expect to meet again come finals time.

“It was a cracker of a game, we were up 8-0, they got a try just before half-time to get back to 8-4 before we put a couple of extra tries on after the break,” CSU president Brad Wright said.

“We maybe got a bit ahead of ourselves and thought we were home and hosed, but they fought back again and when they got that penalty goal, they led for the first time.

“Our break that led to the try came on basically the last play of the game. Oscar is a first year player from Penrith, he’s built pretty scrawny for a lock, but he plays hard and has been in outstanding form for us.”

Though Villages did eventually crack their opposition’s defence, the win owed plenty to a patch in the middle of the first half in which the Mungoes soaked up four straight sets on their own line.

When they finally did get possession, CSU coughed up the ball immediately and were forced into another two sets of defence.

They held firm and even though there was an eventual attacking burst from Villages, who have been in tremendous form ever since winning the Bathurst Panthers lower grade knockout in the pre-season, they showed what a bit of defensive determination can do.

“Our goal line defence was pretty impressive, we have tried hard to improve our desperation in that area and even though we made a lot of mistakes, we generally managed to make up for them fairly well,” Wright said.

“That was a big win to get, especially at their home ground. They had a lot of support and their banter was pretty funny, so that’s a valuable result.”

CSU MUNGOES 28 defeated VILLAGES UNITED 24