DO NOT, under any circumstances, underestimate CSU Bathurst.
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That’s the message Orange City assistant coach Josh Maley sent to his troops ahead of the Lions’ Blowes Clothing Cup fixtures against the students on Saturday.
Despite the fact his side destroyed Parkes 85-10 and CSU suffered a shock, 18-16 loss to the lowly Dubbo Rhinos last weekend, Maley said his side will be very wary of the traditionally unpredictable Mitchell Men.
“I don’t even know what happened in that game of theirs against Rhinos, we don’t read too much into that sort of result,” Maley, a former CSU Bathurst star, said.
“Their form otherwise this year has been strong and they pushed a lot of sides in the first half of the season, including us, so we certainly won’t be underestimating them this weekend.
“In particular last time around they really surprised us in the forwards. CSU have always been a side with flashy backs but they pushed our scrum around and were pretty physical.
“We’ll be up for the challenge this time around in the forwards and we’ll be trying to set a platform for our back three, who were very impressive last weekend.”
Helping the Lions’ bid for victory is the fact the game had been moved to Pride Park after CSU closed the students’ ground – affectionately known as the Zoo – on Wednesday afternoon.
“It always helps having games at home, it is an advantage,” Maley said.
“We need to thank CSU there, it was good of them to happily come over here to play. We’ve already got one deferred game, we didn’t need another.”
CSU club captain Jarrod Hyde reciprocated Maley’s thoughts, thanking the Lions’ for immediately offering Pride Park.
“Their field isn’t in great condition either, but they’ve been very helpful,” Hyde said.
“They’ve let us know CSU can still take the gate and the canteen I think as well, so we really need to thank them for being so good about it.”
Hyde said the Mitchell Men will be firing on all cylinders after last suffering a second half meltdown in last week’s loss to Rhinos, which he thinks was born from overconfidence.
“The boys went in over-confident against Rhinos after a couple of wins on the trot and took them lightly. They know now that they can’t underestimate anyone,” he said.
Maley confirmed Orange City have settled their starting XV outside a couple of injuries and said the side will start seriously building towards the back end of the season now.
“We have another bye coming up, so first thing is to try and build a bit of momentum into that break,” Maley said.
“From there we’ll be looking for some consistency.”
Kick off at Pride Park is 3.15pm.
ORANGE CITY LIONS: 1 Darcy Garlick, 2 Chris Senior, 3 Logan Brockmann, 4 Mitch Pearce, 5 Chris Barrett, 6 John Colgan, 7 Duncan Young, 8 Feleti Wolfgramm, 9 Tom Nell, 10 Barton Young, 11 Cam Cole, 12 Sam Dwyer, 13 Joe Lasagavibau, 14 Taylor Smith, 15 Keegan Harding