IF the message wasn’t clear by now, the Bathurst Bulldogs aren’t here to muck around this Blowes Clothing Cup season.
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Bulldogs delivered that news with force on Saturday as they took hosts Parkes Boars apart 70-7 in a one-sided affair.
Bathurst did the bulk of their damage in the second half to keep their unbeaten start to the season intact, and remain two points behind competition leaders Orange Emus.
Adam Plummer led the way on the scoreboard for the Bulldogs with four tries to his name.
Even before kick-off Bulldogs co-coach Nathan Pearce was feeling confident in his team’s ability.
The men in blue and gold didn’t disappoint.
“I said to Pip [McIntosh, co-coach] before the game that it was the best we had looked this season during a warm-up … and that we could put 40 past them. He told me not to get overconfident,” Pearce said.
“I turned to him during the game and said to him I might have sold them short.”
The hosts came out fired up over the opening quarter of the match and we able to respond shortly after Bulldogs opened the scoring.
However, the intensity started to wear off as half-time approached.
Bulldogs were able to carry their momentum into the new half of rugby as they piled on just short of 50 unanswered points.
“Parkes were missing the two Ryan brothers [Ben and Dan] but they still came out firing for the first 10 to 15 minutes,” Pearce said.
“While Parkes were looking strong over that time it didn’t look like they would be able to maintain that intensity for the full 80 minutes.
“Last year we weren’t up by that much at half-time, and that was something we stressed to the guys at the break. We had to keep it going in the second half,” Pearce added, referring to last season’s shock 28-24 loss to Parkes.
This time the Bulldogs did not put a foot wrong.
“We had eight under 21s players in our team, which was great to see. It was a complete performance from our guys, especially in that second half,” Pearce said.
“The things we’ve been talking about improving, like our work in the breakdown, went really well.”
Pearce said ending the opening half of the season with more positive rugby is the focus.
“It’s really important we don’t get too far ahead of ourselves,” he said.
“We’ve got Dubbo Rhinos, Forbes, a bye and then Orange Emus, which looks like our biggest game. For now we’ve got to keep focused on Rhinos though.”