AFTER being shown where they sit in the competition pecking order by the high-flying Orange City side last Saturday, CSU will attempt to regain their winning form when they host Forbes today in round eight of Central West Rugby Union.
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The students were far from disgraced in losing 24-5 to the Lions, but there was no doubt there was a clear gap between the two sides.
Against a lowly-ranked opponent tomorrow CSU coach Luke Costello is wary of a drop in standard from his side.
“Forbes have been a bit unlucky in first and second grade and had a few close losses in each whereas we’ve had the bounce of the ball go our way in a few close games so we aren’t underestimating them,” Costello said.
“Forbes are a big team and no doubt they will try and bash us up the middle in the scrums and the rucks and mauls. Most teams are bigger than us and tend to target those areas.”
Forbes have struggled this season with only two victories and CSU will be heavy favourites to get their seventh win in eight games.
They will have to do it with a slightly new-look side though with classy five-eighth Sam Ryan to miss the match, his place to be taken by Tom Keft, who’s wing spot will be filled by Daniel Ross-Hopkins.
Former star Simon Dowling will make a return to the top grade after working his way through thirds and seconds, and will start at outside centre. Costello has gone to great lengths to urge caution against his team getting too carried away with how well they have started and once more re-iterated that they are yet to achieve anything at this stage, and he acknowledged that there are areas for improvement.
“I think most teams would agree that Orange City are easily the benchmark side. If you’re going to win the comp you will have to be better than they are,” he said.
“I wouldn’t single out any particular area in which they were better than us last week but just all over the park they were a bit ahead of us.
“If Forbes come out and beat us this week and then the same thing happens against Bulldogs a week later then all of a sudden we could find ourselves out of the top five altogether.
“I would probably give us a B minus if I had to give us a rating for what we’ve done so far, so it is a good sign that we’ve done well so far and still have a lot of improving to do.”
Forbes should offer tough competition in all three grades tomorrow, in particular their colts side who sit level with CSU in second spot behind undefeated leaders Dubbo ’Roos.
Kick-off in first grade is at 3.15pm tomorrow.
CSU: 1 Adrian Cunningham, 2 Luke Kelly, 3 Ryan Bear, 4 Toby Key, 5 Mitch Brown, 6 Matt Boylan-Smith (c), 7 Jake Wilson, 8 Hugh Medway, 9 Mikey Pembroke, 10 Tom Keft, 11 Cam Backhouse, 12 Will Griffiths, 13 Simon Dowling, 14 Daniel Ross-Hopkins, 15 Jack Garrad
