IT'S an over used cliche in sport, but rugby union was the winner on Saturday when the Bathurst Bulldogs took on the Dubbo Kangaroos in the opening round of the Ferguson Cup.
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While the 47-0 score line pointed to a dominant day for two-time defending premiers the Bulldogs, what unfolded at No 1 Oval was still beneficial for Dubbo.
The Roos were only able to muster six players for the fixture, so Bulldogs loaned them a body and switched to a sevens format for the first 20 minutes.
After that, Bulldogs made another sporting gesture.
They opted to leave the official score as it stood after those 20 minutes, then offered Dubbo more players and squared off in a 10-on-10 format for the remainder of the time.
Bulldogs captain Melissa Waterford said that made the contest more beneficial than if her side had thumped Dubbo by a close to triple figures margin.
"No-one is going to benefit if we go out there do that, they're already struggling for numbers and you're not going to attract people to come and play, they're going to think it's a horrible game to play," she said.
"That means you're going to lose a team out of the comp, then we're going to lose in the long run.
"We thought it would be much better for Dubbo, who are struggling for numbers, to try and develop and made it a fair split of our players to them to try and make the second 20 a bit more competitive.
"It was really good for Dubbo as they came out of the game really positive, but also for our girls, they came out with a positive because it gave them a bit more structure to play against."
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For Bulldogs, the benefits came from getting additional match fitness and giving their new recruits the chance to familiarise themselves with the sport in a less pressured environment.
Amongst the nine tries Bulldogs scored in the first 20 minutes, it was not only premiership players like Kirsten Howard - who bagged a brace - that crossed but some of the new Bathurst recruits as well.
"It was a good fitness tester for the girls, a couple of our forwards, it definitely helped them with their fitness. I think the girls actually did quite well with the heat and the less numbers on the field, they still played really well, they had a lot of structure and go forward," Waterford said.
"It was really good for our new girls, we were actually able to play a bit with just those sort of players on the field. It helped them get a little bit of structure and start to understand the game a bit more."
