IT might be odd to hear it, but when Orange City rallied in the second half of Saturday's Blowes Clothing Cup match against his men it was something Bathurst Bulldogs coach Dean Oxley was actually pleased to see.
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Bulldogs had already locked up a bonus-point as they skipped out to a 50-7 lead with just over 50 minutes gone, but a gritty Lions outfit willed itself to lift.
The visitors won possession on the back of a big defensive play then went on to score two tries in quick succession.
Though Bulldogs responded and went on to post a comfortable 62-28 win, Oxley paid tribute to the character of the Lions.
"It was good to see actually because Orange City, we are a stronger competition with them playing good footy," he said, referencing 2018 when the Lions managed just one win.
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"They've done a lot of work and [coach] Viv Paasi is really a massive asset for their club. I am happy they are sticking together and doing their job."
Less surprising than Oxley's view was the pride Paasi had in seeing his team fight hard across the 80 minutes against a very talented Bulldogs side.
"They've got heart and you can't coach that," Paasi said.
"It is probably something I noticed when I first got to the club, all the things we were doing in the pre-season, even last week - it's that these guys have got big hearts.
"They want to learn, they want to become better and it will come. We are building slowly and what we look like at the end of this year - who knows?
"But we want to build something for the future and never get back to the situation where we were last year.
"We've got a really solid foundation, all our players from first grade through to the women's side understand how we want to play rugby and what City rugby looks like.
"We are not there yet, but we are going to keep working at it."
