WINNING the 2019 New Holland Cup grand final when CSU was a massive underdog is a moment in Xander Bennett's rugby career he won't soon forget, but this year he wants to create more cherished memories.
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Having come from a 19-point half-time deficit to beat Narromine in last year's grand final means that CSU has transformed from underdog to a favourite.
That brings with it new pressures that Bennett and his team-mates will have to deal with.
"That was huge in my rugby career, it was a once-in-a-lifetime moment, a fairy tale for us to take that out. It was the only grand final I've won and we all know you only win a handful of grand finals - if that - in a lifetime," the tenacious flanker said.
"So to secure that in the way that we did was really something special.
"I don't think we can call ourselves underdogs now considering we are the defending premiers, I don't think that's fair. I think there is a lot more pressure on the team, knowing we are defending premiers, to perform.
"That will be a difficult task we have to deal with as the season goes on."
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CSU has been impacted by both the regular turnover that comes with being a university outfit and COVID-19 this season, which means there are new combinations in action.
They are still gelling, but as they are guided by an experienced core, Bennett feels something special can again develop within the club.
"Its definitely building towards that kind of atmosphere we had last year. It's really tough with a university side because you get the changing of the guard with a high turnover of players each year, but we are definitely towards a strong side again this year," he said.
"We've got a lot of the key leadership players from last year still around, we've got Marcus Burrell who's our tight-head prop leading our forwards and Nick Plunkett, former club captain and our captain leading the backs."
CSU beat Dubbo Rhinos 15-12 in their season opener at University Oval and if the students want to build on that with an away win in Parkes this Saturday, Bennett knows what needs to improve.
"Discipline," he said.
"Our discipline was pretty poor against Dubbo, we had a pretty devastating penalty count against us through our own fault ... so definitely that's the main thing we want to improve on heading into Parkes."
Parkes lost to Mudgee by two points in round one, but last Saturday as CSU sat out with the bye the Boars posted a 26-0 win over the Rhinos.
"Parkes were a bit quiet last year, but we all know how strong they can be and how strong they've been in the past. We have heard along the grapevine that they have bolstered their side up a bit, so we are expecting a tough match up, we'll definitely have our work cut out for us," Bennett said.
"We had a bit of a look at the match video of their game against Mudgee and they look to be as strong out wide as they are in close."
Kick-off is at 3.15pm at Parkes' Pioneer Oval.