WITH the scores locked at 17-all coming back onto the field for the second half of Saturday's New Holland Agriculture Cup clash CSU decided to turn things up a notch in defence.
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CSU shut the door on the visiting Wombats outfit to come away 29-17 winners at University Oval and take second place on the ladder.
Mudgee had threatened to enter the second half with momentum having made a comeback to level the scores at the break but CSU coach Dave Conyers said his side produced some of their best football of the season to date in order to keep the Wombats under control.
"In the second half we just outmuscled them. It's probably the first time I've seen a student pack outmuscle a Wombat one. It's just about unheard of," he said.
"Our scrum and lineout were great today. We connected with the backs much better. We kicked some goals that we missed last week. The boys were really up-tempo and they wanted to make a reprieve for last week."
CSU began well with several long passages of possession to go up 10-0 through a converted Sam Chamberlain try and an Ethan Cusick penalty.
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Mudgee's Zach Grey scored on either side of a Cusick try to get the Wombats level at half-time, but tries to CSU's Jack Magriplis and Charles Teirney were earned off the back of some spirited defensive work.
"Our fitness really shone today. Mudgee fell away a bit in the last 20 minutes. It was great to see our boys finishing off the game strongly," Conyers said.
It's already looking like a close battle for finals positions just four rounds into the competition, with the top four teams all showcasing title-winning potential at different stages.
"This time two years ago when we won the time we started in similar fashion when we struggled against a few teams. We had the Regan [Hughes] factor that year, which got us out of trouble, but now we have to play more as a team," Conyers said.
CSU 29 (Samuel Chamberlain, Ethan Cusick, Jack Magriplis, Charles Teirney tries; Cusick 3 conversions; Cusick penalty) defeated MUDGEE WOMABTS 17 (Zach Grey 2 tries; Brian O'Reilly 2 conversions, O'Reilly penalty)
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