Mid West League: CSU posts 40-24 win over Oberon to retain second place

The Mungoes made the trip to Oberon expecting a tough battle in the forwards and that's exactly what they got, Tigers Greg Behan and Nathan Booth pulling off some solid hits.

But at half-time Mungoes player coach Callum Flanagan spoke to his men about spreading the ball wide earlier in the set rather than rolling up through the centre of the paddock.

"They are much like us Oberon, quick, agile forwards, but they are just bigger than us. We often find ourselves versing bigger teams, but Oberon seem to be the fastest and the closest to us in the comp," Flanagan said.

"We spoke about it before the match, the damage their forward pack can cause with their speed and agility.

"We knew that they were matching us as expected in the forward pack, you know they've got those big bodies that can work fast and hard, so we were pretty much in a grind.

"But in the second half our forward pack really lifted. We usually wait to get our position later in the set and then give the backs licence to go for it, but at half-time we decided to go to the backs first and have a crack if it was on.

"On the back of that Joe Coady and Braydon Wicks who was back and Kurt Norton in our halves, they sort of ran away with it. We started targeting edges, caught them short-handed a few times and ran away with it."

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Having fallen 34-18 to CSU earlier this season, Oberon was keen to square the ledger and made a good start to that.

A Blake Fitzpatrick 40-20 kick gave the Tigers an attacking scrum feed and shortly after Behan crashed over to give the home side the lead.

However, from the next set Oberon knocked on and CSU punished the error by locking things up at 6-all.

By half-time CSU led 24-12, their efforts including two length-of-the-field tries, but the Tigers fought back after the break.

The home side managed to lock it up at 24-all, but as they fatigued, CSU's plan to attack the fringes paid off. They scored three unanswered tries to take the win.

"It was quite tit-for-tat footy in that early period, but then we got into form and ran away with it towards the end," Flanagan said.

"It was great to do that in Tiger town.

"Obviously it's their home den, they had all their supporters there, for us it was reminiscent of when we beat them in the semi-final last year. It was a great feeling for us."

The win sees CSU sitting second on the ladder heading into the June long weekend bye, two points behind the Portland Colts.

The Mungoes will host the Colts in the next round at Diggings Oval.

"We are pretty happy with the position we are in, especially going into our old boys day match against Portland. That will be on June 19 and is one of our biggest, actually arguably our biggest match of the season," Flanagan said.

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