Playing on home soil at Cale Oval, the Gorillas assembled their strongest line-up of the season thus far as they hunted for what would have been a just win number two from eight outings.

But CSU responded by showing defensive mettle, their tight five responding to a call from coach Dave Conyers to improve their intensity.

"Our tight five, I gave them a bit of a dressing down. The first three or four games of the year our tight five played so strongly and were so dominant, but the last four weeks we haven't been as dominant and our work rate hasn't been there," the coach said

"But today was the best I've seen them all year with just the work rate and effort."

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Two of CSU's five tries came from members of the pack with Marcus Burrell and Lachie Buckton - who Conyers labelled 'a try scoring machine' - crossing in the first half.

It was the sort of effort needed for CSU to avoid a shock loss to a Gorillas outfit they had previously defeated 19-13 and 32-12 this year.

Conyers was certainly impressed with what the hosts threw at his men.

"They had all their good players back and some new blokes and they were probably one of the best teams we've played all year, they really stuck it at us," he said.

"I'm including [undefeated] Parkes in that, because the way they controlled the ball - I think they were the best team we've played all year. It was ladies day up there and the energy they had, it was very tough up there.

"They played really good rugby ... I was quite surprised, we had to work really hard to get the win."

CSU opened scoring via Central West representative Buckton, but the Gorillas showed fight in front of the home crowd as they then took the lead with a Daniel Battishall try and Henry Buttsworth conversion.

The arm-wrestle continued as Burrell crossed to make it 10-7 then a Buttsworth penalty locked it up at 10-all.

Finally the students managed back to back tries to open up a more comfortable buffer but the pressure from the Gorillas never waivered.

It wasn't until flyhalf Ethan Cusick booted a penalty late in the second half that Conyers knew his men would emerge victorious.

"It was our best defensive performance of the year, they had a lot of possession in the second half and threw a lot at us," he said.

"We kept them out for about 15 plays three times, so that was really good."

Aside from strong defence and the response from CSU's tight five, Conyers was also pleased to see his men produce some impressive phase play.

"Our ball retention today, we haven't been able to get more than six or seven possessions at one time, but we got 13 today and that's what it was all about, hanging on to the ball for a sustained period of time," he said.

"That's been our focus all week and the boys really listened and applied themselves. For a coach, for them to listen and apply themselves, that's really pleasing to see."

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