Mid West League: CSU heads into the finals on the back of 76-10 win over Lithgow Bears

That is exactly what the CSU Mungoes did in the final round of the Mid West League Cup's regular season last Saturday, crushing the Lithgow Bears 76-10 in Lithgow.

It was the sort of points differential boost they needed to nudge out Orange United for the minor premiership, the Warriors' bid for top spot impacted by two forfeit wins over the last three weeks.

"Orange has been really unfortunate to cop two forfeits, they got one from Lithgow and now Oberon. How it worked, we [Mid West executive] decided to give them the average points scored against Lithgow each round and again this time there was a decision to give them the average points scored against Oberon," CSU captain-coach Callum Flanagan explained.

"It was decided to go with 25 points for that Oberon game, which leaves them nine points under us in for and against. That makes us minor premiers in both men's and women's.

"It's great news, it's very nice to have that home ground advantage for the semi."

While Flanagan is expecting stiff opposition from the Warriors - CSU lost 14-12 to them in round one but prevailed 30-22 in round six - the Mungoes' star number nine knows his side is in good touch.

He bagged a hat-trick against the Bears, fullback Mick Latu and centre Blake Schaefer both scored a brace while halves Lachy Wilson and Joe Coady crossed for the first time this season.

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That the Mungoes managed the biggest score of any side this season - eclipsing Portland's 70-point effort in round two - against one of the strongest line-ups the Bears had fielded in 2021 made the result even better.

"That was definitely the best Bears side we've seen, they were twice the team we versed earlier in the year, they were heaps strong," Flanagan said.

"They had great ball work in the middle, their big Tongan fellah was wreaking havoc on us up the guts. They really tested out our defence in the middle and our slide defence on the line.

"It was pretty crazy to score that amount of tries, we just found them one after the other, it was a great sign coming into the finals."

CSU began well, a good kick-chase seeing them earn back-to-back sets before Fin Grabham crossed in the third minute.

But two minutes later the hosts responded via Dylan Williams and with the conversion a success, the game was locked at 6-all.

However, with the lure of the minor premiership and hosting rights for the major semi-final, CSU lifted. The Mungoes scored the next six tries of the contest.

"That was quite a statement from them to us, but over the next two quarters we knuckled down and put quite a few points on," Flanagan said.

"Lithgow were really keen coming together in defence, but often there are holes if you put enough pressure on them.

"We ran some really good plays off the back off nice shape ... Latu, both his tries were a result of really good positioning, working the ball out in our back line, testing their backs, then getting clean ball to him as fullback when we created a big gap."

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