CSU's New Holland Cup game away to Mudgee Wombats on Saturday was already a tough enough prospect, and considering the endless trouble that struck the students once the match was underway it should come as no surprise that Mudgee ran out 50-7 winners.

If there was ever a game that fit the old coach's phrase 'Just put a line through it' then you should look no further than the one-sided affair at Glen Willow Sporting Complex, where nearly everything that could go wrong did go wrong.

It's been a brutal start to the season for CSU, who were looking to bounce back from a 40-0 defeat to Dubbo Rhinos in round one but it wasn't to be.

CSU coach Dave Conyers said it was the sort of game every coach dreads of going through.

"We had four blokes pull out due to COVID or illness. We were left with only nine first grade players so we had to pull players up from second grade, and we ended up losing five players within the first 20 minutes of the game," he said.

"We ended losing both our front rowers. It was a real bad day at the office."

Mudgee have prided themselves on a strong game through their forwards, and up against a totally depleted CSU pack they feasted through the middle of the park all game.

CSU's early personnel losses led to uncontested scrums after just 20 minutes of play and the Wombats' run of points came on the back of their forwards' metres all game.

The students managed to avoid return home scoreless when they earned themselves a penalty try - their only moment of joy all game.

It was always going to be a tough affair for CSU even with the leading players among the forwards and backs respectively, Marcus Burrell and Ethan Cusick, unavailable - but the additional losses left the team with a virtually impossible task.

"Mudgee have a very strong forward pack. There weren't too many scrums in those first 20 minutes that we could have them, which was lucky because in the two we had they absolutely smashed our scrum," Conyers said.

"We had no experience out there and I'd say that the average age of our team was probably around 20.

"Losing three backs and two forwards in the first 20 minutes really had us off our feet. Our second graders had already played a game against Mudgee, and they'd lent us a few players just so that game could go ahead. We were left with pretty much no bench by the end of it.

"That's just one of those days, and it all began around 8 o'clock when the phone started going off with players pulling out."

CSU will hope to turn things around against Parkes Boars when they make their return back to University Oval next week.

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