It could have been easy for the students to fold in Saturday's elimination semi-final away to the Peak Hill Roosters when they found themselves down 16-4 at half-time.

Mungoes recovered from a bruising opening half of football to give the hosts a mighty scare but the improved period of football from CSU wasn't quite enough to get the job done, falling short 28-24.

CSU went into the fifth-versus-eighth semi-final as the underdog side but with the belief that they could find the upset.

Peak Hill's bigger bodies through the middle would ultimately prove the difference in the opening half, while CSU's fitness and finishing out wide brought them back into the game.

It's a tough way for the season to come to a close for the Mungoes but captain Fin Grabham said the team can hold their heads high after producing some excellent results in their first taste of the Woodbridge Cup.

"That was the best second half we've had all year. We put our best effort in but it still wasn't enough to get the job done so it's pretty upsetting to go out of the finals in the first round," he said.

"It's a heaps good year to look back on. We joined a new comp and we made finals. That was one of our goals as a team. We didn't get as far through those finals as we wanted to but we still got there.

"We played a lot of teams we haven't seen before and we got a lot of experience out of that. I really enjoyed it and I know the rest of our team did as well.

"Our coach Norto [Kurt Norton] was very upset but that was his first time coaching and he did an excellent job with that."

The game at Peak Hill was one of the few sporting contests in the Central West across the weekend to avoid being badly rain-affected, although that didn't stop the Roosters from cranking up the physicality.

It's been an area that CSU have been found wanting in all season.

Grabham said the team knew that had to do their best to see out the early onslaught and then they'd be able to get themselves back into the match.

"I was proud of all the boys for the effort that they put in. It just didn't go our way on the day. There's some great teams out there with quality players," he said.

"Every teams got a massive forward pack compared to our own, and Peak Hill have a huge pack. It's about sticking in there with them but we just let them get away from us.

"Right at half time we had a try disallowed when our winger was ruled to have stepped up and that would have brought us back a little bit, but nothing huge. It could have been a turning point.

"It was fast footy with heavy contact all around the park. Both teams were up for it and they came away with a few points of the back of some errors."

The CSU Mungals also had a tough day out in a 36-6 loss to the minor premier Manildra Rhinos side.

However, thanks to their top four finish, the women's team get another opportunity to stay in the finals race when they take on the Condobolin Rams this Saturday.

The two clubs met back in round four where the Mungals claimed a 20-6 win.

This Saturday's game at Manildra gets underway from 12.40pm.

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