ORANGE CYMS will head into tomorrow’s round five Group 10 clash with St Pat’s minus key playmaker Steve Morris - but captain-coach Pat Gibson is confident the green and golds can bounce back from their first loss of 2008 last weekend against Lithgow.
Morris is one of several injury concerns for CYMS, who will also face a nervous wait to see how the majority of their forward pack pulls up from today’s Centenary Cup game at Wade Park.
Gibson views tomorrow’s encounter as a crucial chance for CYMS to get back into the winners’ circle after last Sunday’s 18-point loss to Workies ruined the club’s perfect season.
“It’s very important that we bounce back with a win. Lithgow were simply too good for us last week, so we need to come back from that on Sunday,” he said.
But the home side’s task won’t be made any easier with an injury ruling halfback Morris out of the encounter, while Hayden Davis, Gibson, Des Knight and Luke Thompson will all be backing up from today’s Centenary Cup clash between Group 10 and Group 21.
Powerful prop Ben McKenna, who ruled himself out of today’s representative match, is also an unlikely starter.
But Gibson says CYMS will simply play with the cards they are dealt against the blue and whites tomorrow afternoon.
“We’ve got a few injuries and a lot of guys backing up, so we’ll see what happens. Scott Sullivan will come in at halfback and he’s a talented guy from Wellington. He’ll do a good job for us,” Gibson said.
“You never know how guys are going to pull up the next day but we’ll just get out there and play footy. St Pat’s had a great win last weekend so it will be a good game of footy on Sunday.”
St Pat’s are on a high following a 24-10 win over defending premiers and cross-town rivals Panthers last weekend, their first victory for 2008.
Pat’s coach Kevin Grimshaw is confident his troops are finally hitting some form after a slow start to the season.
“If you look at it realistically, that was only our third game, whereas the other teams were playing their fifth and sixth when you consider the trial matches they have played,” he said.
“We haven’t had the same opportunity to mould yet, so as long as we keep improving from week to week, we’ll be OK.”
Tomorrow’s match kicks off at 1.45pm at Wade Park.
ORANGE CYMS: 1 Tim Bassmann, 2 Mitch McCabe, 3 Terawhiti Cooper, 4 Glenn Nunn, 5 Kurt Beahan, 6 Mat Clarke, 7 Scott Sullivan, 8 Hayden Davis, 9 Pat Gibson, 10 Ben McKenna, 11 Luke Thompson, 12 Des Knight, 13 Josh Nixon.
BATHURST ST PAT’S: 1 Nathan Corliss, 2 Josh Toole, 3 Mick Armstrong, 4 Michael Schrader, 5 Cameron Plummer, 6 Tim Holman, 7 Josh Laurie, 8 Matt Lawson, 9 Trent Hemsworth (c), 10 Mark Holman, 11 Brent Dennis, 12 Mark Elliott, 13 Andrew West.