ORANGE Emus’ Blowes Menswear Cup dream is still well and truly alive after the men in green produced a courageous performance to upset Dubbo Rhinos at Apex Oval yesterday.
While the Rhinos were hoping to march forward in their first ever semi-finals appearance, it was the Emus’ forward pack who physically turned them around to run out 39-13 victors.
Emus captain Nick Hughes-Clapp was all smiles after the win and said his side was hitting its straps at the right time.
“It’s always hard up here but to come away with such a good win makes us very happy,” Hughes-Clapp said.
“I’m really happy with our scrums and most of our line-outs today. The only disappointing thing would be the pressure we put on their line-out in defence, but other than that I’m happy.
“Midway through the season we were coming eighth and didn’t even look like making the finals. It wasn’t until last week that we actually scraped into the top five - it’s been a season of two halves.”
The Rhinos had no match for the powerful Emus scrum and structured rolling maul, ultimately proving the difference between the two sides.
No.8 Keith Howarth in the 17th minute, prop Mark Kingham in the 34th and hooker Al Hattersley on the stroke of half-time all scored unconverted pushover tries for the Emus.
Howarth was sin-binned in the 25th minute for hands in the ruck, and the ensuing penalty goal from Andrew Nicholson gave the Rhinos some consolation. But it was the Emus who next took the ascendancy despite having just 14 men on the paddock, taking a 15-3 lead into the break.
Rhinos second rower Brett Austin was shown a yellow just before half-time, also for infringing in the ruck area, but the Rhinos didn’t lie down. They tried valiantly to get back in the game and in the 53rd minute a quick exchange of hands to the right saw substitute winger Brendon Reynolds score for Rhinos.
While the Rhinos struggled to maintain effective go-forward against a solid forward pack, when opportunities did arise the likes of Alex Frail, Ben Phillips and Saula Kunavatu looked menacing and it was Kunavatu who scored a similar defence-stretching try seven minutes later. In a disappointing day for the kickers, Nicholson missed the crucial conversion attempt to trail 15-13.
Emus replied almost immediately when a rolling maul saw Rhinos over-commit and find themselves short on the blindside, winger Nik Granger capitalising to dive over in the corner to lead 20-13.
Substitute half Charlie Sullivan then nailed the coffin shut with two individual tries before Ben McKenna sprinted the length of the grandstand for one last hurrah.
Rhinos second rower Paul Sutton said the semi-final appearance had been a long time coming but was disappointed with the outcome.
“It’s a bit hard to be happy after a loss, but while we can drown a few sorrows today there will be a few cheers as well, it’s been a long time coming,” Sutton said.
“Emus were hungry at the set pieces and played very well. You can’t take anything away from those guys.”
Emus will meet Narromine Gorillas in the minor semi-final at Narromine this weekend, and will be represented in all four grades at the Cale Oval venue.
“It will definitely be a similar game in terms of physicality. But it will probably be a lot more structured against Narromine, which will suit us a bit more to be honest. When the game gets a bit scrappy we lose our play a bit.
“It will be good to have everyone at Narromine together. It’s a bit of a shame it’s on a Sunday again - it throws things out of whack - but having all four together will make a huge difference.”
ORANGE EMUS 39 (Charlie Sullivan 2, Keith Howarth, Mark Kingham, Al Hattersley, Nik Granger, Ben McKenna tries; Granger 2 conv) def DUBBO RHINOS 13 (Brendon Reynolds, Saula Kunavatu tries; Andrew Nicholson pen).
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