THE unavailability of key personnel will make it tough for Orange Emus to clinch their place in the Blowes Menswear Cup semi-finals tomorrow in the penultimate round against Narromine.

Emus travel to Narromine to face the third-placed Gorillas, tied for fourth on the ladder with Dubbo Rhinos on 42 points but they are shadowed by Forbes (41 points) and Charles Sturt University, Bathurst (40 points).

The Greens will be without both second-rowers, Nick Hughes-Clapp and Nick Luelf, as well as centre Paul Mullins and possibly goal-kicking fullback Joel Plummer.

A number of other players have been unable to train this week so co-coaches Mitch Staniforth and Matt Greatbatch have had to schedule a special session tonight in an effort to have their players ready for tomorrow’s clash.

“We’ve got to do some re-shuffling that’s for sure,” Staniforth said of their predicament.

“It’s a big disruption having your two second-rowers out with scrums and line-outs.

“You need to dominate your set pieces so we’re right behind the eight-ball.

“It’s been pretty disruptive and all we can do is turn up for training (tonight) and warm up a bit earlier (tomorrow).”

Staniforth stressed Emus are determined to come away with a win tomorrow and wrap up their semi-final spot even though they can still make it should they lose to Narromine.

Even if Rhinos, Forbes and CSU-Bathurst win tomorrow against Orange City, Parkes and Cowra - which are all likely - Emus could still finish in the top five with a bonus point victory over Parkes in the last round.

But Staniforth wants to see his players ensure they have a spot in the finals tomorrow.

“We’re going out to win. We’re not going out there to get a bonus point,” he said.

“Our main aim is to go out there and win and if we can this week, we should be right.”

Staniforth identified discipline as the area Emus need to be strong in if they are to beat the Gorillas, as that is what cost them in their earlier loss to Narromine this season.

“In the first round we played them it was a pretty even game ... it was just our discipline which cost us,” he said.

ORANGE EMUS: 1 Mark Kingham, 2 Al Hattersley, 3 John Ellis, 4 Matt Whitton, 5 Aaron Hansen, 6 Pete Bell, 7 Scott Bouffler, 8 Keith Howarth, 9 TJ Cunynghame, 10 BJ McKenna, 11 Ben Ruddy, 12 Mitch Dansey, 13 Owen Thomas, 14 Nik Granger, 15 Joel Plummer/Charlie Sullivan.