THOUGH they have had five wins in total and three in a row, arguably the peak of CSU’s Central West Rugby Union season came during a first round loss to Dubbo ’Roos at University Oval back in May.
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A lot has happened since that 19-17 loss, some of it good and some of it bad, but it remains something of a benchmark in terms of what they are capable of when they play their best football.
Tomorrow they head to Dubbo for the return fixture, and they do it on the back of three consecutive wins, albeit against three other sides in the bottom section of the table.
’Roos still sit on top of the ladder, with just two losses to go with 12 wins.
CSU coach James McLaren says there is still a sense of missed opportunity about that match, in which his side had three penalty attempts to steal victory in the final 10 minutes.
But those regrets aren’t limited to that game.
“There has been quite a few games where we’ve either lost narrowly, or others where we might have lost by a few points but have been well in the contest, and in all those matches there have been stages where we’ve let opportunities slip away,” he said.
“And probably for the players there is a sense of missed chances.
“The attitude is still getting better, though, now that we’re stringing some more consistent games together and we’ve started to actually look like a good football side at times, though the level of competition has an impact on that too.
“Dubbo have played well from the start of the season and are still getting better. As much as we’ve picked it up, I’m not sure that we’ve improved at the same rate, so it is another massive challenge this weekend.”
As McLaren admitted, the Dubbo side at its best does not have an obvious weakness or any specific area that the coach believes the students can target.
He has seen elements in his side’s football, though, that he believes will give them a chance to cause an upset if they are executed well.
“For most of the season we’ve looked at the other teams and where we can try and exploit them and, to be honest, Dubbo are strong right across the park and don’t really have a noticeable area where they are poor,” he said.
“We can only concentrate on our side of things and for me that means getting bodies to the breakdown and trying to get forward momentum.
“It is all about stringing six to 10 phases together; not just holding onto the ball and moving laterally, but get things rolling forward.
“Because we do have some speed and our football is pretty to watch when we hold the ball and it is working. Unfortunately, we haven’t reached that level often enough.”
The CSU side is expected to stay unchanged from the outfit which defeated Narromine last Saturday.
CSU: 1 Evan Binney, 2 Gota Wykamp, 3 Michael Coates, 4 Sam Robertson, 5 Pat Murphy, 6 Nick Dutton, 7 Michael Thompson, 8 Hugh Medway (c), 9 Josh Gemmell, 10 Nick Rutherford, 11 Pat Hill, 12 Blake Ridges, 13 Tom Keft, 14 Lachie Brown, 15 Tennyson Vance
