THE occasion was set but the Cowra Eagles failed to deliver.
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Celebrating the club's 50 years on Saturday, the Eagles were crushed by an in-form Orange Emus outfit.
The red and whites were primed for a huge 80 minutes but a lacklustre performance allowed the Emus to pile on 52 points while the Eagles limped to just 13.
The result leaves Cowra in sixth spot after 15 rounds and they're looking like they need to win all three remaining matches while the Emus strengthen their grip on a top two finish.
And it was the Emus who opened their account within the opening five minutes on Saturday when Simon Badgery crossed while the match travelled at a frantic pace.
Nigel Staniforth, who kicked at 100 percent for the day, kicked the extras for a 7-nil lead.
The next 10 minutes was dominated by the home side. Mitchell Budge was causing havoc and stepped past several defenders on his way to the line but was injured in the process.
Budge played no further part while Aaron Denzel booted the extras to level the scores.
Cowra continued to dominate possession and a high tackle penalty gifted them the lead mid-way through the opening half.
Emus struck back quickly through a slick backline movement off the back of a scrum.
Staniforth received possession and created the overlap for Carter Hirini to stroll over and give the visitors the lead.
What happened next though played a massive part in the result of the match.
The Eagles had the Orange side pinned in their own half but Emus' fullback, Graydon Staniforth, made a line break on his own 20 metre line.
He placed a kick for a flying Hirini and while he won the foot race, he missed the ball allowing the Eagles to regain possession.
But the Emus' winger stripped the ball from the home side and offloaded to Scott McLean who crossed for an Emus try.
Staniforth kicked the goal and the Emus led 21-10 just before half time.
The Eagles knocked over a penalty goal to reduce the deficit to eight when the Emus' defence was caught offside.
It didn't count for much though as the Emus came out firing in the final 40 minutes.
It was one way traffic and the Emus scored 31 unanswered points to completely silence the home crowd.
The Emus' Graydon Staniforth outlined his forwards as the difference on the day.
"They [Cowra] are a big forward pack and we held our own, although we did a lot of tackling, we held the line well," Graydon Staniforth said.
"Since the start of the second round we've really picked it up.
"I don't know what happened in our first round but we've worked on our continuity and passing and our ball work and it's paying dividends.
"We have a big one against Mudgee [next weekend], they beat us over there, we'll have to do Cowra a favour," he said.
In contrast, Cowra coach Dave Oliver thought his players relied on the occasion too much.
"We thought the occasion was going to get us over the line, Orange Emus knew they had to grow a leg to play us on our 50th anniversary day and they did, we thought it was going to happen for us but we didn't make it happen," Dave Oliver said.
"Blatantly, it just came down to attitude today. We thought the occasion would get us over the line.
"This is it now, every game's a season ender," he said.
ORANGE EMUS 52 (Carter Hirini 2, Scott McLean 2, Simon Badgery, Steve Fergus, Tom Green tries; Nigel Staniforth 7 conv, pen goal) def COWRA EAGLES 13 (Mitchell Budge try; Aaron Denzel conv, 2 pen goals)
