Since Mick Sullivan took the reins in 2010 Orange CYMS have done plenty of remarkable things, but until Sunday afternoon there was one milestone the green and golds hadn’t achieved.
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Racking up 100 points in a single game.
Sullivan and his troops can add that to their resumes now though after producing an astonishingly merciless performance to put Cowra to the sword and then some, running in a whopping 18 tries to one at Wade Park to win 100-6.
Tom Sattherwaite and Bronx Goodwin had a field day in accounting for almost half of those 18 tries, scoring five and four respectively, while fullback Ben McAlpine picked up a double and kicked 14 goals to score 36 points on his own.
“Hitting 100 points did become a thing for me once we made it 80-odd, big time,” Sullivan said.
“I was quite mindful of it, it’s not something we’d done before so we were pushing for it. I was telling the guys to score under the posts where they could and try not to make any errors. Macca was taking his kicks quickly too.
“I actually made a little mistake there toward the end and thought I’d cost us the chance, but Macca cleaned up and sealed it right on full-time.
“I’m really proud of the boys, getting to that margin.”
The win ticked a number of other boxes for Sullivan too.
He said the side had spoken about maintaining its ruthless edge through an entire 80-minute showing and also addressed the camp’s growing complacency leading into Sunday’s game.
On top of that, with Bathurst Panthers not playing this weekend, it pushes CYMS back in front of the men in black and also gives the green and golds a superior points difference.
Panthers had the upper hand there, prior to Sunday.
“I think we had become a little bit complacent. I said before the game we needed to push through that,” Sullivan explained.
“We had some ground to make up on Bathurst Panthers, this week and next week (against Orange Hawks) was the time I wanted us to do that.
“Panthers had us on for and against so I wanted to create that buffer, and I want to extend it next week (against Hawks) so we basically create a four-point margin.”
CYMS shot to a 16-0 lead inside the opening 15 minutes thanks to Satterthwaite and Goodwin’s first tries, and a Dom Maley four-pointer as well.
The trio all scored again in the first half, as did Ryan Griffin and Tim Mortimer, to give CYMS a 44-6 buffer at half-time.
Rick Nobes scored Cowra’s try, which proved to be the Magpies’ only bright spot in a torrid afternoon.
Maley’s second was a magical piece of play from CYMS, particularly Mortimer.
CYMS’ lock cleaned up a deft Sullivan chip and, while falling, produced an unbelievable, no-look, two-metre long flick pass which hit Maley on the chest, much to the joy of the green and golds’ faithful.
Simply, it was stunning, and summed up CYMS’ afternoon perfectly.
Basically, everything went right for the hosts.
After the break, the tide didn’t even look like turning.
Chris Bamford barged over in the 44th minute to keep CYMS’ roll going and from then on, virtually every time the side touched the ball it scored.
Satterthwaite scored a second half hat-trick to complete his rare five-try haul, Goodwin and McAlpine both scored second-half doubles while Joe Lasagavibau and Lachie Munro helped themselves to tries too.
Helping his winger out, Lasagavibau gifted Satterthwaite his fourth.
The speedy centre busted through Cowra’s left-edge defence, went 90 metres himself and after crossing the line, waited for Satterthwaite to catch up, handing him the ball and his fourth try on a silver platter.
Three of those tries also came from the first tackle of a set, directly from a scrum. McAlpine, Goodwin and Lasagavibau all waltzed through one off the scrum at different stages.
Overall, it was a 56-point second half – that’s a scoring rate of 1.5 points per minute.
“It’s a good reminder for us that when we do apply ourselves for the full 80 minutes, we can put on some really big scores,” Sullivan said.
“Sometimes when you start getting up toward the 70, 80-point mark teams start slowing every down a lot, so I’m pleased we were able to keep it on and do that in the second half.”
Making the result all the more incredible is the fact Cowra was sitting fifth going into the game.
The Magpies still are in fact, on points difference.
- ORANGE CYMS 100 (Tom Satterthwaite 5, Bronx Goodwin 4, Dom Maley 2, Ben McAlpine 2, Ryan Griffin, Tim Mortimer, Chris Bamford, Joe Lasagavibau, Lachie Munro tries; McAlpine 14 goals) def COWRA MAGPIES 6 (Rick Nobes try; Cam Breust goal)