The Mudgee Wombats second grade side’s winning streak has come to an end after losing 25-10 to the league-leading Bathurst Bulldogs, but they went down with a fight.
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A tough opening half ultimately cost the home side, who headed into the break 20 to five down, a deficit that in the end proved to much to claw back.
Coach Dave Goldring was proud of the players efforts, but admitted they didn’t quite step it up as much as they had the week before against Orange City.
“It was tit-for-tat in the second half, we really rallied at the end there,” he said.
“It’s one of those things, we were the second best team on the day so full credit has to go to the Bulldogs.
“They came out and really stuck it to us and I don’t think we lifted as much as we could have.
“Last week we lifted 100 per cent but today perhaps only 50 or 60 per cent.
“Mentally we were there, you could see how hard the boys were trying, they really wanted it.”
The Bulldogs came with a game plan that most Bathurst sides employ, to rumble it up the middle and use their size advantage.
Unfortunately for the Wombats, they got away from the way they wanted to play and tried to beat the Bulldogs at their own game.
“We got a little bit outdone and started to play their footy rather than our own but you saw once we got back to our brand we were at the other end almost scoring,” Goldring said.
The coach heaped praise on Jamie and Josh Bayliss who have been two of the mainstays in the side this year and offer consistent performances week-in-week-out and have been a big part of the sides success this year.
Brian O’Reilly was also excellent again at fly-half, and another brief cameo in the first grade side showed his quality and versatility coming on to play on the wing.
As always Toby Lewis got through a mountain of work but will be in doubt in the coming weeks having dislocated his elbow late in the game.
The Wombats face another tough test next week away from home against the Orange Emus but will take confidence from their last performance were they only went down by four points.
Despite the loss, the Wombats are still well and truly in finals contention after Dubbo’s loss to CSU meant they hang on to a seven point lead over the Kangaroos in fifth.
With three weeks to go in the regular season, Mudgee will be hoping to carry some momentum into September’s finals series and give the competition a real shake-up.