The Mudgee Wombats travel to Dubbo this weekend knowing that if they don’t get a result, their 2015 season is over.
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The Wombats play the Kangaroos and although they went down to the Dubbo side last week, they now know exactly what they need to do in order to go one better on Sunday.
According to manager Tom Flynn, the Wombats have the ‘Roos well and truly in their sights.
“Training went well and we’re a bit more focused on Dubbo given we played them last weekend,” he said.
“There are a few things that are still in the forefront of our minds that we can improve on and we’re looking forward to putting that into play.”
Last week’s game was extremely competitive and despite the loss, Flynn believes there are plenty of positives to come out of that defeat.
“It was a tight game and both teams would admit that there were stages where it could have gone either way,” he said.
“We had a lineout ten metres from their line with four or five minutes to go which would have put us in front if we’d scored.
“Late in the game they were the ones that didn’t make any mistakes and did all the simple things well and that’s why they deserved to win.”
There’s no doubting that the Kangaroos got the better of the Wombats at the set piece on the weekend, particularly at scrum time.
Flynn believes an improvement in that area will go a long way as they attempt to progress into the second week of the finals series.
“It’s definitely something we’ve been working on,” he said.
“Training wasn’t good the week before our last game so our timing and rhythm at the lineout was a bit off.
“They’ve got an excellent front row so we need to be a lot more conscious of our body position at each scrum, probably more so than other teams because we are a lighter pack.
“Our technique needs to be spot on.”
The Wombats may have pointed out some areas where they can target the Kangaroos after last weekend, but the disadvantage of playing the same team twice in two weeks is that the opposition may also have identified a few weaknesses of their own.
According to Flynn the recipe for success this weekend is fairly simple – improve.
“They’ve had a good look at us too so they’ll know where our strong points are,” he said.
“Basically across the park we just need to make sure in attack and defence we’re getting set a lot quicker.
“We also need to put more pressure on their key players, more so than we did on the weekend.”
Fortunately the Wombats came out of last week’s match with no serious injury complaints.
As always there are some players with niggling injuries, but they are expected to field the same starting 15 that played at Jubilee Oval on Saturday.
Many would have thought at the beginning of the year that the Wombats weren’t capable of making the finals, let alone advance to the second week of the knock-out stages.
Whatever happens this weekend it has been a largely successful year for the club, but try and tell that to the players if they can’t turn their fortunes around.
“It’s a good result to get this far but it’s a testament to the boys that they won’t be satisfied with a loss this weekend,” Flynn said.
“Given the performances we’ve had throughout the year, the boys know they’ve put in the work and have the ability to go further in this finals series.
“It’s great to see them getting the results they’ve been working for and getting through to the finals, hopefully we can going further again.”