RUGBY LEAGUE
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THE CSU Mungoes have had a mixed weekend in the New Era Cup as their Blue team upset the previously undefeated Villages United on Saturday while Yellow succumbed to a rampant Blackheath.
The first month of the New Era Cup concluded with the Blues showing just what they are capable of thanks to a 34-14 win against Villages at Rockley.
The hosts had been in supreme form in the three games prior, including a ground breaking win over Yellow at Diggings Oval the previous week.
However, CSU Blue put a particular emphasis on their defence in the middle of the field and that proved to be enough for them to claim victory.
“We trained pretty hard over the last couple of weeks and knew this was going to be a tough game and one that we needed to win,” club president Andrew McIlveen said.
“We were lucky in that we’ve had a team that hasn’t struggled at all with injuries and other prior commitments, whereas both those issues have effected the poor Yellow side and that probably showed in their game on the weekend.
“The forwards really stood up against Villages. We know that they are very good up the centre of the paddock, so we said basically that we’d really target that area and if they responded by trying to go around us, we’d let them chance their arm.
“When they did do that, we were able to deal with it and we created enough scoring opportunities ourselves to get the job done.”
Former Bathurst Panthers half Blake Dean was one of the catalysts for the win and showed why he was playing Group 10 premier league last season.
The Yellow team meanwhile were away to a likely finalist in Blackheath and couldn’t go with the Black Cats, losing 52-6.
So far the Yellows have battled to get their best side on the park and for the time being it looks as though, like every season since the Mungoes entered the competition, one of their teams will be noticeably stronger than the other.
But according to McIlveen, that isn’t necessarily the case.
“It is really hard to tell when you look at their squads which team will be better, they are two very evenly matched teams,” he explained.
“It will be a ripper of a game when we meet later in the season.
“Right now it is still tough to work out where we stand. We haven’t played Wallerawang yet with either side and they’re putting some big scores on, and the scores in general have been a bit funny so far. Everyone is still finding their feet.”