The boys in blue and red travel to Bathurst to take on CSU on Saturday and even though it’s only early days, an 0-2 start to the season is never easy to overcome.

That’s why Wombats’ skipper Tom Dunstan is touting this clash as a crucial one.

“The goal is to be there at the end of the season,” he said.

“It’s not must-win territory yet but the more wins we can get on the board now, the easier it will be for us later.”

The whispers of Lachie Morse’s presence are growing and after the 17-year-old received heavy praise from Greg Horton, Dunstan chimed in with some admiration of his own.

“He’s an unreal player,” he said.

“He’s got a cool head on him, great tackling and he goes for the whole game.

“He’ll be on the first grade team for a long time.”

The Wombats trained on Tuesday night to address some of the faults that led to their loss, with Dunstan and the team highlighting communication as a major downside.

“Our main problem was our chat in defence. Our defensive line was very disjointed,” he said.

“We’ve been working on it this week so hopefully it will help us this weekend. 

“There were some positives to come out of last weekend’s game even though the game didn’t go as planned.”

The skipper was happy with his side’s scrums and line-outs but knows it will take a more complete performance to topple CSU.

The uni side is also coming off a first-up loss after surrendering a half-time lead to Blayney and CSU skipper Jack Keppel was gutted after letting their advantage slip.

“We had a lot of opportunities to win the game,” Keppel said.

“Hopefully our new combinations will come together better this week.

CSU is dealing with the omission of Lochie Robinson who Keppel labelled as the side’s ‘best player’.

“He’s our main attacking weapon so it will be good for one of the other boys to have a crack and find other ways to score points in his absence,” he said.

Although most would expect CSU to enter this match as favourites, Keppel hasn’t forgotten last year’s draw between his side and the Wombats.

“Last year they were really scrappy and knew how to take the game from us.”

“We played very sideways last week so we need to improve our structure.

“If we play more direct we’ll give our outside men more space.”

The Wombats first grade side will play CSU at Bathurst from 3.15pm on Saturday, while the reserve grade group will kick off at 1.50.