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Mudgee Wombats number eight Dave Jessiman has scored six tries in his last two matches.
His most recent hat-trick came in a 24-17 win against the Dubbo Rhinos in round five of the New Holland Agriculture Cup.
Jessiman anchors a crop of forwards that Mudgee’s top tier side has leant on throughout the 2018 season as the pack is going from strength to strength every week.
But according to fill-in coach Rob O’Connor, it’s not about the forwards per say, it’s about application
“The attitude and commitment to defence won the game,” O’Connor said.
“It was 12-all for a long time, then 17-all for a long time and we just kept plugging away and stuck to what we were supposed to be doing and got over the line.
The win marks two-in-a-row for first grade as they’ve gone from last two third in a fortnight.
“We were pretty unlucky against CSU to be beaten by a point after the siren,” O’Connor said.
“We were worried that might send them down but they just kept working and it’s started to turn around.”
“Our fitness also came into it and that comes from attitude to training.”
A strong pack is also a staple of Jeremy Cox’s second grade side as it put forward a powerful 50-5 win in Saturday’s co-main event.
“We dominated,” second grade skipper Steve Smeed said.
“They put first points on which probably rattled us a bit. The first 15 minutes was a bit of a struggle and we were playing their game.
“We did what we’ve done every week which is slowly increase the pressure and putting points on as a result of that.”
When you win by 45 points, your whole side normally plays well and Smeed couldn’t single out any star performers and said it was a ‘15-man effort’.
“I don’t think anyone stood above everyone else,” Smeed said.
“We only lost one scrum and we’ve been working very hard on that.”
The win is a perfect segue into Mudgee’s round six trip to Narromine as the Gorillas are the benchmark in both seconds and firsts this season.
“It’s the fight for the number one spot,” Smeed said.
“We’re only four points behind them and with a win and a bonus point, we can jump ahead of them.”
A lot has changed since the 45-7 loss in round one and Smeed thinks his men are a lot fitter nowadays.
“The first game of the year is always very scrappy and our fitness was a big problem back them as well,” he said.
“We’ve been working very hard on fitness since then and we just need to focus on playing our game over a full 80 minutes against them.”
Mudgee travels to Narromine on Sunday May 19.