BATHURST Bulldogs produced a strong finish on Saturday at Ashwood Park to open their 2014 Central West Rugby Union season with a 35-26 win over the Orange Emus.
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Bulldogs fought back from 26-23 down with just 10 minutes remaining to pinch the win.
A try to inside centre Tom Joseph on the right wing got the hosts ahead with six minutes on the clock before a Joe Crawford try in the final minute secured a bonus point victory.
In a match that saw plenty of errors throughout the 80 minutes, it was the Emus who got off to a blinding start.
Some poor discipline from the Bulldogs led to two quick penalties while a try from Emus number 8 Rob Thorburn saw the score balloon out to 13-0 within six minutes.
The home side finally got on the board through the boot of Jack Roberson before he scored a converted try of his own to reduce the gap to three.
An offside call then allowed him to level the game at 13-apiece as he nailed the resulting penalty. The combatants each added another penalty goal to their tally to go to the break at 16-all.
Bulldogs came out with intensity in the second half and were rewarded when Joseph cut open the defence to score the first of his two tries.
However, Emus responded four minutes later as a perfect Sam Ryan long pass allowed Tom Green space to score down the right wing.
When Adam Perri slotted a penalty it gave Emus the lead, but the Bulldogs unleashed in the final 10 minutes to start their campaign on a positive note.
Bulldogs co-coach Scott Johnston said his side recovered well from a shaky start and were rewarded for their work rate in the final quarter of the match.
"As a side we probably haven't spent that long together. I think that probably showed in the first 20 to 25 minutes. Our toughness in defence was one of the keys and I thought that in the last 25 minutes while we still made a lot of mistakes ... our structures that we were looking for started to come together," he said.
Outside of the two-try standout performance produced by Joseph at inside centre, Johnston singled out several forwards who were instrumental in getting Bulldogs back onto the front foot.
"I thought Izaak Breen had a massive game, he just continually hit it up. I also thought Hayden Tidswell followed suit. He played some pretty good football for the Central West from what they told me and that carried through to today," he said.
An injury to Roberson was one negative to come out of game for Bathurst. He may be in doubt for the next few weeks after he limped from the field with a suspected quadricep injury 20 minutes into the second half, taking away the first choice goal kicker in the squad.
It wasn't an ideal trip to Bathurst for Emus coach Andrew Logan and he believes his side brought the loss upon themselves.
"I think our effort was very good. This early in the season what we wanted was to be consistent in our defence, work hard off the line and make tackles," he said.
"Our execution was clearly off. Our scrum was a bit of a lottery. We didn't hold the ball long enough when we had it and it's too hard to defend for that long.
"At one stage we lost four scrums in a row off our own feed. It's impossible to keep momentum when that's going against you."
BATHURST BULLDOGS 35 (Tom Joseph 2, Jack Roberson, Joe Crawford tries; Jack Roberson 3 penalty goals; Jack Roberson 2, Phil Tonkin goals) defeated ORANGE EMUS 26 (Rob Thorburn, Tom Green tries; Adam Perri 3, Sam Ryan penalty goals; Sam Ryan 2 goals)