ORANGE Emus will place a focus on playing clean rugby when they clash with CSU Bathurst in Saturday’s Blowes Clothing Cup second round.
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The students lost their opening round clash to Cowra 28-13 but Emus co-coach Graydon Staniforth knows what their young rivals are capable of.
“As always, we expect a lot of enthusiasm and they’ll probably move the ball around a bit,” Staniforth said of CSU.
“We’ve got to match them right from the word go and try to keep them out of the game.”
Emus showed off their attacking flair in their 45-28 win over Bathurst Bulldogs last week.
Staniforth hopes his backline can continue to shine against a side that is expected to show similar attacking flair.
“The unstructured play is where they like to play a lot,” he said of CSU.
“When things get messy, that’s when they capitalise. We’ve got to play clean rugby without mistakes.
“We definitely want to keep attacking.”
Cowra’s dominance against the students last week came off the back of its solid forward pack.
Staniforth knows his forwards have the ability to dominate a game.
“We’d definitely like to try and dominate up front but you’ve got to earn that,” he said.
Emus have made two changes to the starting side for Saturday’s match with breakaway Andrew Cosgrove and centre Simon Badgery unavailable.
Jack Marchington will start on the flank, and TJ Cunynghame will wear the No.10 jersey, meaning Adam Perri moves to inside centre.
“It’s a pretty solid team,” Staniforth said.
“We want continued improvement, which is probably what everyone wants at this time of year. It is a while before the competition sorts itself out.”
Saturday’s game, at Endeavour Oval, Orange will kick off at 3.15pm.
ORANGE EMUS: 1 Feleti Fosio, 2 Tom Goolagong, 3 Nas Havealeta, 4 Keith Howarth, 5 Nick Hughes-Clapp, 6 Scott Udy, 7 Jack Marchington, 8 Rob Thorburn, 9 Chris Mead, 10 TJ Cunynghame, 11 Carter Hirini, 12 Adam Perri, 13 Nigel Staniforth, 14 Tom Green, 15 Isaac White.