Two rounds in and the students are still looking for their first victory and this match shapes as their best chance to date as they take on last year’s wooden-spooners.

Mudgee have already shown a lot of improvement, though, in a gritty 20-10 loss to Cowra and a strong win over Forbes in round one, 26-12.

CSU have gone down 28-13 to Cowra and 41-5 against Orange Emus.

“The main thing we have to do if we want to get that win is just keep that consistency level across the whole game,” McLaren said.

“It is a problem we had all through last year where we’d play good football in patches and then give it away through an easy mistake or bad option.

“We’ve got to make the opposition work harder for their points and their position and a lot of that comes back to fitness. That is definitely an area of the game where we are behind some other sides.

“If you’re going to be smaller than the other team, you have to have superior speed and fitness. We don’t have that fitness at the moment, and Mudgee are playing good football from what I’ve heard.

“With the timing of the holidays, ANZAC Day and the like, we’ll be missing some guys again, but we’ve had those excuses before. We’ve got to go out and compete and, at the very least, make it as hard as we can for the opposition to score.”

McLaren had reason for optimism in last week’s loss to Emus as his side repeatedly frustrated their opposition and delivered on some of their commitments to become a harder defence to break down.

Captain Blake Ridges and breakaway Michael Thompson were both eye-catching for the students.

At this stage, though, the coach can’t even be certain that both will line up as he awaited last night’s training session to see who would be available and who would be unable to return for the contest.

“I don’t know who we’ll have. It is a matter of seeing who shows up to see what we’ve got to pick from,” he said.

“That’s where depth comes into it and obviously we don’t have the depth to match some of the other clubs. 

“I don’t know much about Mudgee, but the reports seem to be that they’ve picked up some good players in the off-season and they’re on the way up, and the results so far reflect that.”

Meanwhile, the former Scottish international revealed that he harbours doubts over the future of the university side in the short term, as well as the Central West competition itself.

He says size is becoming a major problem for some teams – notably his own – and the gap between the strong sides and the weak is growing worryingly.

“I think the nature of the competition and the region shows that the strong sides are getting better, yeah,” he said.

“In doing a bit of a review last year, a few safety aspects were discussed and it is worrying at times that we can’t get a more even physical playing field. There is a real disparity in the size of some of the teams.

“For us it is a huge issue. We’re just way too small and if it can’t be solved then maybe the Graincorp Cup might have to become an option in the future.

“One thing that could address the issue is the style of refereeing. A lot of the times the sides aren’t being kept very far apart. We’re not Super 15 rugby, we are an amateur regional competition.

“If there was more space between the attacking and defensive lines I think it would make for a better product and give the smaller teams more of a chance.”

CSU host Mudgee tomorrow from 3.15pm.

CSU: 1 Michael Coates, 2 Anthony Nougher, 3 Jack McKenna, 4 Dom Waugh, 5 Charlie McIntosh, 6 Thomas Greenway (vc), 7 Michael Thompson, 8 Nick Dutton, 9 Josh Gemmell, 10 Cam Backhouse, 11 Michael Holt, 12 Blake Ridges (c), 13 Maui Moody, 14 Pat Hill, 15 James Tooth