IN the early stages of their Blowes Clothing Cup derby match against the Bathurst Bulldogs hosts CSU were keeping pace with their cross-city rivals.
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A fellow card for a cynical foul against CSU’s Jack Keppel 10 minutes into the match threatened to derail the hosts’ encouraging start at University Oval.
Bulldogs went over twice in that period to extend their lead out to 21-0.
However, CSU frustrated the Bulldogs in the lead up to half-time as the home side limited the damage and picked up a try.
The students couldn’t maintain their intensity after the break and watched on as they went down 71-5.
Keppel said the first half showed what the CSU side are capable of when they remain focused.
“The first half was really good for us. When I came back in after the 25th minute I thought we were right in the game,” he said.
“In that second 20 minutes of the first half we really stuck to our game plan but after the break we started to fall away. That was when we starting to go away from that plan.”
Once again it was impatience with the ball in hand that proved costly.
“Our plan was to go forward with the ball before moving it out wide … but too often we tried to go wide early and that cost us,” Keppel said.
Bulldogs have continued their dominant run in the Bathurst derby as CSU continue the search for their first win in the matchup since June of 2012.
Saturday’s margin was an increase over the 58-10 result Bulldogs found earlier this year.