DUBBO Rhinos may have suffered their fourth consecutive loss of the Central West Rugby Union competition at Ashwood Park on Saturday, but after their 38-19 defeat at the hands of Bathurst Bulldogs the mood among the beaten players was a positive one.
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In fact assistant coach Paul Hausia saw enough to claim his side can return to the sort of touch which saw them win their opening two games of the 2012 season.
“Yes, we certainly can turn things around,” he said.
“We have four key players still missing with a few little niggling things, but hopefully next home game they will be right.”
While Rhinos were far from polished against the Bulldogs - knock-ons and ruck infringements prevented them from finding any real continuity - and at times were too predictable in the backs, there was little doubt their effort on Saturday was an improvement.
A week earlier they conceded 11 tries as they suffered a 71-7 loss at the hands of Orange City.
This time Rhinos showed more heart. After conceding the first 19 points of the match they fought back to be within five of the lead and while Bulldogs again pulled away, the effort kept coming.
There were charge downs, an intercept attempt which very nearly paid off and at times good rucking.
Centre Sam Finau, who had been in doubt due to injury earlier in the week, looked dangerous each time he had the ball in hand and number eight Mike Birmingham made some strong runs. Flyhalf Ririwai Fox also tried hard to create chances.
Though Rhinos undoubtedly need further improvement if they are to again find themselves near the top of the ladder, Saturday’s effort has fuelled Hausia’s belief they can do just that.
“It’s a better result than last weekend, the boys knew the mistakes they made last weekend pretty much cost us the game. This week we improved on a lot of those,” he said.
“After the game our captain Mark Amey said to the boys there is nothing to be embarrassed about, we did what we had to do out there and we couldn’t ask for anything more.”
BATHURST BULLDOGS 38 (Tyson Smith 2, Izaak Breen, Aaron Booby, Bart Bogart, Stephen Locke tries; Stephen Locke 4 conversions) defeated DUBBO RHINOS 19 (Brad Thorne, Ririwai Fox, Daniel Thornton tries; Ririwai Fox 2 conversions)