WITH only two weeks left in the regular season of the Blowes Clothing Cup, it hasn't become any clearer which sides will fill the final two places of the competition's top five.
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Mudgee and Dubbo have heaped the pressure on Cowra who have had to deal with a tough second half of the year draw which included away trips to Orange City's Pride Park, the Bulldogs' Ashwood Park and Mudgee's Jubilee Oval.
Losing all three of those mentioned games, along with their clash against the Orange Emus more recently, saw Cowra crash back to the pack after they were at one stage eyeing off a top two finish.
But last weekend they worked their way back into the winner's circle, and although it was an unconvincing victory over the Parkes Boars - who were within a converted try of the lead on two different occasions during the 80 minutes - they realistically kept their season alive.
Cowra coach Dave Oliver was impressed with the glimpses of rugby his side showed, when the Eagles completely dominated in the opening stages of both halves, and identified the passion his side showed towards the end as a positive.
"This is it, it's pretty exciting, it was good to see, while I don't condone fighting, the boys show a lot of passion towards the back end of that game last weekend and hopefully we take that with us and come flying out of the boxes," Oliver said.
"We have to play with passion, if we don't, we know there's the chance that our season might end next weekend.
"We have to get the ascendancy... our forwards have to bash them."
In contrast to Cowra, the Roos had a slow start to the year but have since revisited their form from last season which saw them win the 2014 competition.
Oliver identified Dubbo's fast men as their strength but has full confidence in the likes of Bill Cummins, Aaron Denzel and John Clack in his own back line.
"The key will be strangling possession and also applying pressure as soon they have the ball," he said.
"When they get the ball we have to apply pressure otherwise we've heard they can be very dangerous, particularly in open play.
"We sort of have to fight fire with fire."
The Eagles' pack will be boosted with the return of Steve Montgomery while Charlie Dunhill and Gabe Brown will also be available.
