CSU Bathurst down a Dubbo Rhinos side on the rise

Early penalties gave CSU an easy path up the field before flyhalf Ethan Cusik hooked a penalty goal attempt wide in just the fourth minute of the match.

The visitors wouldn't have to wait much longer for their first points as prop Marcus Burrell snagged an intercept from his try line before handing the ball off to Glenn Pollard who raced away to score under the posts and Cusik calmly slotted the extra points racing to a 7-0.

As was the case for much of the game the CSU forwards were dominant overturning several breakdowns and scrums.

Burrell would go on to score a try of his own of a maul in the corner before Adam Conroy outran several Dubbo defenders to score making the score 17-0.

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Rhinos hit back through Neil Madden and Kieran Hill converted to go into the half at 17-7.

Dubbo looked a much different side in the second half with Matt Graham scoring off an outstanding cut-out pass from Nash Forgione to tighten the scores as 17-12.

CSU flanker Tom Small was on the end of a clever short side play from Cusik to score in the corner but the conversion was unsuccessful.

A CSU yellow card and a converted try to Te Ahu Baker gave the Rhinos some hope at 19-22 but CSU's scrum yet again came out on top with Cusik booting the ball out to seal the game.

Rhinos coach Doug Sandry admits his side isn't far off being a challenger.

"We just struggled in that first half, we get behind and we drop our head." he said.

"That's habit building and the fact is that we haven't won a game for a while and the habit is soon as things go against we drop our head and lose our structure.

"17-7 at half time I thought we finished the half really strongly and in the second half we pretty much dominated the half."

"You gotta give CSU credit, they played a really smart game, they kicked to corners and chased hard."

"Their scrum was really strong, so we have some work to do but all in all to go away with a three-point loss it'll hurt for the week."

CSU second-rower Jonah Ruzgas was more than pleased with his side's performance but admitted there is room for improvement.

"It was a grind, the boys fought hard early but I just think we weren't playing very smart footy towards the end it was a bit erratic."

"We didn't execute our game plan, we tried to throw some passes that weren't there but I suppose a win is a win."

Both sides were penalised constantly throughout the game and Ruzgas knows his side are better than that.

"Discipline is something we want to pride ourselves on, we want to be the least penalised side in the comp." he said.

"In our books a penalty is a free 50 metre march up the field so if we can minimise the penalties it means we can drill teams in their own end for a long time."