The Cowra Eagles produced a dominant second-half effort at home on Saturday and scored a resounding 34-7 Blowes Clothing Cup win over the Dubbo Kangaroos.
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The hosts were the better side in the opening 40 minutes and led 12-0 at the break, but in the second stanza they went to another gear and ensured they kept their unbeaten start to the season going in some style.
"Our good patches were better but there's still work to do," Cowra coach Colin Kilby said.
"We're still letting ourselves down in some areas, errors and penalties gifted them a lot of field which made it harder than it should have been.
"But we played some of our better football all year, we were just a bit patchy."
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The result was a disappointing one for the Roos given the progress shown in a win over the Orange Emus the week before while it was also far from a happy homecoming for Roos captain and scrumhalf Tom Koerstz.
The Roos had opportunities in the match, particularly when one of the Eagles had a player sin-binned in the first half, but they came up short each time.
"We'll get there. They're a classy side," Koerstz said.
"We talked about being a side that doesn't ebb and flow,. Unfortunately, we were our own worst enemy, we were a bit flat today which was a bit of a shame but you've got to give credit where credit is due.
"Cowra were really classy, Cummo (Will Cummins) had it on a piece of string, they were really good, really clinical. They're definitely the best side we've come up against.
"They had us under a lot of pressure but it was great to have a big crowd and play footy."
Given his connection to Cowra, Koerstz could appreciate that crowd despite the final result.
"It's good to be up here at Cowra, family is from here so it's good to be back home," he said.
Cowra started impressively and were in front 5-0 inside the first five minutes courtesy of an unconverted Damien Michael try out wide.
Collectively we played well but we would have liked it to be zero.
- Cowra's Jeremy Montgomery
Cowra's discipline has been an issue early in the year and it into question again when they found themselves a man down in the 17th minute.
But the Roos were able to capitalise and late in the half the visitors proved their own worst enemy, electing to run the ball from their own try line after a scrum win.
A dropped ball followed and prop-forward Gabe Brown crossed untouched for his second five pointer of the season.
This time Noah Ryan was on target with the boot and Cowra went to the break up 12-0.
The lead could however have been bigger if not for the final pass going astray on at least one occasion and Joe Sullivan being denied on another after the final pass was ruled forward.
Cowra's Jeremy Montgomery was rewarded for another stellar attacking performance when he crossed first for the home side early in the second half with Ryan's conversion stretching Cowra out to a 19-0 lead.
Following the Montgomery try Dubbo hit back with their only five pointer of the game soon courtesy of Will Michell.
Josh Bass' successful conversion gave the Kangaroos a flicker but it was to be their only points of the game with Cowra going right on with the job from that point.
A Noah Ryan penalty goal stretched Cowra's lead to 22-7 after 57 minutes before Navitolai Bola replied with two tries for the Eagles. A successful conversion of his second try by Ryan took the final score to 34-7.
"I'm like a fine wine, just getting better with age," Montgomery joked after the game, before summing up the Eagles' attitude this season.
"Collectively we played well but we would have liked it to be zero."
- COWRA EAGLES 34 (Navitolai Bola 2, Damien Michael, Gabe Brown, Jeremy Montgomery tries; Noah Ryan 3 conversions, penalty) defeated DUBBO KANGAROOS 7 (Will Michell try, Josh Bass conversion)
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