New Holland Cup: Dubbo Rhinos defeated Narromine Gorillas 44-0

Wearing a heritage jersey at Apex Oval, the Rhinos were too good for Narromine in their New Holland Cup clash winning 44-0.

Rhinos coach Doug Sandry was more than pleased with his side's performance, especially on such a big day for the club.

"I'm really happy to win on a day like today, it's a big day for the club with the 30th year reunion and to have a lot of fellas here plus a good home crowd," he said.

"To have Narromine as our opposition today, they've put some scores on us over the years so it was nice to get one back on them.

"They've got their 40th reunion later on in the year so I know whoever plays them out there could be in trouble."

Narromine captain Justin Clarke knows the Gorillas will bounce back from the loss in the coming weeks.

"It was a tough dig man, Rhinos are a pretty handy side, especially at home," he said.

"We saw they were celebrating a very special occasion, credit to those guys they turned up.

"Unfortunately, it didn't go our way this time but we will look towards next week and see what we can improve on."

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Things didn't start great for the visitors as the ball was knocked on off the kick-off but the Rhinos were unable to make them pay inside the first 10 minutes.

This was until Brett Austin crashed his way over out wide to score the Rhinos' first try of the afternoon with Kaiden Hill adding the extras.

The game went back and forth for the next 15 minutes with neither side able to score points until a penalty inside Narromine's territory allowed Hill to kick a penalty goal to put the Rhinos up 10-0.

Only minutes later Joketani Raikabula scored the hosts' second try of the day with Hill again adding the extras to move the score along to 17-0.

Hill's penalty goal just before half-time extended the lead even further but things went sour for the hosts when the fly-half was given a yellow card for a high tackle.

Even with 14 players the Rhinos held on and entered half-time with a 20-0 lead.

Raikabula had his second try of the afternoon a minute into the second half as the hosts looked to pile on the points.

Hill returned to the field minutes later and some slick passing led to Matt Neill making a break down the sideline to score with the conversion being successful with the Rhinos leading 32-0 with 20 minutes remaining.

Kyle Forgione and Carlos Nykolyn were both yellow carded late in the game but that didn't stop a Rhinos onslaught.

Late tries to Lachie O'Malley and Nacewa Nalagi sealed a 44-0 victory in front of a strong home crowd.

While they got the win, Sandry knows his side still has a few things to work on and isn't getting too far ahead of themselves.

"They had a few injuries today too so we know we can do better," he said.

"We probably left 20 points out there but once again a couple of little discipline issues with our high tackles again.

"We've just got to lower our body height but apart from that, we can't complain, it was a really good win.

"I think the fact we were pushing to score points at the end of the game, we were finishing strong so that tells me we were in the right space."

The Rhinos' mentor admitted the most pleasing aspect of his side's win was their defence efforts for the entire 80 minutes.

"Good teams pride themselves on their defence and we want to be a good team and see as a good team," he said.

"That's twice this year we have kept teams to nil, so we want to keep doing that.

"But realistically anytime we are down in our oppositions area we are going to take points."

On the other hand, the Gorillas skipper said he was proud of his side for pushing the Rhinos for the whole match.

"That's the culture we are trying to bring in this year," he said.

"We want to push that full 80 (minutes).

"We've got a young side and to try to change their mindset is hard to do in first grade.

"We're getting there, we are pushing and we'll just keep grinding away throughout the season."

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