Dubbo Kangaroos suffer Blowes Clothing Cup loss to Orange Emus

After a narrow loss to the Bathurst Bulldogs before the long weekend general bye, the Roos suffered a 36-29 loss to the Orange Emus on Saturday.

For Emus, it marked the first time this season they've won successive matches and they leapfrogged the Roos into third spot on the ladder.

In both of the Emus' recent wins, flyhalf Dan Jackson has been key.

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He scored a hat-trick on Saturday to condemn the Roos to yet another loss at Endeavour Oval.

After a hamstring injury ruled him out of round one, Jackson has had to fight for his position through second grade and coach Pete Bromley was pleased to see him getting back to his best.

"He played well, he's a good organiser and still a young guy so it's good to have him around the club and playing well for us," coach Peter Bromley said.

"That's the first time we've had the same 10, 12, 13 combination for a couple of weeks so they're getting better and better."

While Emus were victorious, the day didn't start well for them as Roos went the length of the field five minutes in thanks to a huge run from Calub Cook and Tim Beach was pushing up in support to open the scoring.

Emus hooker Michael Kennedy hit back for his side straight away and after 16 minutes Emus were in again through Thomas Dewhurst to make the score 12-7.

Just as Emus looked to lead at half-time, Dubbo prop Sam Hunt had other plans as his pick and drive put the away side ahead at 14-12.

Straight after half-time, Jackson had his first try in front of the Emus faithful, taking advantage of an overlap and stepping inside to score.

After 53 minutes, Emus were ahead 24-14 thanks to a Sam Greatbatch try down in the right corner.

However, a few minutes later the home side had one man in the bin and a penalty try awarded against them.

Roos then made it 24-24 with a penalty goal in the 65^th minute and it was game on.

While Dubbo had the momentum, Jackson had other ideas.

The flyhalf's second try came in the 68^th minute, going straight through a hole off the back of a terrific Harry Cummins run.

His hat-trick was then four minutes later off a short-side play as Emus led 36-24.

Dubbo fullback Cook scored with five minutes remaining to make matters interesting but the home side held in what could be a decisive victory.

For the Roos, it proved for all the progress this season there's still a little way to go yet.

"There was errors from both teams," Roos co-coach Andrew Wise said.

"I was saying to the lads it's a case of one step forward two steps back - (there was) unforced errors, putting pressure on ourselves and not taking the moments when we had opportunities. We had three line-outs right on their line and just couldn't convert it into points.

"I can't fault the attitude of the playing group, they'll definitely have a dig right till the end but we just can't afford to let a classy side like Emus have that many points on the board."

It doesn't get any easier for the Roos as next weekend they face competition leaders Cowra while Emus will play City in an Orange derby.

While Emus will start favourites in that clash, Bromley said his side can't afford to keep making the kind of errors it did against the Roos.

"We were almost our own worst enemies, we scored points then let them back in by being soft and giving away penalties," he said.

"You can't do that against quality sides and you saw that today, we played good football but they were still within seven points ... you don't need to give Cookie (Calub Cook) too many opportunities like that to keep scoring tries.

"I thought we deserved to be up at half-time, we were playing good football but once again we gave them the opportunity to come back into it, gave them a 14-12 lead and had to fight again to get the momentum in the second half."