RUGBY UNION
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BATHURST Bulldogs have an opportunity to make it four straight wins this Central West Rugby season when they travel tomorrow to take on the Narromine Gorillas.
Wins over Forbes, Cowra and Mudgee have propelled the Bulldogs into fourth place and a win tomorrow will officially seal their place in the competition finals.
Standing in their way is a Gorillas outfit which has been out of sorts lately, a run of losses putting an end to their finals chances and leaving them playing for pride.
Bulldogs are going into the match on the back of a 36-0 win over a struggling Mudgee Wombats, a team who earned their only win of the season against the Gorillas a fortnight earlier.
Even with the points not coming the Gorillas way, Bulldogs co-coach Shane Cantrill believes the history between the teams ensures tomorrow will be a cracking match.
“We’re coming up against a Narromine side that has always been a good duel for us, with finals of the past. They’re a big unit and big on size. It’s going to be a tough game,” he said.
“They had a big win against Cowra, but obviously didn’t travel that well when they lost to Mudgee. They then nearly topped Orange City and to do that to City, who I maintain are the team to beat in this competition, that’s a big effort.”
The Bulldogs will now be focusing on maintaining fourth place from Forbes, given the top three spots are now out of contention.
“The big thing now is keeping number four place. That’s a home finals game,” he said.
“It would be a hard day at Forbes otherwise. We’ve just got to keep on winning.
“I feel that if we lose this then we might not get that spot back,” Cantrill said.
Cantrill maintains that his team are peaking at the right time, something he couldn’t say for the 2013 season.
“It’s a whole different scenario this year, with a whole bunch of new guys in the team. There’s also the guys with the headaches from last year’s finals, so they will be keen to turn it around,” he said.
“We’ve got a new leader in Steve Locke now and he’s just been excellent for us.”
Bulldogs welcome back Oliver Crowe, Jack Roberson and Alistair Fryer who were all absent during last week’s win.
BATHURST BULLDOGS: 1 Chris Plunkett, 2 Mark Donnelley, 3 Sean Fogarty, 4 Lachlan Bull, 5 Peter Fitzsimmons, 6 Alistair Fryer, 7 Oliver Crowe, 8 Hayden Tidswell, 9 Tom Hollis, 10 Steven Locke, 11 Josh Lee, 12 Alex Weal, 13 Jack Roberson, 14 Tom Joseph, 15 Phil Tonkin