THERE is no denying CSU will head into Saturday’s Blowes Clothing Cup match against Bathurst Bulldogs as massive underdogs, but at least one student believes an upset is on the cards.
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And given that player – five-eighth Jack Keppel – will shoulder much of the responsibility of trying to steer CSU to victory, his belief is important.
CSU has not beaten Bulldogs since June 2012, and earlier this season, the students were outplayed by their Bathurst rivals when going down 58-10.
While Bulldogs has only lost twice, CSU is yet to win a match, yet Keppel is certainly not daunted by his rivals’ record.
“This week against the ’Dogs, I know the first game against them at the start of the year we were blown off the park, but we’ve improved since then. I think we can definitely give them a good run,” he said.
“If we can just put in that fight, compete a little bit harder, we’re all confident we can get that win.
“We think that we definitely can beat them and everyone always gets up for this game, it’s an exciting game for everyone and we always get a big crowd. Last year there was a big, big crowd down there which was excellent.
“If we can put in a good performance and still be in it with 10-20 to go, then I think we are a big, big chance.”
Currently in his second season with the students, Keppel is not typical of most who wear the number 10 jumper. He rates as one of the most physically imposing players in CSU’s line up and would not look out of place in the forwards.
In fact Keppel formerly packed into the scrum before moving to the halves.
“When I started playing rugby I played number 8, but then I sort of got stuck at 10 and haven’t switched back,” he said
“I will probably end up at 8 one day, but I don’t know when that will be.”
For now Keppel is happy at five-eighth, but he would be even happier if CSU was to lift itself off the bottom of the ladder.
He thinks his side has the potential to do just that over the second half of the season.
“I think we’ve been in a lot of our games, we’ve been competing,” he said.
“But we just want to be winning games, we just need that one win to get us over the line and after that, I think we will kick on and we’ll surprise a few teams by the end of the year.
“We’re never walking into the sheds or training saying ‘Let’s try and keep it close’ we’re never doing that, we are always saying to ourselves that we want to win and we want to compete.
“We are getting there I hope. We have the right attitude, anyone who goes into a game thinking they can’t win shouldn’t be playing rugby. We are still confident we can win games.”
Going into Saturday’s Bathurst derby, Keppel has drawn confidence from last season when CSU took on Bulldogs for a second time.
The students went into that match as massive underdogs as well, but led 12-3 early. It was only 10 minutes before half-time that Bulldogs took the lead.
Bulldogs went on to win, but that match showed CSU can compete.
“We just need that one win, then we’ll be right,” Keppel said.
CSU and the Bulldogs will do 3.15pm at University Oval.