Flying winger Viliame Turuva set what must be a Blowes Clothing Cup record on Saturday when he crossed for seven tries in Dubbo Kangaroos’ 105-0 win over Mudgee at No.1 Oval.
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Mudgee was minus nine regular first graders but that didn’t matter to the hosts, who had a bonus point secured after just 15 minutes.
In a match that was called off nine minutes before full-time the Roos were ruthless, running in 17 tries in total on a day that would have had competition officials scratching their heads.
Coupled with Orange Emus 101-0 win over Parkes, and some massive results in the lower grades, it was a dark day for the code and while Roos skipper Sam Clements admitted feeling sorry for the Wombats he was pleased to see his troops put their opposition to the sword.
“You never like to see a side go through that, especially given it was only a year ago that we went down there and they beat us,” he said.
“But I was impressed by the way we played. Our passes stuck, we stayed to our gameplan and it will be nice to take a big win like that into our clash with Emus next week.
“It’s tough to say because Mudgee were down on numbers but I think that is the best we have played this year, just in terms of the style of rugby we were playing.”
Turuva had bagged a hat-trick by half-time as the Roos ran up a 55-0 lead, before scoring a further four five-pointers in the second stanza.
Fellow rugby league recruit Billy Sing also scored a hat-trick while Clements crossed for two himself.
Tom Sheridan, Luke Ryan, James Mata, Reuben Williams and Hamish Gordon were the others to cross the stripe.
Clements was full of praise for both Turuva and Sing, admitting the pair are continuing to learn.
“They’re doing really well, although ‘Vili Seven’ has played a bit of rugby before,” Clements said.
“They have both brought something to our team and there’s just a good feeling in the club at the moment.”
Mudgee captain Scott Hedrick was a dejected man after the match, but said his club will continue to fight hard.
With the three games played on the day ending in a cumulative score of 263-7 it is fair to say there is some work to be done by the Wombats.
“It’s not a good spot to be in but all I can do is thank the guys that turned up today and represented the club,” Hedrick said.
“We had nine blokes out of our top team due to injury or work, which doesn’t help, but in saying that the Roos really put us away.
“I can’t be angry though. The guys that were here tried hard, we did our best.
“Hopefully we can get some troops back in the next few weeks and show a bit of improvement.”
The Roos will get a good indication of where they stand in the 2017 Blowes Clothing Cup when they go to Orange to face competition favourites Emus next Saturday, while Mudgee will also venture to the colour city to tackle Orange City.