Blowes Cup: Bathurst Bulldogs defeat Orange Emus in Central West rugby opener

The opening round fixture was a willing affair with three yellow cards awarded and several scuffles breaking out as the two sides went full throttle.

An even first half saw Emus carry a narrow 14-12 lead into the break with the highlight a length of the field effort by outside centre Harry Cummins.

A yellow card to Emus prop Tim Hebert for a ruck infringement didn't help the home side's cause and the Bulldogs pressed home their advantage with a try and penalty goal.

Orange could only manage two more penalty goals for the match in an attempt to claw back ground but Bathurst had the same idea, kicker and scrumhalf Kurt Weekes slotting two penalties of his own as well as a conversion to keep Emus at bay.

The crucial try was spectacular with inside centre Hunter Davis regathering his chip before an Emus dropped ball a minute later fell fortuitously into the arms of the Bulldogs' open-side flanker.

Weekes told the Central Western Daily post-game he knew he had to nail his kicks with an Emus resurgence on the cards.

"I knew if we could get one we'd get out by a converted try so we could have a bit of breathing room," he said.

"We knew they were going to come home strong as they always do. It was good to hold them off and get some points.

"We knew it was always gong to be tough. I think the biggest thing for both teams was match fitness, we can build from there.

"It was tough, really tough."

Emus co-coach Nigel Staniforth was upbeat but pointed to some simple fixes for his side.

"Footy is on. That's the starting line right there, Bathurst will definitely be up there," he said.

"At the end of the day it's 25-20, it was just that weird try at the end that killed us a bit.

"There's a few things we didn't do, we were really dumb around the ruck.

"We didn't get through our phases enough and then there's a few interesting referee choices where I'm just not sure what we're doing wrong but we'll work that out during the week."

It was a Bulldogs whitewash at Endeavour Oval with the women's game ending 38-5 to Bathurst while the visitors also took out second and third grade 16-10 and 33-7 respectively.

Bathurst Bulldogs 25 (Corliss, Fitzsimmons, unknown tries, Weekes two conversions, two penalties) def. Orange Emus 20 (Harvison, Cummins tries, Jackson two conversions, two penalties) at Endeavour Oval

Dubbo Kangaroos 32 def. Orange City 24 at Pride Park

Cowra Eagles 22 def. Forbes Platypi 8 at Forbes Rugby Club

Reading this on mobile web? Download our news app. It's faster, easier to read and we'll send you alerts for breaking news as it happens. Download in the Apple Store or Google Play.