SOME call him the Lithgow Panther, but Dean Oxley has dubbed Bathurst Bulldog Matt Trapp "the fastest prop in the west" after he iced 79-5 Blowes Cup win over Forbes on Saturday.
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Trapp played big minutes off the bench at Grinsted Oval and when he sliced through Forbes' defence in the dying seconds to score a 13th Bulldogs try it was well deserved.
"It's quite a privilege to have a player like him in your team," Oxley, who co-coaches with Chris Plunkett, said.
"We've got the fastest prop in the west in Matt Trapp. He's had to swallow the pill of being a Central West prop and not starting for Bathurst, which is difficult.
"But he's a brilliant club man, he's the club captain and he's doing whatever he can for the team. He comes on and he makes an exceptional difference.
"He's got fast feet, he's got a lot of ability and he's a player that wants the footy. It was great for him to score because he's put in a lot for this club, he'd be starting for any other club in the zone.
"He's known as the Lithgow Panther because he comes from Lithgow, but he's also the fastest prop in the west."
The Bulldogs scored their opener with two minutes and 20 seconds of the match gone and from there did not relent.
The longest the defending premiers went without scoring was an 11-minute period in the second half - at which time many of the starting XV were on the bench.
They scored at better than a point a minute in the opening half, crossing for eight tries as they dominated possession.
The Bathurst scrum was once again a force, but that's not the only thing Bulldogs threw at the Platypi.
Bulldogs created space on the edges with quick ball movement, while their forwards both controlled the breakdown and punched holes in Forbes' line.
"It's a privilege to coach Bathurst Bulldogs, because we've got so many class players. It's a privilege not just because of their ability, but their attitude," Oxley said.
"We worked pretty hard during the week because I'm trying to keep them motivated moving forward and making sure they're striving for new goals and we hit a couple of benchmarks today.
"We'd been making a few errors and we've been trying to limit that. I felt we did it in the first half today and hence the score.
"We have to earn the right to dominate the game, it doesn't happen because you want it to happen, it's about the effort and what they're doing on and off the ball.
"I've been hoping for this for a number of years at Bathurst, a bunch of guys working for each other."
The scoring blitz began with centre Adam Plummer steamrolling a would-be tackler on his way to crossing in the right corner.
Some six minutes later the margin had pushed out to 17-0 as flanker Zac Taylor produced plenty of early moments for the highlights reel.
Having made good yards following Bulldogs' opening line-out of match, another strong Taylor charge set up a Brad Glasson try before he dummied and ran straight through the Platypi defence to score himself.
Try number four came after what has become a trademark of Bulldogs' performances this season - an impressive scrum.
When the ball came clear it went through three sets of hands before finding fullback Bryce Rue on the right edge and he ran away to score.
The points continued to come as Bulldogs attacked from set pieces likes its scrum and line-out as well as stringing together good phase rugby.
When an alert Peter Fitzsimmons noticed Forbes take a quick line-out, proceeded to steal the ball off the hosts then find Jarrod Zuvela in support, it took Bulldogs to a 48-0 lead at half-time.
Though some handling errors did creep into Bulldogs' game in the second half, the visitors still managed to notch up five more tries.
The first of those came just under five minutes after the resumption via Phil Tonkin as he and Rue exchanged passes down the right edge.
After that Bulldogs found themselves under defensive pressure for the first time. Forbes tried to punch through with pick and drives and when that didn't work, spread the ball wide.
There was no joy in doing that either.
Bulldogs pushed ahead to a 69-0 with 10 minutes remaining before Forbes finally got something to cheer about when winger Peni Guanimeke scored.
But Bulldogs responded quickly as Fitzsimmons threw a would-be tackler to the ground with a brilliant run then popped a pass to Tom Felsch.
It was replacement prop Trapp who iced the huge win in the 82nd minute. Bulldogs have now scored 344 points across seven games.
"It was really good because we've been training hard and we've got tough game against Dubbo coming up and we've been working towards that. They're waiting for us," Oxley said.
"We had a strong conversation a couple of weeks ago about making sure we keep doing the work because we've won nothing yet.
"Yes we've won a couple of games, but other sides will be getting better and coming for us and we we want to go back-to-back.
"They really listened to that and brought into it and the first half was a reward for the efforts they put in during the week."
- BATHURST BULLDOGS 79 (Bryce Rue 2, Adam Plummer 2, Matt Trapp, Tom Felsch, Daniel Woods, Phil Tonkin, Will Oldham, Jarrod Zuvela, Hunter Davis, Zac Taylor, Brad Glasson tries; Kurt Weekes 7 conversions) defeated FORBES PLATYPI 5 (Peni Guanimeke)
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