NSW Country Eagles and Waratahs centre Dave Horwitz says he is focussed solely on winning an NRC title, despite finding career best form in recent weeks that has seen the 21-year old become the frontrunner to wear the vacant Waratahs No.12 jersey next season.

Horwitz has arguably been the competition’s most dominant player in the opening three rounds and has helped NSW Country to an unbeaten start to the season.

“Maybe it’s in the back of my mind, but there is nothing I can really do about it to be honest,” Horwitz said.

“The best way to earn that No.12 jersey is to have a really strong NRC and then a good pre-season so that is my focus at the moment.”

The Eagles were far from their best against Melbourne in Tamworth on Sunday but managed to hold on to secure a 32-30 victory after leading 32-8 at half time.

“We played pretty poorly to be honest. It was quite scrappy and we didn’t really play with much structure. All of our points came in the first half but they were lucky tries more than well-worked tries,” the centre said. 

“We’re obviously trying to attack from all parts of the field but that still doesn’t give us an excuse to make poor decisions. Sometimes playing an up-tempo style gets confused with playing an erratic style and I think that happened on the weekend.

“If you want to play at that fast pace, you need to be making good decisions around the contact area.”

The Eagles have now beaten competition heavyweights Brisbane City, Canberra and Melbourne in their opening three matches and sit just one competition point behind the Sydney Rays in second spot.

“Heading into the season, I thought we’d have a strong squad but I think I’ve been more impressed with our depth and that’s something we’ll be relying on in the coming weeks. Being able to replace Andrew Kellaway with a guy with Super Rugby experience like Angus Roberts is pretty special.

“We might lose some more boys to Sevens and Wallabies duties this week, but there are guys ready to step in that will do a really good job. “

While Horwitz seemed eager to shift attention back to the teams overall effort, he admitted he was happy with how he has started the competition. 

“I’m happy with how I’m playing but I think there is a lot more I can be doing. My work off the ball last week wasn’t good enough so that is something I need to improve,” he said.

“As a ball player, you’ve got to take responsibility for how the team moves around the field and we weren’t at our best last week.”

With Randwick teammate Andrew Deegan playing flyhalf and Brumbies recruit Kyle Godwin starting at inside centre, Horwitz has worn the number 13 jersey in the opening three matches, however he said coach Darren Coleman has given all three players a licence to roam.

“It’s a new challenge but I’m enjoying it. We’ve got a lot of ball players in the backline so we all need to share the load but in saying that, it allows us to move around the backline and set up in different positions, which I think is making us difficult to defend against.

“If you end up out wide, you don’t really have to rush to get back to the midfield to try and set something up because usually one or two of the other ball players are already there.”

Now in his third season with NSW Country, Horwitz admitted the Eagles have a good opportunity to become the first NSW team to win the National Rugby Championship, if they don’t become complacent in the coming weeks.

A win against the competition leading Sydney Rays on Saturday would almost secure a finals spot with three rounds remaining.

“There are a lot of Waratahs playing for the Eagles so it would be nice to re-establish that winning culture within some of the squad and I think we’ve got a great opportunity to do that,” he said.

“Out of all the NRC teams, I think we’ve probably had the most continuity. We’ve had the same coach for three years and a core group of players that have stayed together so I think we’ve built a really strong culture that all the new players have bought into to.”

The Eagles play the Sydney Rays at Warringah’s Rat Park on Saturday at 1pm.