By MARK CASHMAN

Sydney Uni blew away the Hunter Wildfires in the first 35 minutes of their game on Saturday racking up a 59-10 win to remain entrenched in the Shute Shield top four.

The Students ran in seven tries in that first half to parcel away the result and the bonus point but the Wildfires hung in the second half and were only nudged 12-7 in the second 40 minutes.

“We came in with a clear game plan to play fast, and to stick to our attack principles,” Uni head coach Michael Hodge said.

“It hasn’t yet been the polished execution we expect, but the message was to continue to back ourselves.

“The first 35 minutes was excellent! Great set piece launch and the backs were sharp and dangerous every time they got an opportunity.”

Hodge added: “To Newcastle’s credit they never gave up and made it a contest in the second half. We were able to get plenty of inexperienced guys some time in the second half, and the bench showed a lot of character to hold out the solid Newcastle, late in the game.”

Tim Clements was exceptional, and there were great contributions from Connor O’Shea, Rohan O’Regan and Henry Clunies-Ross.

Wildfires coach Scott Coleman said his side would take something from the hitout as strange as that sounded.

“In the first 35 minutes they totally out played us in all aspects of the game,” Coleman said.

“Their launch plays put us under a lot of pressure and from there we were behind the eight ball.

“We managed to claw our way back into the game and make it a contest in the second half which ended up 12-5.

“I gave them a bit of rev-up at half-time. We just had to get in and compete. I thought we did in the second half.

“If you give them front-foot ball and easy recycle, as we saw, their first two-phases are too slick and fast. They had blokes running everywhere and they were picking the right one.”

“We will take a lot of positive out of the game though as strange as that sounds.”

SYDNEY UNI 59 (Patrick O’Doherty 2, James Kane 2, Tim Clements 2, Henry Clunies-Ross, Theo Strang, Ofa Manuofetoa tries; Kane 7 conversions) d HUNTER WILDFIRES 10 (Sitiveni Waqa, Brendon Holliday tries) at Newcastle No.2 Sportsground.

IMAGE: AJF PHOTOGRAPHY