By MARK CASHMAN

Penrith coach John Muggleton knows what he signed up for when he took on the toughest job in the Shute Shield.

Obviously some days are tougher than others but at the end of a week where they took the tough call to pull their reserve grade out of the Colin Caird Shield, a victory for the Emus – admittedly a pretty bloody ugly one – materialised, their first win since 2014 in the top grade – seven years or 2471 long days

The Emus defeated the Western Sydney Two Blues 11-7 at Holroyd Sports Ground and as ‘Muggo’ said in the wake of that win they’ll take that “any day of the week”

“Getting people to come and play here isn’t easy as you would appreciate with us on the wrong end of some big losses but we’re working away and being able to concentrate on the Shute Shield grade will help in our development,” Muggleton told Rugby News

Shute Shield entry requires club to field three grade sides and two colts teams but the Emus have been granted an exception to field just the first grade side and their colts teams which are ticking over quite nicely.

“Having just the one senior side means that the 30 plus guys that are there are on board to be as best they can be and that showed some signs of progress on the weekend,” Muggleton said.

“The win over the Two Blues wasn’t the prettiest game of rugby that you have seen but we played them through the middle and didn’t give away too many silly penalties.

“At the end of the day it was pretty bloody ugly but we’ll take that.

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“Our captain Andrew Fiagatusa led the way and his maturity to deal effectively with the referees was an important factor in the way that the afternoon turned out.

“We haven’t managed that too well in recent times because without a video ref and the such like at these game there aren’t too many whistleblower who change their mind.”

The Emus were hamstrung late but the sin binning of centre Jale Seninawanwa but they hung in there and forced the penalties that gave them the chance to nudge ahead.

It doesn’t get any easier for the Emus though with the club hosting Sydney Uni at Nepean Rugby Park next weekend in Round Four action.

IMAGE: PENRITH RUGBY