Eden Tigers RLFC News Article

Under 18's Golden point thriller

August 16th 2009

The Tiger Cubs made the trek up to Cooma to take on Cooma in a sudden death semi final last Sunday. The Eden boys got off to a good solid start completing sets and getting to their kicks, and after a penalty and a couple of sets in succession Andrew Evelyn threw a lovely cut out ball to a rampaging Toby Timms who scored out wide to put Eden in the early lead at 4-0. Cooma replied immediately when the kickoff found touch and Zac Smith scored , and Cooma hit the lead 6-4.
Cooma lifted their intensity and looked to be getting back on top until a timely intercept by Nick Swidruik saw him race 70 metres to score an unconverted try. The Eden side were playing well controlled football. Chris Challinor was very involved in the play,, Luke brown and John Kendall were doing the tough stuff up front and Dylan Fletcher was directing traffic well from halfback. Fullback Tyrone Thomas was quiet early in the game, but got involved shortly after to score a try from dummy half which again was unconverted.Following another penalty to Cooma james Boller scored a try for the home side and the score was 12-10 to the Tigers.Three penalties to Cooma late in the half meant that Eden were forced to defend for an extended period but strong tackling and a number of Cooma handling errors kept the home side scoreless for the remainder of the half.
Coach Colin Clarke was fairly happy with his charges during the break , urging them to respect possession and to put the Cooma players to ground when tackling them, and pressing for the big forwards to put in a bigger effort in the second half. The half had barely begun before Eden went on a strong attacking raid and Dylan Fletcher showed some magic footwork to weave through the Cooma defence and score a converted try.
The game continued in a see-saw manner when Cooma struck back again with s converted try of their own to bring the scores to Eden 18-Cooma 16. The strong breeze behind Eden in the second half was a big advantage and our kickers used it to full benefit, however the Cooma defence was very good and held out attack after attack. A crucial penalty to Eden put them back on the attack and quick thinking and footawork saw Dylan Fletcher bamboozle the defence again and he slipped though to score his second and give Eden an 8 point lead with about ten minutes to go. A dropped ball and then a penalty to Cooma for a high tackle saw them back on attack and they scored another try out wide to take the score to 24-20 to Eden.Eden were in possession in their own half when what appeared to be a high tackle jolted the ball from the Eden player, however play was allowed to proceed and much to the Eden supporters dismay Cooma scored out wide to lock up the game at 24 all with the conversion kick to come. Luckily the kick missed and we were into golden point extra time.
Eden captain Matt Evelyn called correctly and elected to run with the strong wind, but the Cooma kickoff found the ingoal and Cooma had first use of the ball. The Eden defence held Cooma at bay, and an attempted field goal missed mainly due to great defensive pressure. Eden got the ball on their own 20 and on the fourth tackle brad Johnston took off on one of his trademark punishing runs and beat several tacklers before putting in a brilliant chip and regather before turning the ball inside for Pixie Geraghty, who served up a perfect pass for winger Nick Swidruik who was backing up to score the winning points.
It would have been a travesty if the young Tigers had lost the game as they were the best team on the day. So the boys progress through to the preliminary final in two weeks to play the loser of the Tathra-Bega clash next week.