Eden Tigers Brand Sun

Gutsy effort by 18's

Cooma 30 Eden 22

May 16th 2010 by Dave Evelyn

The Tigers under 18's travelled to Cooma last Sunday to take on the Stallions. The annual trip up the mountains is always a challenge and this time around was no exception with the Eden side only having 13 run on players against a Cooma side woth a full bench.

The young Tigers were not fazed by this disadvantage and took the field confident of a good showing.Eden were the first to score after completing their early sets . With the unsuccessful conversion Eden took an early 4-0 lead. Cooma were staying in the game courtesy of another lopsided penalty count but when the home side turned over possession again a great run from Pixie geraghty saw Eden back on the attack and a clever cross field kick from Jamie Mohammed found Dylan Wheeler who scored. The Dylan Fletcher conversion took Eden to a 10-0 lead.

Cooma struck back almost immediately with a try after a kick through was touched to give them consecutive sets on the Eden line, and the conversion took the score to 10-6. As seems to be the norm these days a number of questionable decisions went against the Tigers. Marginal calls on offside, high tackles and play the ball infringements are always contentious, and week in week out seem to consistently go against all the Eden sides, but when a 40-20 is awarded to the opposition from a kick on halfway serious questions should to be asked.

Regardless, the Eden side were their own worst enemy as half time approached, with Cooma scoring a try from a kick through that took an evil bounce to wrong foot the defence, and then another through a lucky bounce off an Eden defender. At the break Cooma had taken the lead 16-10.

The young Tigers were right in the game and coach Mick Wykes urged them to maintain their intensity in the second half. The start of the second half saw the Tigers turn the ball over twice in the first three sets and Cooma scored again to take a 22-10 lead. Consecutive penalties to Cooma again put the visitors on the back foot but when Eden finally did receive a penalty Morgan Bell, who was heavily involved in defence and attack, stormed over for a good try to bring the Tigers within striking distance at 22-16. Cooma were next to score and with the conversion extended the lead to 28-16. Another penalty to Cooma soon after saw them opt for the 2 points to extend the lead to 30-16, however to their credit the Tigers never dropped their heads, even when captain Toby Timms finally succumbed to injury and came to the bench, and continued to give their absolute all in attack and defence.All the players should be very proud of their efforts, with Corey and Morgan putting on some big hits. Dylan Fletcher was always asking questions in attack, Thumbsy Young continues to improve every week. Andrew Evelyn was also good at hooker and got through a huge workload in defence.

Eden was rewarded late in the game with a try to the irrepressible Cody Crane, and the final score was 30-22.

This was a game that the Tigers probably should have won, and with the return of several players over the next couple of matches this side will definitely challenge for the premiership. Special mention must go to Josh Hunter, who hung up his boots last season but came to the aid of the team when we were short. Dragged out of bed and shunted off to Cooma, Josh's effort was top shelf.