Tiger Machine Rolls On
Eden 38 Narooma 10

June 12th 2011 by Dave Evelyn

The Great Southern Inn sponsored Eden Tigers took the show on the road last weekend and made the annual pilgrimage to Narooma. Eden were missing several players and were very wary of their opponents who have sprung some good wins over the Tigers in recent years in Narooma. The game opened at a torrid pace, and Eden's inspirational Leigh Hennessy burst through the defence on a strong 40 m run. A penalty to Eden saw Captain Coach Tommy Lynch crash over out wide for the first try. Todd Bolton's sideline conversion saw the Tigers take an early 6-0 lead.

Narooma struck back in emphatic style when Pat Willis scored a runaway try after some uncharacteristic poor defence from the Tigers. Scott Jackson was almost in for a try but was tackled into touch. From the 20 m restart Eden's newest recruit Englishman Brendan Lewis took an intercept and scored off only his second touch, taking Eden to a 10-4 lead. From the kick off the Eden forwards made good ground and Ian Smith put Leigh Hennessy in for Eden's next try which was converted by Todd Bolton to put Eden firmly in command at 16-4.

Todd Bolton suffered a serious shoulder injury on Sunday which will see him out football indefinitely.

The second half began tragically for Eden with star fullback Todd Bolton injuring his shoulder, an injury which could put him out of action for some time. His loss spurred the Tigers on, and Ian Smith scored the next Eden try next to the posts. Exciting young five eighth Dylan Fletcher converted the try,to take the Tigers out to a 22-4 lead. Narooma came very close to scoring soon after when Aires was held up over the line in good desperate defence by Lynch and Dylan Wheeler. The Narooma side never stopped trying and were rewarded for their efforts with a good try to Pat Willis off the back of a scrum. He converted his own try to take the score to 22-10.

The Tigers were relentless and when Leigh Hennessy set up the next try with some good dummy half work for Mick Wykes to score the score moved on to 28-10. Dylan Fletcher added his name to the try scorers list when he touched down after good lead up work by Jackson, and then converted to extend the Tigers' lead. The scoring was completed late in the game when Ian Smith crossed in the corner after another 60m burst by the rampaging Lynch.

The final score was 38-10 to the Tigers, with forwards Lynch, Hennessy, Jackson, Wykes and Phil Crosby dominating the centre of the park. Dylans Wheeler and Fletcher played strongly, and Toby Timms was again very good. Next week we have a big day of football at home against Cooma.