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Scrappy Tigers take the points
Eden 36 Cooma 30
June 19th 2011 by Dave Evelyn
Eden's Great Southern Inn sponsored first grade side showed why they are early Premiership favourites. With a plethora of regular players absent due to injury the patched up Tigers played a very lacklustre match but still came away with the valuable two points.
Early indications were that it was going to be business as usual with the Tigers seemingly having all the answers to the Stallions predictable attack. An early Eden penalty put the home side on the attack and clever work from Ian Smith, (possibly the largest halfback in the world....) in slipping a pass to Darren Griffin for the wily veteran to touch down. Griffin featured in several strong runs during the match.
Cooma eventually received their first penalty and inspirational half Zac Smith took full advantage to score next to the posts to level the game at 6-6. Eden were struggling to break the strong Cooma defence until that man Smith stormed over for a good try and duly converted taking Eden to a 12-6 lead.
Up front Lynch, Jackson, Holding ,Crosby and Hennessy were inspirational and Wykes was having another top game. Mark McBain's return from injury also saw some slick service to the outside backs who were running rampant. Another try to the Tigers wasn't far off, with crowd favourite Tyrone Thomas crossing in the corner after very good lead up by Toby Timms and McBain to propel the Tigers to a 16-6 lead. Just before the break Eden went on the attack again and this time it was Leigh Hennessy who crossed. With Smith's conversion the score moved to 22-6 at the break. All seemed to be going according to plan and the large crowd, although not enthralled, was satisfied with the home sides' efforts.
The second half began as expected, with Eden scoring the first try when evergreen Corey Stewart was on the spot to reap the reward of clever lead up work by Smith and Hennessy. The Smith conversion took the Tigers out to a 28-6 lead and most observers thought the game was a foregone conclusion, but the spirited Cooma lads had other ideas. The Tigers appeared to relax and Cooma took full toll, scoringthe next two tries and all of a sudden it was 28-18 with plenty of time left. Ian Smith crossed again for Eden but the kick from out wide failed and it was 32-18. Cooma scored again to make it 32-24.The Hennessy - Smith combination sparked Eden's next try when Darren Griffin crossed for his second to take the score to 36-24.
Cooma scored the next try with about 8 minutes to go and with the score at 36-30 the Cooma side could see the possibility of securing a draw with one more try. Cooma received a late penalty deep in Eden territory but time ran out for the plucky Stallions and the Tigers' undefeated record remains intact.
Ian Smith was outstanding for the home side, and was well supported by Leigh Hennessy, Phil Crosby, Tommy Lynch and Jacko. The side has a welcome bye next week.
