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Tigers Impress in draw with Bega
Eden 24 Bega 24
May 13th 2012 by Dave Evelyn
Reigning Group 16 premiers the Great Southern Inn Eden Tigers returned to the George Brown Memorial Oval last weekend for their first home match of the season. And what an exciting match!!After 80 minutes of non stop action last years' Grand Final protagonists ,and two of the more fancied sides in this years competition -finished the match drawn at 24 all. Both sides were looking for an early psychological advantage for the inevitable battles that will be fought between now and September but at the end of the day a draw was probably a fair result.
The match started poorly for the home side with a penalty to Bega from the kickoff, and another in short time for obstruction. Eden's defence seemed to switch off and in the space of five tackles Bega's Ryan Apps had scored two quick tries and the Roosters had hushed the good Eden crowd to lead 12-0.
Eden seemed to settle after the early onslaught and began completing their sets and getting to kicks. Dylan Wheeler was heavily involved, along with big Billy Michelin and Ian Smith. The home side were rewarded for their efforts after 20 minutes when Billy Michelin touched down and the conversion took the score to 12-6.. Eden received two consecutive penalties to go on the attack before the unstoppable Michelin crashed over for his second try which saw Eden back level at 12 all. A couple more penalties to the home side gave Eden the opportunity to score just before the half time and take an 18-12 lead into the break.
There was a special moment during the first half that brought a smile to all the Tigers' fans... the reappearance of the great Neil Baker who has again unretired- much to the dismay of all group 16 opponents.
Coach Hennessy was satisfied with his team's effort and reiterated the match plan to dominate the ruck and get to the kick.
The second half began with penalties and dropped balls by both sides. Eden's smaller speed men in Aaron Aldridge, Joe Stewart and Matt Evelyn were beginning to make inroads through the Bega defence, while Holding, and Edmed got through a mountain of work. Both sides were making basic handling errors, and it was after one such error that Bega swooped onto a dropped ball and scored adjacent to the posts to level the scores at 18-18.
The crowd was getting right into the match with the prospect of another nail biting finish between these two sides as fukll time drew near. A handling error by the Tigers gave Bega possession on half way. A penalty to Bega gave them the field position they needed, and in the blink of an eyelid Fuller had scored to put the Roosters ahead 24-18 .
This seemed to jolt the Tigers back into action. For most of the game they had been at least the equal of their highly regarded opponents, and yet with minutes remaining we were behind. But not for long.
If you love watching quality rugby league, and love watching outstanding skills by young up and coming players, you really should have been watching the last minutes of this match, when one of Eden's potential future superstars Joe Stewart dummied, stepped and crossed for a class try which was converted by Smith to lock the scores at 24-24.
This was a very satisfying result for the Eden side, who have had a limited preparation for the season and are still missing a number of key players. Our young guns are improving every week and , following last weekends'rousing effort there is a quiet confidence in the club that this could ne another good year for the might Tigers.
Next week we have the bye.
Tigger