Hard fought battle: Ryan Blackford leaves his opponent on the ground.
IN a season where the Tenterfield Tigers A grade team could have raised the white flag on many occasions they showed real character in fighting right to the last minute of their season.
The Inverell Hawks who sat second on the competition ladder against the bottom placed Tigers had every reason to think they were in for an easy afternoon’s work, particularly after leading 12-0 early, however the Tigers had other ideas. They hit back through a great try to Jack Cowin, where he leapt high to take a pinpoint Jake Adam bomb to post the Tigers first points, before Jake Landers coming off the bench got into the thick of the action crashing over to make the score 12-8.
In good attacking position the Tigers looked set to post more points before a freakish intercept gave the Hawks a 16-8 advantage. Young Jake Landers wasn’t finished for the half and posted a double to take the score to 16-12, once again the third try for the Tigers was unconverted like the previous two. A penalty 30 metres out on the stroke of halftime to Inverell gave them a further two points to take an 18-12 halftime advantage.
The second half started in the worst possible fashion for the Tigers as they kicked out on the full and Inverell posted points in the ensuing set to take a 24-12 advantage. Once again though the Tigers showed enough ticker to fight back when Jake Landers who was well and truly in the try scoring mood by now slipped through close to the line to post his hat trick. The kicking boots were left at home again and the score was left at 24-16.
Inverell posted another try with 15 minutes left on the clock, converted it and at 30-16 the story read all too familiar for the Tigers this season. However, someone forgot to tell Jack Cowin as his great support play led to a try next to the posts, this time converted and when, five minutes later big Simon Andrews crashed over to take the score to 30-26, the fairy tale looked set to unfold.
In a cruel twist which typified the Tigers season the Inverell kick off corkscrewed and bounced freakishly into touch to gift the ball back to the Hawks. Having to defend their own line to win the game a cheeky dummy half scoot from the Inverell hooker landed them a try to seal the game on the bell taking victory 36-26.
The team would like to thank all their supporters for sticking with the team through the season from hell, where many young men had to play A grade before their time, but stood up and never shirked their work which could be the makings of them.
All attention now turns to the women, 18s and reserve grade for their remaining two games against Warialda and Uralla. The 18s after posting a very strong win against Inverell on the weekend are well and truly alive for the finals.