Ill-discipline and poor ball control played part in halting Tenterfield’s undefeated streak in the Group 19 second division competition.
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The Tigers took on Uralla with five wins from five matches and were pipped 22-20 by the host side.
“Yet again our discipline has let us down, especially on Saturday,” captain-coach Brendan Minns said.
“We just give other teams too much opportunity with the ball and we just struggled with keeping the ball in our own hands and keeping it off them.
“That was just our biggest problem on Saturday, just our lack of discipline, dropped ball and missed opportunities.
“As it turned out, our ill-discipline was the thing that lost us the game as such.
“We were locked up 20-all and we gave away a penalty right in front of the posts with less than five minutes to go.”
Despite giving the penalty in the dying minutes of the clash, Minns said they can’t blame the loss on that one decision.
“Like I said to our boys, at the end of the day it doesn't come down to the last two-and-a-half minutes, we should have competed a lot better during the middle part of the game which would have set us up for a better finish,” he said.
“There was another 65 minutes of that game that we could have played a lot better and we would have ended up a lot better off.
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“We wanted to go down there to win and we didn't execute that and everyone was disappointed with their own efforts.”
While it takes the unbeaten record away from his side, Minns believes he could be a blessing in disguise for his team with plenty of time left in the season to improve.
“I said after the game ‘I hope everyone savours the taste of this loss and every game we play after this, we use that as motivation,’” he said.
“It might serve a bit of a wake-up call to the boys.
“We sort of cruised along relatively easily in the first round and maybe got a bit ahead of ourselves, got a little bit cocky, and it will bring ourselves back to reality.”
Tenterfield will have to be back at their best this Saturday when they take on the Super Spuds in Guyra who are coming off a 48-16 thrashing of Warialda.
Guyra will also be welcoming back captain-coach Dan Vidler from a six-week suspension.
The last time they met in round one, Tenterfield took a comfortable 38-6 win but Minns is wary of a strengthened Super Spuds outfit playing at home.
“We played them first and we beat them at home but they will welcome back their captain-coach,” he said.
“Everyone plays better at home so we are expecting a very tough game on Saturday against Guyra.
“Both teams have probably improved a little from the first game when we met each other so it will be a good match up.”
Guyra’s strength has been their forward pack while Tenterfield possess a smaller, quicker backline.
“We definitely know we are in for a massive game on Saturday and we need to play well,” Minns said.
“We will work out a game plan and see what we can do.
“If we stick to our strengths and try and limit their go-forward, that will be our main perspectives.
“If we want to stay at the top of the ladder, we have got to win on Saturday and stay those two points above everyone else.”