The Tigers, who hadn’t played for three weeks, lost 26-16 to the Kiama Knights at Mackay Park.

The Bay was complacent early and looked out of touch as Kiama shot out to an 18-nil lead through three first-half tries.

Coach Danny Whitter said he made some minor changes at halftime to spur on his troops.

“I made some changes to my halves and Josh Clarke helped with moving the ball to the outside,” Whitter said.

“We were playing one-out football and we were not going through anything.”

The Tigers sprung to life in the second half and capitalised on a rare Kiama mistake to put their first points on the board through reserve Lachlan Knox. 

Knox broke a tackle close to the line and crashed over to start the comeback. 

Minutes later forward Baden Payne crashed through on the right side and halfback Doug Ebsworth calmly slotted the sideline conversion to leave the Tigers trailing 18-10.

Kiama was next to score as it capitalised on repeat sets from a lack of discipline shown by the Tigers.

The Knights looked in control as they began to raid the Tigers’ defence again when a dropped ball thwarted the attack and quick-thinking Tigers reserve Egan Ellis pounced on the loose ball.

Ellis then put his foot down and ran 70 metres to score in the corner.

Ebsworth slotted the conversion and the Tigers were within six points. 

The Tigers, who had a full bench, were gathering momentum against the Knights, who had no reserves.

A controversial call then went the Knights’ way after a Tigers player played the ball without being held.

The Tigers had the ball mid-field and were looking to score a match-tying try, but instead it was Kiama who capitalised on the penalty and scored a match-sealing try a few minutes out from fulltime. 

Whitter said after the game he explained to the boys the run of the whistle should not affect them as much as it did.

“We need to be putting ourselves in the right positions and if we are not, we’re going to get penalised,” he said.

Whitter said his side needed to work on its defence as he believes it is something that can be a team strength.

“All the boys can tackle but there needs to be better communication,” he said.

Whitter believed his side could match it with the best of Group 7 and had plenty of improvement to come.

“We proved we can play well against the better sides,” he said.

“We just need to concentrate and do it for 80 minutes.”

The Tigers will play the rescheduled washout game against the Milton-Ulladulla Bulldogs at Mollymook next Wednesday at 6.30pm.