A 10-minute burst in the second half has hauled the Narooma Devils to a season-opening win over the Batemans Bay Tigers at Bill Smyth Oval on Saturday, April 6.
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Kane Ayers scored with twenty minutes left in the match, and a quick-fire double to Todd Ayers turned a 16-6 deficit into a 24-16 lead within nine minutes.
Narooma struck first through 17-year-old debutant Tully Wilton, who stepped his way through the Tigers defensive line in the eighth minute.
The Tigers struck back through Tremayne Chatfield with 15 minutes left in the first half, and a Tom Bollard try in the shades of half time gave Batemans Bay a 10-6 lead at the break.
The Tigers extended their lead inside the first minute of the second half, as Jesse Wighton backed up a Jaden Clarke break to score under the posts.
The match turned into an arm wrestle from that point, and remained that way until the match-defining 10-minute burst from the Devils with 20 minutes to go.
Wighton bagged his second try of the match to give the Tigers some hope with seven minutes remaining, but the Devils held firm to pick up an important victory.
Devils captain/coach Todd Ayers said he was "stoked" with the result.
"We're a young team again this season, but we've trained really hard over the summer," he said. "We made it a bit hard for ourselves, but we got there in the end with a bit of character.
"It's exactly the start we needed."
Ayers said there were both positives and negatives to take away from the victory.
"We're not a big side, so we wanted to do the little things well," he said. "We hit some good lines, and played good support, just did the things you need to do to win.
"We lost some control through silly mistakes. The ball was slippery, and we may have had a couple of calls go against us, but it's just the simple things like holding the ball with two hands."
Tigers captain/coach Brent Pike said he couldn't "knock the boys' efforts" after the loss.
"They put in, it was just silly plays, giving away penalties and handling errors, that cost us," he said. "It comes down to training. We only had four guys turn up last night, so we threw it together as best we could.
"We've got a lot of work to do before we play Tathra next week."
Pike said it might take his side a few weeks to get on a roll.
"It's going to take a few weeks to gel, and that comes down to training," he said. "We're all still trying to get to know each other, but if we keep putting in that type of effort every week, we'll be there towards the end."
Match notes
- The match was sloppy at times, as a burst of pre-match rain made the conditions tough for the players. Both sides went through periods where they struggled to complete their sets, but were rarely punished for their mistakes.
- Tigers lock Jaden Clarke didn't get much opportunity with the ball, but a spiraling bomb he put up in the second half led directly to Jesse Wighton's second try. The Tigers would be smart to incorporate that skill into their attacking arsenal.
- Tully Wilton's running game was a big feature in Narooma's win, as he threatened to break the Tigers line almost every time he had the ball with a killer left-foot step.
- Narooma's Kane Ayers and Ali Elmasri swapped positions from a season ago, with Ayers in the centres and Elmasri at second row.
- Batemans Bay's loss was further soured by a potentially serious knee injury to young winger Mitch Hockey. Hockey was taken from the field after an awkward looking tackle, and spent most of the second half in the sheds.