It was a busy day at Yarrawarrah Oval with the Tigers hosting the Dragons, Pirates, Sharks, Roosters and Titans with games for the U6's to U11's. It was a typical Autumn day, overcast, chilly with very little wind to advantage any team. Many of the games were real nail-biters with the score see-sawing throughout and unfortunately we finished on the wrong side of the ledger in 4 of the 6 games.
Tigers U6 Yellow 52 V Engadine Dragons 60
This was a fantastic high scoring game which remained even until the last quarter when the Dragons put on a couple of extra tries ahead of the Tigers. The Tigers team welcomed back Hendrix Crawley and Sonny Faughey who made an immediate impact as willing runners and strong tacklers and this gave the new players additional confidence to get involved and take the ball up to the opposition. Arlo had a fantastic game scoring 5 tries and his speed worried the Dragons defence. Hendrix and Sonny both chipped in with 3 tries apiece and Angelo carried on from his positive start last week, scoring 2 tries. Logan J and Conor L both had strong games given their age and they made some important contributions to the team.
Tigers U6 yellow 8 V Cronulla Caringbah Sharks 20
It was a case of deja-vu for the U6's playing a strong Sharks team for the second week running, albeit the Sharks only had 5 players. The Sharks again proved too strong, with the full-back for the Sharks playing another exceptional game and thwarting whatever attack our Tigers tried. Hendrix C did manage to beat the full back for pace on a couple of occasions and bagged a couple of tries and despite the defeat, this was another game for us to play together and gain valuable experience.
Tigers U7 Green 36 V Cronulla Caringbah Sharks 40
This was another close game with the Sharks just pipping the Tigers in the last quarter. There were some fantastic tries scored in this game and each player contributed to a high quality game. The whole team played well and Roseanna carried on with her strong running from last week and Toby, Hunter and Hudson all ran and tackled well. Zac M had an exceptional game and was a constant threat scoring 4 tries and was always willing to have a run, and put the Sharks defence on the back foot. Aston G scored 3 tries and Charlotte and Toby scored 1 apiece. We welcome Malachi back to the team this week and he made some strong tackles and good runs when he had the chance.
Tigers U7 Blue 4 V Cronulla Caringbah Sharks 56
The U7's backed up for a second game and were overrun by a quick and skilful Sharks team. The narrow defeat in the previous game sapped the energy out of the Tigers team and the Sharks were quicker and more determined across the park. We welcomed Ruby to the team playing her first ever game of footy and despite some strong efforts by Logan, Kade and Aston, we were outclassed by the Sharks.
Tigers U11 Bronze 32 V Menai Roosters 0
The U11's put in an impressive display against a decent Roosters team, keeping them scoreless and scoring 8 tries. Lewis A had a great game and controlled the game from full back and was a real threat all game with his jinking runs through the Roosters defence. Arlo H also had a strong game scoring 3 tries and was well supported by Kai G with 2 and Levi, Lewis and Hunter scoring 1 apiece. Hunter scored the try of the day, picking up the ball on his defensive line and then running the length of the field to score in the corner. The U11's looked dangerous throughout the game and a number of players put their hand up to play in the Silver team next week.
Tigers U11 Silver 32 v Taren Point Titans 28
This was the game of the day with two evenly matched teams going at each other for the full 40 minutes. The Titans were quick out of the blocks and put on some early tries with the Tigers being guilty of dropping the ball throughout their early sets. The Titans maintained their dominance until the third quarter when the Tigers scored back-to-back tries to tie the game at 20-20. In the final quarter the Tigers jumped out to a two try lead before the Titans levelled it up with a minute to go. The Tigers had one last attack down the right wing and Lewis A scored the match winning try with another jinking run through the Titans tiring defence. Max C scored 2 tries as did Leo G and Zac P, Jack N, Saad A and Arlo H all scored 1 each. A special mention must go to Leo Giovenco who played both games, was involved in all the Tigers best work and scored two tries.
Tigers U14 Silver 30 v Bosco Bulldogs 0
The U14 team put in a commanding performance against last year's Silver Premiers and will take a lot of confidence from this game after last weeks lopsided result against the Sharks. The early stages saw both teams testing each other out with some big hits and strong front-on tackles. The Tigers put on some early points with Bailey M scoring in the left corner after a good kick from Alex Mantik. The Bulldogs hit back with a couple of chances before more Tigers pressure saw Luke F score on the right wing after some good work from Max C.
The game was stopped for 10 mins to deal with an injury and after the restart the Tigers scored again with a strong run from Alex Mantik which saw the Tigers take a 16-0 lead. The Tigers were strong in defence and controlling the game with an effective kicking game that continued to pay dividends. It was from another high bomb by Alex Mantik that forced the Bulldogs fullback into a mistake and after a quick play the ball Alex Moussa summed up the situation and scored to put the Tigers 20-0 up. Alex Mantik scored again in the corner after some good attacking play and the Bulldogs attempted a short kick off with the ball sitting up perfectly for Alex M to collect the ball at speed and outpace the Bosco defence to score a well deserved hat-trick and put the Tigers ahead 30-0.
The whole team contributed to a solid performance and good win and it was pleasing to see some of the work in training be carried out onto the field, next week the U14's play the Titans which will be a big test for this new look team.
Next week all Tigers teams are at home and we would love to see a big crowd cheer on the teams in their last hit out before the season starts on May 1.