Canowindra Tigers have plenty to celebrate after Round 3 of the rugby league season, with a first grade win, a youth league draw and a league tag win.
Hosting Peak Hill in their ANZAC Day round at Tom Clyburn Oval, the Tigers ran out 22-14 winners over the Roosters in a competitive first grade fixture, backing up from success in Round 2 against Cargo after an Easter weekend break to make it two wins from three.
Canowindra put on early points and Peak Hill gave it everything in the chase, the score within two points at half time.
The Tigers’ defence held and their attack prevailed as they established themselves the day’s winners.
The class of the Canowindra backline saw the Tigers open the scoring on Sunday, Duwanye Mariner the first to cross the line with the extras added by Bailey Kennedy giving the hosts a 6-0 lead.
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Mariner then combined with Jaye Fuimaono a short time later to see the number 12 score and give the Tigers a handy 12-0 lead.
But the competitive Roosters side was determined to close the gap and got their fullback across the line 12-4.
With the better of the possession, they built on that momentum to score their second and bring the scoreboard to 10-12 before the break.
Canowindra returned to the field reinvigorated and young winger Jonty Thurgate crossed over in the 55th minute from a nice backline movement from the Tigers but they didn’t stop.
Bailey Kennedy slipped through the middle down the blind side and got a nice pass away to Josh Cooney who scored.
Kennedy then converted from out wide to give the Tigers a 22-10 lead.
The clock was ticking down when Peak Hill got their centre over the line in the 76th minute but the Tigers’ defence held out for the remainder of the game time for a final score of 22-14.
Youth league: The scores were level in a very entertaining Youth League game between Canowindra’s Under 18s and a returning Narromine Jets side.
Narromine piled on early points to establish a 16-nil lead but Canowindra rallied and pushed back.
Tries to Kaiden Cole and Thomas Berkrey saw the Tigers close the gap to 12-16 as they started to play some good football.
The young Tigers came out hard in the second half to lock the scores at 16-16, but Narromine hit back with a try from dummy half to reclaim the lead.
Canowindra stepped up again and Noah Brown crossed the line from dummy half to lock the scores at 22-22.
Neither side could gain points in the final 10 minutes but there were some good performances from the Tigers including Riley Williams in the forwards and Thomas Berkrey in the second row.
League tag: Canowindra’s league tag side dominated from the beginning, scoring in the opening two minutes.
Great defence and the ball movement is a credit to the coach and team, who scored four tries in the first half to lead 24-0.
The second half was even better with six tries seeing Canowindra run out winners 58-0.
Laura Price and Lilly Bannan bagged three tries each with one apiece to Georgia Kennedy, Holly Pull, Addison Newcombe, Kate Price also kicking eight goals.
This weekend, the Tigers are on the road to Trundle to take on the Boomers.
