Check out the action including an injury to a rising star.
The Wests Tigers defeated Cronulla Sharks 21-15 in their second game of the Auckland Nines at Eden Park on Saturday.
Wests came into their second game of the Nines off the back of a disappointing first up loss to Gold Coast Titans.
Cronulla had enjoyed a last minute victory over Newcastle Knights.
Mick Potter’s men opened the game in a much more controlled fashion than they had in the first game, a match which saw their completion rate at only 60%.
Cronulla almost opened the scoring, but Jonno Wright bounced the ball in the process of scoring.
Wests Tigers had a stroke of luck early when Nathan Gardner was sin binned for attempting to slow the restart of play after Adam Blair had made a break and earned a penalty.
Aaron Woods got the Wests Tigers on the board, scoring just to the left of the posts after a powerful run. The try wasn’t converted leaving a 4-0 scoreline.
Wests Tigers made the most of Cronulla’s sin bin, playing a traditional style of football, Pat Richards giving fans a taste of things to come in 2014, leaping for a Robbie Farah Bomb.
He converted his own try, stretching the lead to 10-0.
Cronulla got themselves on the board with the last play of the first half, when Feki touched down just inside the left corner post after a back line spread.
The conversion was missed leaving the score at 10-4 at the break.
James Tedesco followed up his brilliant solo try in the first match with an outstanding play to hold up Matt Prior over the line to save what would have been an outstanding try to Cronulla.
Wests Tigers hit back immediately after when Marika Koroibete showed too much pace to finish off a break started out wide by Mitchell Moses. The conversion was missed, with the score remaining 14-4.
Cronulla weren’t about to go away Sam Tagataese, finishing a break to claim a five-point try under the posts. That try was converted to bring the score back to 14-11.
Cronulla looked to be on the surge, but Tedesco was proving himself to be invaluable to his team, again making a line break which he’d finish himself to put the game beyond doubt.
That five-point try was converted, with the lead moving out to 21-11.
Cronulla again scored on the bell after Robbie Farah was sin binned for slowing the play, Ricky Leutele making the most of the extra space but the it was too late, the score finishing up 21-15.
Wests Tigers will tomorrow play Newcastle.
FULLTIME
TIGERS 21 (J Tedesco bonus try; A Woods, P Richards, M Koroibete tries; P Richards 2/4 goals) def SHARKS 15 (S Tagataese bonus try; R Leutele, S Feki try; T Carney 1/3 goals)
SIN BIN: N Gardner (CRO, 3′), R Farah (WST, 17′)
COMMENTS