Tigers go down in tight game with Spacemen

Nyngan started the scoring off with a try to the right centre Sam Simmonds which was unconverted. 

Early on Nyngan were working through their sets with the forwards such as Hamish Pomare, Lee Wright and Adam Stanford completing some good charges which provided room for their backs. 

This good start fell slightly away after a while with mistakes turning the ball back over to Parkes resulting in Nyngan having to work much harder in defence than they should have. 

This was where Dean Jeffery was in his element his defence continues to bring down and drive back his much bigger rivals who pick him out thinking they can run over him. 

Dean was also well supported by Mitch Hedges who worked hard in defence and attack ending up with two tries for the game. 

Nyngan came out in the second half and for the first 20 minutes ran with purpose and dominated Parkes in defence with Zane Westover, Brett Howard and Jackson Hedges leading the way for Nyngan. 

For the last eight minutes Nyngan allowed Parkes to get back into the game through poor option selection and penalties on the fifth tackle and a 20-point lead quickly became a two-point lead with 20 seconds on the clock and Nyngan held on. 

The club hopes to see a speedy recovery to Jackson Hourn who suffered a badly dislocated shoulder as well as Todd Milligan who spilt his lip badly causing his photo shoot with Playdude to be postponed indefinitely.

First Grade:

In a gripping game of rugby league, Nyngan Tigers have paid the price for letting the Parkes Spacemen get out of the blocks too quickly where they racked up a half-time lead of 20-4 through a mountain of possession through Nyngan’s inability to control the ball and make important tackles. 

Losing a player to injury in Craig Ticehurst very early in the piece also didn’t help.  

To add further to Nyngan’s woes a player had to visit the sin bin and during this Parkes added 10 points. 

Given all that Nyngan showed in the second half what they were made of and fought back to eventually get beaten 28-24 but it shows how important possession is and the need to get repeat sets on the opposition to be able to maintain pressure to be able to score.  

Best for Nyngan was Brad Toole closely followed by Jacob Neill and Luke and Nathan Matheson with mentions to Kurt Whaley and Semesa Cadrakilagi who both did a sound job playing off the bench. 

Side bits: great win by our 18s who just did enough to win with some nice work by Zane Westover when he decides to take players on and take support with him. 

Reserve grade game called off 10 minutes early due to a combination of a number of things - poor discipline from both sides and inexperience from the referee to get control of the game.  

Nyngan as a club needs to continue to work on its discipline if we are to succeed in this competition.