In a thrilling conclusion to a hard-fought contest, St Pat’s half Garry Reilly had a tough shot at goal from the touch-line to try and give his team a win, but his shot was waved away as the Tigers triumphed 23-22.

The match had plenty of twists and turns as St Pat’s fought back from a 13-point half-time deficit to lead 18-13 at one point before the Tigers steadied.

Two tries gave them a five-point gap but the door was still ajar for the Saints when Jake Bright crossed in the corner after being set up by Reilly with less than a minute remaining.

Reilly’s kicking had been faultless up until that point, but in windy conditions his sideline attempt was always going to be difficult.

“The wind caught it and took it away to the right,” the playmaker said afterwards. It was disappointing for us because, depending on the Cowra-Mudgee result, we could have moved into top spot. We felt like we beat ourselves in a lot of ways.

“There were a lot of lessons to be learned out of that game, but the obvious one is about playing 80 minutes. We don’t feel like we’ve done it yet this season.

“Every week we seem to have one good half, one bad half. When we play football, we are a very good side, but unfortunately we don’t always do it.

“It was very muddy and wet out there too, which probably doesn’t suit us that much, we are more of a dry-weather side.”

Oberon started the game the better of the two teams and having been able to call a couple of regulars back into their side after injury lay-offs, they looked better than a side that is battling to avoid the wooden spoon.

Led by prop Greg Behan, who produced what coach Scott Traynor said was his best performance of the season, the Tigers were able to match the powerful St Pat’s pack.

Marking danger man Paletime Ale had been part of their pre-game plan and they did it well.

When they had the ball, they were able to lay on two converted tries, while Lane’s opportunistic field goal would later prove vital. 

A lost ball from the kick-off at the start of the second half though gave St Pat’s a sniff, and they took their opportunity with open arms to cross for three unanswered tries in 10 minutes.

Facing the prospect of being blown off the paddock, Oberon steadied and managed to work their way back into the game and with 20 minutes remaining took back the lead with their third try. 

Six minutes from the siren they scored their fourth thanks to a Lane chip-kick but his conversion missed, leaving the gap at five points before Bright scored to set up Reilly’s last-ditch shot at victory.

OBERON TIGERS 23 defeated ST PAT’S 22.