OBERON Tigers’ dream of going from wooden spooners to Group 10 premier league champions in the space of a season was brought to an end on Saturday by the Mudgee Dragons.
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A fast-paced second half from the Dragons was too much for the Tigers to keep up with at Oberon Sports Ground as the visitors finished 42-22 winners.
The last 35 minutes of the match belonged to the red and white as they piled on five tries in that time to book a trip to Bathurst next weekend.
“In the second round when we played Oberon we had them down 26-10 then went to sleep. Today we had everyone on deck, everyone fit and we expected to play well,” Dragons coach Tony Pascoe said.
“I think out wide we had a little more pace than them, it was just getting to it seemed to be the hardest thing for a little while. Once we used that pace out wide it helped.”
Dragons second rower Zac Adams got his side off to a flyer when he picked up two tries in the space of just 14 minutes.
George Rose brought the crowd to life when he shrugged off several defenders to score under the posts and bring to score back to 12-6.
To end a back-and-forth opening half, Lee Hicks found a gap in the Oberon defence to score before Riccie Arriola’s try kept the Tigers in reach of the visitors going into half-time.
A Dragons dropped ball on the second half kick-off allowed the Tigers to take an 18-16 lead as Blake Fitzpatrick converted his own try.
Mudgee’s next try – just four minutes later – would change the course of the match.
Tigers were almost on top of Mudgee’s try line before Dragons centre Rota Setu intercepted an Oberon pass then linked up with Nathan Orr, who ran the remaining half of the field to score.
Winger Andrew Laurie and halfback Tim Condon found cracks in the Tigers defence to score from close range.
A dropped bomb from the Tigers then allowed Orr to take his second try of the day, pushing to lead out to 36-18 with 13 minutes to play.
Tyler Hughes got on the end of a well-directed Matt Rose kick out to the right wing and kept Oberon’s faint winning chances alive eight minutes out from full-time.
Those chances were quickly snuffed out when Dragons front rower Nick Harvey crashed over beneath the uprights.
“To go from last to where we got to is still a pretty big turnaround. It’s hard not to be proud of it,” Tigers player-coach Zac Rowlandson said.
“We fired at the wrong end of the season. We knew what we were capable of and we got nowhere near that today.”
MUDGEE DRAGONS 42 (Zac Adams 2, Nathan Orr 2, Lee Hicks, Andy Laurie, Tim Condon, Nick Harvey tries; Rota Setu 3, Sam Wooden 2 goals) def OBERON TIGERS 22 (George Rose, Riccie Arriola, Blake Fitzpatrick, Brenton Gibson tries; Fitzpatrick 2, Jason Ferris goals)
