THEY had to absorb some physical punishment, but the Oberon Tigers continued their unbeaten start to the Mid West League Cup on Saturday with a 50-14 win over the Orange United Warriors at Wade Park.
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As expected the big Warriors pack charged hard at the Tigers defensive line and hit just as hard in defence, Oberon coach Dallas Booth admitting "there were plenty of red marks" on his men after the contest.
That physicality certainly tested the Tigers, but it was a challenge they rose to. They absorbed the hits and when the Warriors tired from that exertion, Oberon exploited it.
"The scoreline was very flattering for us, it was a much closer and much tougher game for us than what the scoreline shows," Booth said.
"At one point it was 22-14 in the third quarter then we scored three tries in about six or seven minutes - lucky tries at that - which blew out the scoreline.
"We knew that they were big and physical and knew there'd be times in the game where they'd really give it to us, and they did.
"We just knew we had to hang onto the ball and if we weathered the storm, being a bigger side, we'd hoped that after 10-15 minutes they'd start to knock up and there'd be a few gaps. But they knocked us around, they were very, very physical."
Zane Rowlandson scored the opening try for the Tigers on Saturday before an injury to one of his team-mates saw play halted for close to half-an-hour.
When the match resumed, the Warriors found a reply via Chris Jones to lock it up at 4-all, but after that the Tigers rallied.
By half-time Oberon led 22-4 but refreshed by the break, the Warriors again came at the Tigers in the third quarter.
The hosts got within eight points of the lead before a Luke Christie-Johnson try helped swing momentum back in the Tigers' favour. From there Oberon ran away with the match.
While there were solid performers across the park for the Tigers, Booth praised the efforts of lock Charlie Bailey and hooker Caylib Marston, who was amongst the try scorers.
"Young Charlie Bailey was unreal on the weekend, he's one of our smaller players but he was cutting those big Warriors guys down and did it continually for the whole game. He was outstanding," the coach said.
"Caylib Marston, I think he's scored five or six tries for us now. His direction has been great and if anyone is being lazy in the line he'll find them, so he's been outstanding for us as well."
The win over the Warriors continued what has been an impressive return to the Mid West competition for the Tigers. They began their season with a 74-0 result against the Lithgow Bears, beat the Orange Barbarians on forfeit then downed Kandos 44-6.
"We've had a good start to the season, which is always pleasing. The guys are putting a lot of effort into training and it is showing out on the field," Booth said.
