With Forty out of action I ventured down to Ringrose to report on today’s ISP match. The Wenty boys were coming off a bye, and the Tigers were looking to impress Jason Taylor after their NRL squad copped that awful flogging yesterday. Jason Taylor was seated just in front of me and taking an obvious interest in which players were putting up their hand. Unfortunately for Wenty, the answer to that question was plenty as the Tigers mauled the Magpies 40 to 18.
Unlike Forty’s superb live blogging skills, this report is written post match.
The First Half
The first half effort from Wenty was comparable to their second half disaster against the Knights. The Tigers forwards played with high intensity and punched holes through the centre of a lacklustre Wenty pack. Their outside backs, including Chee Kam and Addo-Carr, had a field day on the back of the great go forward through the ruck. Addo-Carr was a standout, crossing for 3 tries. All up, the Tigers crossed 5 times in the first 30 minutes.
A combination of dropped ball, ill-discipline and soft defence allowed the Tigers to dominate territory and possession and it looked more like a training run for the Tigers. There was really minimal talk and zero energy from the Magpies today. It was not until the latter stages of the first half that they crossed for their first try of the day via their best on-ground – Scott Schulte. Running a great line off a great face ball from Cornish I believe, Schulte crossed untouched.
The half time score of 28 to 4 was an accurate reflection of the respective efforts of the two teams.
The Second Half
The Tigers were down slightly in energy to begin the half and Wenty started to claw their way back. A try out wide to Tuha after a nice offload from Hasson was soon followed by a 50 metre try to Schulte after a scrum win. At 28 to 14 it seemed that it was game on.
Unfortunately, a combination of some tough referee calls and more ill-discipline took the wind out of Wenty’s sails and the Tigers crossed for 2 more converted tries to extend the lead to 40 to 14.
An intercept try to James Hasson in the final seconds finished the scoring for the day. With 7 tries to 4, the Wests Tigers finished convincing winners, 40 to 18.
Final Comments
Kelepi Tanginoa looks to have sustained a leg injury and left the ground in a moon boot. Kaysa Pritchard also looked to pick up an injury from a collision with a team mate. Joseph Ualesi continues his return from a leg injury and had some aggressive moments.
The Wenty pack was outmuscled by their Tigers counterparts, and I would suggest that the Magpies best would have been fought out between Scott Schulte and Vai Toutai. Honeti Tuha also played soundly in a badly beaten team.
This was by far Wenty’s worst performance of the season. The difference between their earlier performances and this was stark. To be honest, from the outset, they didn’t look ready for the match against a team that signalled its intent from the opening exchanges.
Unfortunately I’m no Forty20 so I’m going off a few notes recorded on my phone. My apologies for lack of further details.
Sixties
Well done mate, I really don’t know how you got anything done with that bloke sitting next to you talking your ear of, Ham was a scratching also due to a heavy bout of the dreaded flu.Well done mate.
It was all good mate, but as I said, I’m no Forty20. My greatest concern was your worries about the effect that the cooler weather was having on you!
Fairly disappointing result when one considers the players in the wenty team. One would have thought that they would really be a strong challenge & put pressure on the NRL side. With a scoreline like that I guess there’s not a lot that can be said, about them.
The key to playing the Wests Tigers is often that first 10 minutes. They charge into the opening exchanges, but if you can weather that, their play often falls apart. Today, Wenty fell apart from the opening whistle.
Ouch!
Via , king ,nelson ,kaysa the only ones that look like nrl standard and maybe shulte whos young and learning ,the rest 2nd tier players at best , missing luke kelly badly with no kicking game and lack of organisation in halves
I can’t argue about the kicking game today. Because of the lack of field position and go forward, it was difficult for anyone to shine.
Fella’s would hate to imagine the comments on 1eyed site saying we missed Kelly’s kicking game.
Its a funny thing really, two of the most blasted players in the club Kelly & Morgan are missing from Wenty, perhaps the one most blasted is Kelly, yet for me both of them are better than most tend to consider.
thanks sixties,
Were we missing many players? Anyone other than Gower who I saw as 18th man against NQ and Kelly out injured?
Obviously Luke Kelly who’s out for the year, John Folau, Ryan Morgan, Daniel Alvaro (promoted), Gower (18th man).
Was Schulte playing left or right wing?
Left centre.