After making a statement in last weekend’s qualifying final, the Gundagai Tigers have put an exclamation mark on their intent to claim back-to-back premierships with a commanding 42-6 victory over the Temora Dragons on Sunday.
Held at Nixon Park in Temora, the major semi-final between the sides decided who would take the direct path to the grand final, while leaving the loser to fight for survival the following week.
Ultimately, it was the Tigers who earned a week off to prepare for the biggest game of the season.
Gundagai struck first through Sailusi Temaka, before the Dragons levelled the scores after 20 minutes.
The real turning point came with 10 minutes remaining in the first half, when Tyron Gorman showed his class, dummying his way over to restore the Tigers’ lead.
Quick tries to Derek Hay and James Morgan then followed Gorman’s four-pointer and, in a flash, Gundagai had taken a 14-point buffer into half-time.
Gabriel Gul and James Luff crossed for tries after the break to put the result beyond doubt, while Will Herring and Morgan, with his second, ensured Gundagai finished the game as dominant winners.
After going down 34-10 to the Dragons just a fortnight earlier, the victory capped a remarkable turnaround for the Tigers and puts the defending premiers in a strong position to claim another title.
Gundagai coach Hayden Ashcroft said the belief gained from the previous week’s win against Junee helped inspire the impressive response.
“After gaining a lot of confidence from the Junee win, we started the game really well and our middles laid a really good platform through hard work for us to score points on the back of.”
Ashcroft also lauded the Tigers’ defensive effort, while quickly turning his attention to the ultimate goal.
“We placed a huge emphasis on our defence as well which paid off. But we also won’t be getting ahead of ourselves, so we will enjoy this win but get back to work in preparing for the grand final,” Ashcroft said.
“Hard work got us into this position and hard work will be required up to and throughout the grand final. The week off just gives us a good chance to regroup and get back to work.”
The Tigers will now sit back and observe the clash between the Dragons and Southcity Bulls at Harris Park this weekend.
After scraping into the top five with a last-minute try in the final regular-season match, the Bulls have ticked every box so far when it comes to their opposition and will be looking for one more big scalp this weekend in the hope of advancing to the final Sunday of the season.
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