Tigers survive scare to beat Wallaroos

Defending premiers move one game away from grand final after beating the Wallaroos in the Bundaberg Rugby League A-grade

ALL IN: The Waves’ Lachlan Santana, Lolo Eliesa, Tyrell Howard and Viliami Hafoka celebrate a try against the Wallaroos.

LEAGUE: The Bundaberg Rugby League A-grade title will stay in the Rum City this year after the defending premiers eliminated the last remaining Fraser Coast team.

But it wasn’t without a scare or two.

The Waves will play Easts next week for a spot in the grand final after beating the Wallaroos 42-30 on Saturday night at Salter Oval.

The defending premiers led at half time 18-12 before leading by 18 points with less than 15 minutes to go.

The Wallaroos, with their season on the line, then came back with half Luke Waters stealing the show.

He scored two tries in the game before setting up a try to reduce the margin to 12 and then kicking a 40/20, which led to another try and a margin of six.

But The Waves scored a late try to seal the win.

“We either start strong or start slow and then finish slow or finish strong,” Tigers player Rohan Gibbs said.

“It’s been our year, we’ve got to get our head around that.”

The Waves had seven different try scorers including one each from Sam Tobin and Lachlan Santana, who are part of the under-18 team as well.

Gibbs said both played well and were joined by fellow youngsters Jai Smith and Lachlan Madden.

“They’ve just been really amazing and really stepped up,” he said.

“I love seeing the U18 boys coming through, you never have to worry about them, they always give 100 per cent.”

Gibbs said the side could qualify for the grand final, despite losing to Easts in the first week of the finals.

“We know when we play football we’re one of the better teams in town,” he said.

“We just got to stick to our game plan, and play simple football.”

The Roos were disappointed not to qualify for their third grand final in a row.

But it was still a positive year despite the loss.

“We have a lot of U18s coming through and they have got big futures,” Roos player Sam Barwick said.

“We just need to keep sticking with each other.”

Barwick said the team didn’t complete sets properly and gave The Waves forwards too much room to move in the middle. He said by the time the side got the momentum in the second half, it was too late.

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