Old Bar need to fix their poor starts if they’re going to figure prominently in the Group Three Rugby League finals series.
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Captain-coach Jake Wheeler said this after the Pirates came from trailing 0-16 to draw 16-16 win Wingham in the match at Wingham.
“Once again we didn’t start well,’’ Wheeler said,
“But the boys came home with a wet sail and it proves the pre-season we did is paying dividends now.
“But it was the same old-same old – in that first half we just didn’t hang onto the ball. You can’t win footy games by doing that.
“Then we turned around in the second half held onto the ball and scored 16 unanswered points.’’
Wheeler agreed there was some luck with all of Wingham's tries – with two coming from kicks and the other an intercept.
“In football that can go either way,’’ he added.
“But we’ll take something out of today as we move forward. We have Breakers at home and I’m looking forward to that.’’
This could be Old Bar’s last game before the semi-finals, with the Pirates due to meet Macleay Valley in the last round. The Mustangs have been forced to forfeit the last two matches.
“Yeah, it’s looking like we won’t have to play (the last round),’’ Wheeler said.
Wingham captain-coach Danny Russell blamed complacency for letting the Pirates back into the contest.
“We had them,’’ he said.
“We thought we were going to run away with it and that’s what the problem was. It was just our discipline, we kept on giving penalties away on the fourth or fifth tackle and they capitalised on it. It’s a bit hard, we'd pin them down in their 30 and then give them a penalty.
“Suddenly they’re in our 20.
“At least we got some points today, but three would have been better than two,’’ Russell said.
The Tigers will play Taree City on Saturday at Taree.
