Canowindra was unable to keep a grip on fifth place in the Woodbridge Cup, only managing to earn one premiership point after drawing 28-all against Molong Bulls on Sunday.
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It was a match that the Tigers knew they had to win to retain their chance to enter the top four with Peak Hill beating top of the table Trundle.
The first half was grinding affair with the scoreline never out of reach of either team.
First points came Molong's way on the back of poor discipline from the Tigers, however the speed of fullback Frazer Ryder leveled the scores a few minutes later.
Molong hit back thanks to a dropped ball by Aaron Earsman, the scoreline sitting at 12-6. An arm wrestled developed with both sides tussling in the middle of the park.
Two tries for the Tigers off the work of Timmy Roberts, Dean Murray, Harry Whatman and Andrew Kelleher gave them the lead with six minutes to go.
A controversial penalty to Molong just before the siren sent both teams into the break at 18 all.
The Tigers took control of the second half with two tries in the next 20 minutes, taking taking the score out to 28-18.
Poor defence and an intercept brought Molong back into the contest at 28-all with 11 minutes to go.
The final attacking opportunity would be given to the Tigers but with the final seconds quickly counting down they were unable to capitalize and were forced into the first draw of the season.
Tigers' Barry Traves said errors were the undoing of the side.
"It's a fairly big side this Molong one and they'll keep coming at you," he said.
"I think we could've got on top and come over them but we just needed to stop giving the ball back. We needed to clean up the little mistakes to take the pressure off our defence.
"We played the better football in the second half but unfortunately found ourselves equal up on the score board.
Points
- Montrose House Player's Player went to Frazer Ryder
- One point went to both Semisi Tupou and Dean Murray
- Two points went to Brydon Hughes
- Three points went to Nathan Whatman