A first half onslaught from the Tigers NYC side has seen them run out 34-22 this afternoon at ANZ Stadium.
It was 22-nil at the half-time break and whilst the young pups scored the opening two tries of the second half, the Tigers were too strong and ran away comfortable winners.
There were a number of changes to the side with fullback Joseph Burchell, five-eighth Brendan Cox and interchange forward Jamel Hunt were ruled out with Ali Allouche coming into the starting side whilst Alex Sorge and Josh Bergamin were the new additions to the squad.
A mistake riddled opening 10 minutes was added to with a number of penalties also being awarded but it was in the 16th minute that the Tigers opened their account through winger John Tohi. The side earned a penalty after the young pups were judged to be offside and a smart offload from backrower Junior Tatola created an overlap and two passes along saw Tohi go over in the south-west corner untouched. Halfback Eli Levido converted from out wide to give the tigers a 6-nil lead after 17 minutes.
An error from the Bulldogs gifted the Tigers possession once more and they didn’t disappoint, making a break down the right before crossing in the opposite corner to the first try, through winger Obed Karwhin. Levido again converted to extend the lead out to 12-nil.
The Tigers went over two more times before the first half was rounded out with prop forward Jacob Liddle and then Karwhin grabbed his second. Both were converted and the lead at half-time was 22-nil.
It was a better start to the second half with the young pups running in two tries in the opening 12 minutes. The first was through fullback Bergamin and then four minutes later winger Ethan Natoli crossed for his first try of the year. Brad Keighran could only convert one of the tries and the Tigers lead was trimmed to 22-10 after 52 minutes of play.
The match was all but wrapped up in the next period with a further two tries being scored. JJ Felise scored before Karwhin went over to register his hat-trick in his debut match. Both were converted with the lead out to 34-12.
The young pups were able to run in two consolation tries with Siaopo Tagaloa and Harry Pondekas going over and with one conversion the match finished 36-20.
TIGERS 34 (Karwhin 3, Tohi, Liddle, Felise Tries; Levido 5 Goals)
Def.
Bulldogs 22 (Bergamin, Natoli, Tagaloa, Pondekas Tries; Keighran 3 Goals)
At: ANZ Stadium
