Down 10-6 at the break, Justin Carney's Tigers had to defend for large chunks of the second period but managed to keep the swoopers off the board and crossed for tries to Hammond Erepan, Sam Simmons and evergreen-hooker Jacob Neill to seal a 20-10 opening round victory at Spooner Oval.

Neill's try was the highlight, the veteran No.9 darting through on his own 40-metre line before fooling all of the Magpies scramble defence - with a bevvy of dummies and slight -of-hand - to scurry 60m and score virtually untouched.

Young halves recruit Jai Merritt was also strong in his Tigers debut, steering the Nyngan ship in the absence of his brother Josh.

The younger Merritt put Erepan through for his try and produced the towering bomb which led to Simmons' four-pointer - both crucial in the Tigers' second-half comeback.

The game was littered with a flurry of errors and the Tigers slow-down tactics proved key as the Nyngan forwards managed to keep pace with Forbes' up-tempo game.

"We've had a topsy-turvey couple of weeks and there's a few people on shift work and that sort of stuff, it was very pleasing to see the boys turn up and give it their all," Carney said.

"I'm sure Forbes will be disappointed and we've got a lot to work on as well. That's a good one to get out of the road. It's a long trip for us boys to come over here and to get the two points is pleasing.

"Overall, we got the two points and that's what we came here for."

Forbes scored first through Bailey Hartwig before Carney barged through on the back of a mix of speed and brute force on 28 minutes to gift Nyngan a 6-4 lead.

The match ebbed and flowed from that point on but just before the break new Magpies No.7 Jordan Hartwig produced a lovely little skip across field to draw in a number of Nyngan defenders before putting Ethan Gaffney over out wide.

Bailey Hartwig's conversion from out wide after the siren handed Forbes a 10-6 lead at half time.

The defending champs camped themselves in Nyngan territory for the bulk of the second stanza and threatened to skip further ahead on multiple occasions, but the visitors managed to strike first blood.

It was a key blow, too.

In a rare visit to the Magpies end, Merritt made the premiers pay and put Erepan through a gaping hole to score and hand the Tigers a 12-10 lead.

Both sides found themselves guilty of a litany of errors in the second half and bombed tries as well.

Carney sliced through in the 58th minute but his pass to a flying Ash Widders floated forward.

Four minutes later Forbes skipper Hayden Bolam darted past some lazy Tigers ruck defence and Jake Stenhouse looked certain to score in support but he dropped the Bolam pass back on the inside with the line wide open.

The Tigers' fight was then rewarded with tries to Simmons - a telling blow to skip the black and golds out to a 16-10 lead with five minutes remaining - before Neill produced a highlight reel moment to score the clincher in the 76^th minute.

"Our completions were terrible in that second half and think it was five out of 14," Forbes coach Cameron Greenhalgh said.

"Six times we dropped ball on the third tackle ... dropped one with the line wide open and we get them points and maybe momentum changes a little bit."

Nyngan looks set to be without replacement Jak Jeffrey for an extended period, with the diminutive forward carried from the field and taken to hospital after suffering a leg injury.

While Forbes lost lock Jake Haddrill with a dislocated shoulder in the first half.