The Nyngan Tigers delivered the kind of performance they, their fans, and so many in Group 11 had been waiting for on Sunday.
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It had been a case of close, but not close enough for much of the Tigers' season but at Wellington's Kennard Park they scored a thrilling 28-24 win.
The Tigers have so often been their own worst enemy in big games this season, with penalties at all the wrong times and unforced errors gifting the opposition attacking chances.
And while there was plenty of nervy moments against the Cowboys on Sunday, the Tigers were far more composed and produced a result that will make the rest of the competition sit up and take notice.
Early on it appeared it was going to be more of the same as ill-discipline allowed the Cowboys to build a 16-4 lead, somewhat against the run of play, late in the first half.
With influential halfback Josh Merritt gone from the game following a head knock the Tigers were up against it but a brilliant 80m try finished by Ash Widders right on half-time gave the visitors some momentum.
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The Tigers scored twice inside 10 minutes of the restart to take control and while they lost centres Clynton Edwards and Sonny Knight to injury, and the Cowboys rallied to lead again at one point, a fantastic individual effort from Farren Lamb with 11 minutes to go secured victory in a hugely entertaining contest.
Nyngan prop Guy Thompson, who again was always there for a carry and got through a mountain of work up front, was incredibly proud of his side after the final whistle.
"That's a good effort by the boys," he said.
"We were down to one reserve there. All year we've spoken about turning up for each other and if we do that and cut out the errors and penalties we'll give a couple of these big names a real shake."
The Tigers had their chances to defeat both CYMS and Macquarie at Dubbo earlier in the season while a draw with Forbes in the early weeks was also frustrating.
But Thompson said the side is starting to play it's best footy when it matters and Sunday's win was one the Tigers had been looking for.
We're starting to build and we're coming into form at the right time of the season.
- Guy Thompson
"We've beaten everyone below us," he said.
"We'd come up short against Macquarie and we'd come up short against CYMS and we came up short against these guys (earlier in the season) so there'd been a couple of disappointing results mid-season that could have gone either way.
"We're starting to build and we're coming into form at the right time of the season."
The Cowboys produced some brilliant attacking footy of their own at times on Sunday and wrestled back the lead at one point in the second half but some uncharacteristic errors late in the match led to just their second defeat of the season.
None of those mistakes were as big as when star fullback Will Lousick was wishing for a Tigers kick to roll into touch, only for winger Widders to come flying in and plant it down in-goal right under his nose.
"It's a disappointing loss," captain-coach Justin Toomey-White said.
"We put ourselves under pressure for the full 80 minutes but credit to Nyngan because they came here to play.
"There was errors in our own half and we weren't capitalising on things.
"We defended well but they scored some pretty good tries off things that could have gone 50-50, but they played awesome today."
There was a sign of things to come in just the third minute when Merritt regathered his chip kick and found Lamb, who raced away to score the opener.
Dennis Moran's introduction off the bench and some heated moments resulting in penalties against the Tigers allowed the Cowboys back into the match and tries for Toomey-White, EJ Fernando, and Will Lousick put them up 16-4.
The Tigers' brilliant try late in the half was started by a break along the left wing from Terrance Ryan and he found five-eighth Jak Jeffrey, who bounced off tackles while running across field before finding Widders, who had too much pace for the Cowboys' defence.
Jeffrey and Edwards scored shortly after the break to get the Tigers fans up and about, only for the Cowboys to answer back again.
A CJ Ralph break from within his own half led to a try for Corey Cox before Lousick did it all himself and powered over.
Mason Williams' missed conversion kept the Cowboys' lead at 24-20 and just five minutes late Widders caught Lousick napping.
Then with players tiring, a Thompson offload went to ground on halfway before Dean Hawkins, whose kicking game was brilliant after Merritt departed, gave the ball to Lamb and the elusive ball runner raced 40m and jinked pass tackles to score the all-important final try.
The victory for Nyngan sets up a massive home game against competition leaders CYMS at Larkin Oval next week while the Cowboys will look to bounce back against a Macquarie side which was beaten by Parkes on Sunday.
- NYNGAN TIGERS 28 (Ash Widders 2, Farren Lamb 2, Clynton Edwards, Jak Jeffrey tries; Sam Simmons 2 goals) defeated WELLINGTON COWBOYS 24 (Will Lousick 2, Justin Toomey-White, EJ Fernando, Corey Cox tries; Mason Williams 2 goals)
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