A huge crowd was waiting for Uralla’s two newest Group 19 premiership winning sides when they returned to their home town late Sunday afternoon.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
“There were a lot of very happy people there,” an elated Tigers’ president and under 18s coach Carl Press said.
The Tigers league-tag and under 18s capped off remarkable seasons with memorable grand final wins at Moree on Sunday.
The juniors overcame Goondiwindi 24-12 even after they lost their biggest star on the eve of the match.
NSW Country representative and Tigers five-eighth Jordan Press went down in Saturday afternoon’s final ball run.
“He was just running in a straight line and tore his meniscus,” father and coach Carl said. “All the boys were pretty shellshocked.
“I just told them they had won without him all season and they could do it again.
“Jordan missed about eight weeks in the middle of the season and the side didn’t miss a beat.”
The Tigers did have a pretty handy replacement for Press in the electric Fred Campbell.
“It was a bit of a luxury for us,” Press said.
“Freddy played a lot of five-eighth in first grade for us this year and I think that’s why the boys were still confident going in.”
Sunday’s decider was a trademark defensive war with the Tigers holding a slender 6-nil lead through a Mark Walker try and a Bevan Wood penalty on half-time.
Sam Press extended that lead to 14-nil with a try 12 minutes into the second half.
Goondiwindi did get one back and then had five sets on the Tiger line shortly after but couldn’t crack the stout Uralla defence.
“That’s probably what won us the grand final,” Carl Press said.
Replacement prop Brendan Waters barged over soon after and Greg Press sealed the win with a try of his own inside the final 10 minutes.
Prop Jarrod Jessop was named man of the match and his front row partner Marcus Doran was also a standout.
Uralla had been racking up some huge scores in the league-tag throughout 2014, but fought out a grinding 12-6 win over Ashford.
Bea Roberts opened the scoring to give Uralla a 6-nil lead.
Hannah Archibald also got a try before half time and Amy Baraclough made no mistake of either conversion for the Tigers to lead 12-nil at half time.
The Tigers defensive line held strong throughout the second half and while Ashford did manage one try, Uralla were on top throughout the match.
It was the second successive premiership for the Uralla league-tag side.