HITTING the road, the Lithgow Giants headed to Kandos to take on the Waratahs in the latest round of the New Era Cup rugby league competition.
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The Giants started off strong holding Kandos in their own half for the first 10 minutes before a string of penalties gave Kandos good possession, on which the Waratahs were quick to capitalise to open up the scoring.
Kandos crossed for a second time shortly after to give them a 12-nil lead.
The Giants’ forwards were working hard with the likes of Chris Boyd-Skinner, Sam McAndrew and Jamie Tepania putting in plenty of work.
It was only time before the Waratahs’ defence cracked and Jamie Tepania crossed the line for the Giants.
A successful conversion by Nev Turner brought the score to 12-6.
The game was a physical one with plenty of big hits from both sides.
The Giants lost a strong player when Zach Jones took a deep cut to his neck after a collision with a Kandos player which required stitches.
With Jones off the field Kandos used their built up momentum to cross for another try.
Firing back, the Giant’s backline worked Kandos out wide with winger Dougie Wright crossing over the line just before half time to leave the score 18-10.
Controversy erupted early in the second half after the Giants’ Ben Hews contested a Kandos try on the grounds of double movement.
As tempers heated, Hews was sent from the field leaving the Giants a man down which proved costly.
Giving away unnecessary penalties, the Giants gave Kandos opportunities to increase their tally and they did just that, capitalising on the Giants mistakes to win the game 40-10.
Shaun Faulker had a strong game in attack as did Trevor Wilson who made plenty of meters when it was needed.
“We were in the game at the start until we gave them easy metres from the back of some stupid penalties, and then to lose Ben Hews and Zach Jones at half time being two very influential players on the side who lead by example was always going to make it hard,” coach Brad Adams said.
“The boys still dug deep with a lot of calls that could have went either way had them all frustrated which broke down our structured play,” he said.
The Giants have the bye today before taking on the Lithgow Bears the following weekend at Tony Luchetti in which should be a good game between two local teams.
