Nyngan Tigers confident ahead of semi-finals despite loss to Dubbo CYMS

Mark Rayner - Daily Liberal 

In space: Colby Pellow sprinted away to score for Dubbo CYMS late in their match against Nyngan. Photo: BELINDA SOOLE

The Nyngan Tigers are convinced they have what it takes to take on Dubbo CYMS in the semi-finals after their second narrow defeat to the minor premiers his season.

Scores were locked at 24-all at Caltex Park on Sunday before a try to Jyie Chapman in the final three minutes.

While the loss cost the Tigers second place and will now see them face second-placed Macquarie this weekend, potentially in Dubbo, captain-coach Byron Warren was still happy with the performance.

“It was a good hard battle like the last time we played them. It was a hard slog and it took until the 78th minute to get the win,” he said.

“We weathered some attacking raids from them and they took four penalty goals against us which is a pat on the back for our defence.”

Warren said the goal heading into the game was to secure second with a win but was still optimistic about their finals chances.

“We’ll regroup, head to training on Tuesday and we are definitely still confident,” he said.

“We aren’t going anywhere.”

CYMS coach Tim Ryan said his team would enjoy the week off and get ready to take on the winner of the Macquarie and Nyngan clash.

“We treated this game like a semi-final and that’s how it turned out,” he said.

“We were guaranteed the week off so we wanted a good, hard game and now we will enjoy that.”

Ryan said he expects to have a near full strength outfit for the major semi-final in a fortnight.