Young Tigers suffer first defeat to Old Lions
21st February 2009
by Nigel Jarvis

Dhekelia Lions 31  Paphos Tigers 3

Match Report

On a cold wet and very windy day the Paphos Tigers travelled to Dhekelia for a top of the table clash with the Dhekelia Lions.

The Tigers having been forced to make 6 changes to their squad due to sickness injury and unavailability knew that they were in for a tough game against Dhekelia, as their team consisted of at least 90% Fijians who were well known for their fitness, and handling skills.

Nevertheless battle commenced and despite both teams missing early penalties, there were still no scores on the board until 35 minutes when Dhekelia were penalised for being offside and the penalty was duly slotted by Marcus Holden making the Tigers 3 – 0 up.

The lions quickly counterattacked after the restart and from a good driving and rolling maul peeled off along the line to score in the corner, but having missed the conversion the Lions were only leading 5-3.

A quick restart resulted in possession for the Lions and a long miss pass outfoxed the Tigers and they scored in the corner this time converting the try and making the half time score Lions 12 Tigers 3.

A fiery restart by both packs resulted in the referee warning both captains to calm their teams down, and no quarter was asked or given in the ensuing battle until Dhekelia managed to break away from the run of play and score in the corner making the score of their converted try giving a lead of 19 points to 3.

The Tigers dug in again and for the next 30 minutes put untold amounts of pressure on the Lions line but were not able to cross due to great defending, and even when one of our ex colts Danny Humphreys was knocked out by a knee did it break their spirit.

Even more pressure was applied by the Tigers and only stout defence by the Lions kept them out until yet again against the run of play in the 39th minute of the second half did the Lions breakaway and score down in the far corner making the score now 24-3. Battle recommenced but the game was won and after 3 minutes of injury time the Lions broke away again and scored a converted try making the final score Dhekelia Lions 31 Paphos Tigers 3.

The Lions had reversed their loss to the Tigers from earlier in the season at Paphos and were the better team on this day, but the Tigers can take great credit from their young cubs performance and the whole team’s guts and determination, and although the score is high it certainly does not reflect the quality of the match that the 50 or so travelling supporters watched, and if the Tigers hadn’t leaked the two trys in the last 5 minutes of the first half this would have been a totally different game..

This now makes the Dhekelia Lions top of the league on 18 points and all games played, whereas the Tigers are on 14 points with four games in hand and the league title could still be justifiably theirs, so still all to play for.

Nigel Jarvis

Secretary Paphos Tigers