A depleted Wingham Tigers team were pipped at the post by the Old Bar Pirates on Saturday afternoon.

The first graders made the trip to Old Bar Reserve after a loss against Port City the previous week had left many players sore.

Dave Corbet suffered a season-ending injury, while Richie Donovan was unavailable with a shoulder problem.

Joel Kleindeist was also unavailable.

Despite the loss of key players, the Tigers were still expected to win after their 44-12 victory over the Pirates five weeks earlier.

Winger Aaron Green lasted only a minute into the game before a knee injury.

A minute later, an early try to the home team gave them a 6-0 lead.

The Pirates played a slow game which did not allow the Tigers to get into any rhythm.

Ten minutes after the first try, Luke Steel scored in the corner.

Fifteen minutes before the break, Wingham went ahead when Nigel Latham collected a grubber kick to score out wide.

Leading 8-6, the game took a turn after a break by the Pirates.

Fullback Luke Steel was sin binned after a tackle.

While he was off the field, the Pirates scored twice to lead 18-8 at the break.

Wingham bombed a try early in the second half.

Just moments later, Old Bar Beach went further ahead with a try from a grubber kick off the last tackle.

The Tigers fans saw some light when captain Nigel Latham crossed for his second try. Luke Steel’s conversion made the score 24-14.

But another error saw Wingham hand the ball over immediately, and the home team capitalised with another converted try to lead 30-14.

Midway through the stanza, Ben Webber scored for Wingham in the corner.

An Old Bar player was sent off for repeated head high tackles.

Shortly afterwards, Nigel Latham got his third try.

Luke Steel converted from the sideline to have Wingham trailing 30-24 with 15 minutes remaining.

With the Tigers in possession, and an opposition player clinging onto his jersey, the Pirate was pushed away, resulting in a penalty against Wingham.

The Pirates’ penalty goal extended the lead to eight points with 10 minutes left on the clock.

A couple of minutes later, a king hit by an Old Bar player to the back of Ryan McIntosh’s head saw him knocked out.

The offending player was also sent from the field.

With time running out against just 11 players, the Tigers’ frustration saw them make mistakes and hand the ball back to the opposition.

Pete Smith ran 70 metres in the final minute to score under the posts.

Luke Steel converted.

But before the kick-off could take place, the final bell sounded, with the Pirates victorious, 32-30.

Wingham had scored six tries to five, but never really deserved to win.

Reserve grade

The Tigers reserve grade team struggled against the fifth placed Pirates but still managed their sixth consecutive win.

Like the first grade game, it was a stop-start affair punctuated by the frequent sound of the referee’s whistle.

Aaron Murray was sin-binned midway through the first half.

The only score in the first stanza came seconds before the bell with a penalty goal to Scott Murray.

Three tries in the first 10 minutes after the break extended the visitors’ lead to 14-0.

Ben Northam, Scott Hammond and Michael Richards were the scorers.

Then the Pirates hit back with back-to-back tries to trail 14-10.

Inside the final 10 minutes, Doug Ferguson scored an individual try which was converted by Scott Hammond.

A disallowed try to Daniel Buck was of no consequence as the Tigers extended their winning run to six consecutive games.

Under 18s

The under 18s seized a 26-4 victory over the bottom-of-the-ladder Old Bar Pirates. The game was a tough encounter, despite the score. Tries to Scott Atkinson and Tyler Blanch, which was converted by Tyrone Jowett, gave Wingham a 10-0 lead.

Five minutes before the break, Old Bar scored an unconverted try.

A grubber from Nick Watson that he dived on under the posts gave Wingham breathing space.

Tyrone Jowett’s conversion made the score 16-4 at the break.

Tyler Blanch crossed for his second try early in the second half, again converted by Tyrone Jowett.

A try five minutes from the fulltime bell to Wayd Bowden wrapped up the scrappy 26-4 win by the young Tigers.