Both coaches, Shannon Foley and Abel Lefaoseu however were far from disappointed with the effort from their charges with the league tag going down 6-0 in a great defensive effort, and the men refusing to give an inch in their 28-16 loss.

After a solid 48-22 win over Molong in their last home game, the men's team travelled down to Canowindra last Saturday to test their mettle against a genuine competition heavyweight who were sitting 3rd on the ladder with just one loss so far.

Coach Abel Lefaoseu, knew it would give him a true gauge of his team's chances of challenging for this year's title.

Despite going down 28-16, Lefaoseu was pleased to see the commitment from his troops and was confident that he could build on that performance and be a force at the back-end of the season.

Oberon opened the scoring in the early minutes of the game with Senio 'Bob' Lefaoseu crossing out wide to continue his season's try-fest and give his team an early 4-0 lead.

Canowindra responded under a glut of possession and, despite the efforts of Oberon's full-back Ryan Thompson who was proving to be a safe custodian at the back, the home side equalled and took the lead with a converted try 6-4.

Canowindra continued to pile on the pressure for the next ten minutes and were rewarded again with another converted try to advance their lead to 12-4. Both sides had their fair share of 'big boppers' and the collisions were simply thunderous. Oberon's two big book-ends, Joey Ward and Jacob Monaghan, were both first half casualties and took no further part in the game.

The second half saw the Tigers having to reshuffle their bench rotations to cover for the loss of their two props. Canowindra took early advantage and struck within the first few minutes after resumption of play to take a commanding 18-4 lead.

Shortly after, Oberon's Lochie Gilmore gave his side a glimmer of hope with an opportunist intercept to keep the highland-men in-touch 18-8. Even die-hard Canowindra supporters acknowledged that neither team were giving an inch in a very physical and willing battle.

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The match went try for try until the full-time siren with Luke Christie-Johnston and Anton Wereta each bagging a well-deserved four-pointer for Oberon. It was an unusually poor day with the boot for Oberon as three conversions, virtually in front of the posts, failed to go over the cross-bar denying the visitors at least six extra points that would normally be 'banked' in any other game.

At the end of the day there was only a one try difference in the final scoreline of 28-16 in favour of Canowindra, and all at the ground applauded both sides as they left the field, with the players acknowledging each other in a silent understanding that they had both played hard, fair and dug deep in an enthralling competition between two very committed sides.

Oberon's coach Foley was looking for a vast improvement in her young side after their last match, out-of-character 18-4 capitulation to Molong. In terms of defensive effort, she got just that - a gutsy, committed effort, however it was her team's attacking options that saw them go down narrowly 6-0, after failing to convert any momentum they built throughout the match.

The first half was a scoreless affair from both sides. Oberon were missing two of their stars in Ella Brien and Renee Newstead, which certainly diminished some of their attacking fire-power.

However, the likes of Mia Dopper, Layla Rumball and Jess Lutschini stepped up to fill the breech and put in huge performances. Oberon's Jade Taggart never stopped trying as she led by example, urging her troops on but it just wasn't Oberon's day as the team's attack misfired.

Foley said that the girls have been training hard and it was only a matter of time that her new, young team 'gelled' and the effort at training will be transferred to game day.

Oberon host Trangie this Saturday at the Oberon Leagues Club Ground. The Oberon Juniors have both the under 10's and under 11's playing starting from midday followed by the open League Tag, kicking off at 1:30pm, with the men's first grade at 3pm. It'll be a big day for the Tigers club so we encourage everyone to get down to the ground and support the Tiges.