WINGHAM will look to kick start their Group Three Rugby League premiership campaign at home with the clash against Port City on Saturday April 27.
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The Tigers, touted as one of the side's to beat in 2019 during pre-season discussions, are now 0/2 following defeats by Forster-Tuncurry and Wauchope in the opening fortnight of the competition.
"We need to kick start our season and what better place than at home,'' captain-coach Mick Sullivan said after his side went down 29-28 to Wauchope at Wauchope.
This will be Wingham's first home game of the season.
"Hopefully we'll have a better preparation with a home game. We'll also have Nick Beacham and Joel Kleindienst back to that should help.''
Kleindienst will have served his suspension after being sent off in last season's minor semi-final while Beacham has been sidelined after being injured in the pre-season.
Sullivan said the Tigers played some good football in patches.
"But we also played some pretty bad patches as well,'' he added.
"We still lost too much ball and that's something we have to work on.''
The scores were locked at 28-28 with about three minutes remaining when Wauchope's Nick McCabe knocked over a field goal to break the deadlock. The Blues then made an error from the kickoff, but managed to hold Wingham out to record consecutive wins this season
Matt Bridge had a busy game at fullback for the Tigers while Tate Grofos did his job playing off the bench. Hooker Mitch Collins got through plenty of work.
NSW Country under 18 representative Lachlan Williams made his first grade debut on the wing and Sullivan said he turned in a sound performance.
Sullivan appreciates that Port City will be a tough opponent.
"But we have to play them all at some point of the season and we might as well get them when we're at home,'' he said.
Coach Anthony Boyd admitted if there was anything that could go wrong in the second half for his side it did, although their resilience shone through.
"We only completed four sets in the second half so we brought it on ourselves; it was horrible," he said.