RUGBY UNION
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ORANGE City coach Steve Hamson called on his players to lift in the coming weeks, labelling the Lions' error-ridden performance "terrible" as they went down 13-12 to the still undefeated Forbes Platypi at Pride Park on Saturday afternoon.
The Lions were their own worst enemy in the loss - their first of the 2016 Blowes Clothing Cup season - making a constant stream of errors and drifting from their traditionally expansive game-plan to get caught in a mid-field grind by the substantially bigger Platypi side.
Although the Lions had plenty of chances in the final stages to snatch a victory from the jaws of defeat Forbes, buoyed by a 14-8 penalty count in their favour, prevailed to maintain their unbeaten start to the season.
In five rounds the rejuvenated Platypi side have already won one more game in 2016 than they did in the entire 2015 season.
"It wasn't just disappointing it was terrible," Hamson fired.
"We were hopeless really. It was errors, penalties, turnovers, take your pick really. We'd get down their end and give it back to them with one-out running and that type of thing.
"Forbes are solid and I don't want to take away from what they did well, but we were just terrible.
"It's a learning experience for the boys, they're all young and they're feeling the pressure a bit but that's not really an excuse.
"We play simple footy and they all know their jobs. I had hoped we'd do enough here [on Saturday] to get by and I think the opportunities were certainly there to win but we just weren't good enough."
Lions centre Jake Davis had a chance in the third minute to open the scoring, but shanked his attempted penalty goal.
Despite the Platypi securing six turnovers inside the first 10 minutes, Orange City had the next best chance to score when Cameron Cole found space after linking with fullback Joe Lasagavibau.
Cole planted the ball under the sticks, only to have it pulled back for obstruction.
From there, both sides had plenty of opportunities to score and didn't, for the most part because of strong defence both ways. Both sides made plenty of errors too.
It wasn't until the 31st minute the scoreboard changed from 0-0, when Forbes five-eighth Matt Kilgore nailed a 40 metre penalty goal to give his side a three-point lead.
Four minutes later Orange City kicked into gear, somewhat, and finally strung some phase-play together. They scored straight after doing , through Taylor Smith.
Davis missed the shot and with Kilgore sliding another penalty shot to the right on half-time, the Lions went into the break leading 5-3.
Forbes capitalised on more dropped ball in the 50th minute when marquee recruit Mahe Fangupo, playing halfback, burrowed over. Kilgore's conversion gave the Platypi a 10-5 lead.
Orange City replacement winger Semisi Katoa found the stripe 15 minutes later and Sam Dwyer nailed the conversion to see the hosts take a 12-10 lead, with about 15 to go.
In the next 10 minutes Kilgore had three separate opportunities to put his side in front with penalty goals and crucially, he kicked one.
With Forbes leading 13-12 and little more than minutes remaining Orange City had one last raid, putting together more than 15 phases inside the visitors' half.
Forbes held though, eventually holding up a maul and earning the ball back, to seal the result.
"To win here, Pride Park is like a graveyard for visiting teams, I'm so proud of the boys," Forbes coach Heamani Lavaka said.
"We had a big week. We know Orange City play for 80 minutes, always, and they'd take it from us if we blinked.
"It was a gutsy effort in defence at the end. It was a lot of work, but a great result."
FORBES PLATYPI 13 (Mahe Fangupo try; Matt Kilgore conversion, 2 penalty goals) def ORANGE CITY LIONS 12 (Taylor Smith, Semisi Katoa tries; Sam Dwyer conversion)
