A SLASHING Trent Taylor try six minutes from full time stunned the Bellevue Oval crowd and catapulted the Greater Northern Tigers under-18s to a 32-28 win over Northern Rivers in Armidale on Saturday.
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The Tigers, who failed to make the finals, trailed 28-26 late in the game before Taylor's sensational run, from an inside pass by Steve Dengate, ignited the crowd.
The spindly fullback still had some work to do when he sliced through the Titans' defensive line but his speed and step beat Titans fullback Oliver Lindley.
Taylor dived over after the 50m burst to be swamped by ecstatic teammates, who then celebrated their second win of the Laurie Daley Cup.
It wasn't the only spark of brilliance.
Aberdeen's Bailey Miller-Fairbairn steered the Tigers to the lead midway through the second half. His 40-20 kick earned the Tigers the ball on the Titans' 10m line and then he snuck over from a neat blindside play a few tackles later.
Greater Northern had led 4-nil after a Cooper Harris try but then the bigger Titans took over and the visitors led 12-15.
The Tigers then scored three tries through centre Jhett Butler, halfback Dengate and centre Blair Maloney.
The home side led 20-12 at halftime. But trailed 22-20 after Jahvis Kendall and Kuyan Robert-Laurie had given the Titans the upper hand.
Tigers coach Peter Stevens was delighted and excited by the never-say-die attitude of his side, considerably smaller than Northern Rivers.
"That's been the case every week," he said of the small and mobile Tigers.
TIGERS 32 (Jhett Butler, Blair Maloney, Trent Taylor, Steven Dengate, Cooper Harris, Bailey Miller-Fairbairn tries; Taylor 2, Dengate 2 goals) d TITANS 28 (Simon Pratt, Lachlan Hallard, Jahvis Kendall, Carl Lolohea, Kuyan Robert-Laurie tries, Thomas Vickey 4 goals)
