Wests Tigers Coach Jason Taylor has praised his side's character in last night's trial match as they came back from 8-0 down to defeat the Cronulla Sharks 22-8.
Two tries in the space of 15 minutes before half-time from Sharks fullback Michael Gordon had seemingly given the visitors the upper hand on the match heading into the second half, but a controlled performance through the middle of the field and some individual brilliance from Tim Simona and James Tedesco saw Wests Tigers finish stronger and take the two points — something that Taylor believes will give his team plenty of confidence heading into 2015.
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"It was a bit of a scrappy opening half," said Taylor after the match, "but the fact that we had conceded eight points and not scored any ourselves at half-time but still remained positive and just kept working at what we came here to do was really encouraging.
"It was a good lesson for the guys to learn."
Taylor also praised the impact of the Club's forwards on the night, with the likes of Aaron Woods, Keith Galloway and Martin Taupau all stepping up their workload to deliver the win.
"I was worried about us getting through the game in terms of interchanges," said Taylor.
"We were running this game with our interchanges as if it was Round 1, so I was a bit worried how that was looking in the second half when the game was really tight.
"But then guys did really well and we finished quite strongly.
All in all, I'm comfortable that we're going to be able to get through the game in Round 1.
Wests Tigers' next match will be their opening match of the 2015 NRL season, where they take on the Gold Coast Titans at Cbus Super Stadium on Saturday, March 7.
"The boys will get some rest, and we'll do some video work to see how the Sharks scored those two early tries against us and how we could have stopped that," said Taylor.
"Nothing is going to change on our end between now and then, though.
"Our focus is going to be the same on our end heading into Round 1.
"We're just going to be focusing on the structures that are in place and getting better at what we do. We came into these two [trial] games focused on playing two good, controlled games and that's what will remain heading into Round 1.
Earlier in the night, Wests Tigers' NYC and NSW Cup sides both recorded come-from-behind wins as they defeated the Sharks and Jets 28-12 and 36-22 respectively.
Click here for the full match report from Wests Tigers 22-8 NRL trial match victory.
