Playing greater part of the game with 12 men, the Heroes were edged 18-16 by the West Tigers in Christchurch this evening.
In the first of two pre-season games, the rat Christchurch swarm was left frustrated by a disappointing Fighters execution. Fighters forward Zyon Maiu'u was shown a red card only 20 minutes in for a high shot. The contact brought about Declan Casey stretchered off and the Fighters making light of a man.
Wests went in first civility of a delightful drop of sham half from Apisai Koroisau which permitted Alex Seyfarth to crash over. The reaction was quick, as the Tigers hacked it up from the restart, Jacob Laban among the Champions to compel the turnover who then, at that point, ran a quality line off Luke Metcalf to score the Fighters' initial focuses.
The blow for blow proceeded, only two minutes after the fact Wests danced in again through Aidan Sezer following some feeble safeguard from the hosts. A critical deferral followed as Casey needed clinical help following Maiu'u's hit. it took until the 60th moment for additional focuses as Sione Latoa-Vaihu scored from a re-accumulated cross kick.
Falling off the seat, Nathaniel Roache made his presence felt straight away after he got past the Tigers' line from sham half. Setu Tu would then gather a pin-point grubber kick to score and bring the Heroes inside two. A copybook Ben Farr tackle saw the Tigers spill the ball with 90 seconds staying to give the Champions a going after set inside Wests half.
A pitch intruder ended the game and the house side's energy, permitting Wests to reset their cautious line. The Heroes would drive a recurrent set in any case the clock headed out to deny them one final shot at triumph. The Champions will have one last pre-season hit out next Saturday evening against the Dolphins in Auckland.