After scoring a late try to lock up the scores at half-time only to concede first points in the second half, the Bears showed their attacking prowess with two quick tries to claim the lead with 15 minutes to go.

Both were long-range efforts, captain-coach Luke Deaves sparking the first with a chip and regather to almost send Todd Cleal over.

The Tigers’ defence scrambled back to bring him down but infringed at the ruck and were penalised.

From the tap the Bears spread it wide to the right where the Tigers were undermanned. They managed to get to the winger in time but as he was being pushed out he flicked the ball back inside to Sam Watters.

Five minutes later fullback Brad Waters made a weaving run, and a couple of plays later hooker Jake Deaves darted over from dummy half.

But two tries in the last five minutes saw the Tigers get home.

Turnovers and penalties were the Bears’ undoing.

Both of the Tigers’ late tries came from piggybacks down the field, and for a lot of the game they struggled to put the Manilla defence under repeated pressure.

They spent a lot of the first half defending, but defended their line like Bears protecting their dens.

“I was happy with our defence in the first half,” Deaves said.

“We just couldn’t compete with the amount of dropped ball.”

That was one of the things he spoke about improving at half-time.

“I just thought we had to control the ball and get back to our sets,” he said.

It did improve in the second half, and for a while there the Bears looked on top.

“The second half was okay,” Deaves said.

“We came back there and put a few points on them.”

While disappointed with the result after having the points in their grasp, Deaves was proud of his sides effort under some duress.

“We had three or four our main players out,” he said.

“And only had a bench of three, which made it tough.”

They also lost prop Troy Dawson after he was knocked out mid-way through the first half and “missed a lot of go forward”.

On top of that they only had the one half, and had to play a second rower at half-back.

There were certainly though enough moments to give them hope for the season, and Deaves boldly predicted they will be there at the end.

He thought Jake Deaves was their best.

“He played really well,” he said.

“He completed all game and defensively was solid.”