Tedesco's magic play baffles everyone

James Tedesco's match-clinching solo try against the Cowboys on Sunday afternoon had to be seen to be believed and after the game even the man himself still wasn't sure what had happened.

Tedesco beat 10 players on his late run to the line (if you count a couple of second efforts) and somehow got the ball down with three players still on him. It turned a tense six-point advantage at 20-14 into an unassailable 26-14 scoreline.

Afterwards, the fullback said he wasn't sure what had happened while his coach admitted that even after Tedesco had beaten half the Cowboys team he was still just hoping for a quick play the ball to set up for a field goal.

"I said to Mitch [Moses] I would just be an option outside him," Tedesco recalled after the game.

"He threw me the ball and I was not confident taking a field goal, so I just thought I would run it. I don't know how I go there in the end, I was just trying to get wherever.

"The boys say they try and support me but they don't know where I'm running. I don't know where I'm running either, I just found myself near the line. I was pretty lucky to get there."

Tedesco admitted to being relieved, given that the Tigers' previous set in field goal range ended with hooker Dene Halatau being tackled on the fifth play and Tedesco, forced to jump into dummy-half, firing a wild ball over the head of Moses as he called for a field goal.

"I was pretty worried if it was double movement then they would get a penalty and they would be down our end. I know Mitch was thinking field goal, he wanted to go the set before but I threw a pass over his head we ended up getting a repeat set, so we were lucky.  We'll take it," Tedesco said.

"I was looking up, Mitch was like 'hit me'. I'll have to start practising them I think!"

Coach Jason Taylor admitted the last few minutes had been shaping up to be "really scary" after a late Ethan Lowe try gave the visitors a few minutes in which they needed one try to force the game to golden point extra time – but luckily the Cowboys produced an error shortly after the restart that allowed the Tigers to dominate the final couple of sets.

"I still can't believe that he scored," Taylor said of Tedesco's freakish effort.

"When he was getting close I thought 'he's got people all over the place and he's beaten that many, maybe we can kick a field goal on the back of this play the ball' - that was all I was thinking. But he got there."

Skipper Aaron Woods added, in understated fashion, he had been "pretty happy" with the try.

"It sort of sealed the game. As 'JT' said we were setting up for a field goal. Teddy's one of those players, anything can happen around him," Woods said.