Before a ball was kicked in 2018, Southern Districts were tipped by many as favourites to breakthrough and win a maiden Shute Shield title after falling just short on a number of occasions in recent years. But after five rounds, the Rebels are anything but. Besides an opening round victory over Penrith, Souths are winless in 2018 following disappointing losses to West Harbour, Manly, Eastwood and Warringah so far this year. “I think we’ve just been lacking that little bit of experience around the park and our game management has suffered as a result of that,” Southern Districts coach Matt Barr told Rugby News. “We’ve been in every game that we’ve lost this year, but we’ve just let ourselves down at crucial moments and made errors when we shouldn't have. Our execution has been off and in this competition, the opposition is going to make you pay for that.” Injuries have hit the Rebels hard early in 2018, particularly in the backline and Barr has been forced