By MARK CASHMAN

Randwick skipper Mitch Short reckons that Saturday’s last minute win over South Districts at Coogee Oval on Saturday could be worth “double” as the Shute Shield heads towards the playoff towards the end of August.

The Galloping Greens notched up a 29-25 Round Eight victory over Souths with skipper Short squeezing his way over, somewhat unconvincingly, from a rolling maul in the 79th minute for the go ahead score.

The game had bounced around all afternoon at a cold and windy Coogee and going into the final minutes the visitors led 25-22.

“We knew that Souths were always going to be tough to beat and in that first half we were really up against it,” Short told Rugby News.

“They had the run of the game early on and the scoreboard probably reflected that.

“We struggled to get out of our own half in the first 40 minutes but defensively I felt that we were pretty good and we took that into the second half.

“It’s always tight around that area of the competition ladder so in a way wins like this one are worth double.

“Going into the game we were aware of the situation as we haven’t got off to a great start, so to jag that one – we were pretty happy with that.”

The Wicks were first to get on the scoreboard with a penalty goal to fullback Blaise Barnes but Souths had the upper hand for much of the next half an hour thanks to a great kicking game from Myles Thoroughgood and some good heads up footy from Christian Kagiassis.

Souths in fact scored the next 17 points through tries to Kagaisssis and Rahboni Warren Vosayaco.

The maul was working well from their line out and to be honest things weren’t looking too flash for the home side.

But tries to Chris Eves and hooker Valance Yates dragged the home side back into the contest and set the scene for the late surge that provided victory.

The late yellow card to Josh Bokser did not help Souths but credit must go to the way that Randwick navigated their way back from their dodgy start into the contest.

Randwick coach Ben McCormack said the resilience shown by his side was encouraging as they tread a hard line towards a finals appearance this season.

“Souths got off to a good start by kicking well and putting our backfield under pressure,” McCormack said.

“They’ve got an excellent maul so that was dangerous anytime they were within 30 metres of our line.

“But my boys did a great job I thought, fought for the full 80 and scored the winning try with less than a minute to play.

“We put ourselves under a heap of unnecessary pressure early in game through silly mistakes or penalties but didn’t drop our bundle and just kept chasing it.

“It was a scrappy win but it was satisfying to see some desperation and passion from my boys and to come out with game with five points.”

Short added that the winning try was close to going the wrong way with Souths coming close to successfully closing down the momentum of the rolling maul.

“I was concerned that the ball was about to get tied up as a couple of the Souths guys had hands close to the ball,” Short added.

“So my logic was to rip the ball out and go for the line. It didn’t look that great but it got us their in the end.”

IMAGE: BRETT DOOLEY / RANDWICK RUGBY