By MARK CASHMAN

It’s the little things, the detail, that matter in the world of a Shute Shield coach.

So it’s not surprising that Eastern Suburbs coach Pauli Taumoepeau spoke glowingly of his side’s goal line defence after their 17-14 win over Southern Districts at Woollahra Oval on Saturday.

The Beasties held out Souths a number of times throughout this game, the most crucial being in the final seconds of the match and before that a critical couple of minutes just before halftime.

Taumoepeau reckons that Easts sides of the past would have conceded a score handing the high ground to Souths at the break and then the game at the finish.

“But the bits that really pleased were our goal line defence – to hold them out just before halftime and then at the end showed some real character,” Taumoepeau told Rugby News.

“Both teams I think can come away from this game with some confidence about the road ahead but I feel we left a few opportunities out there.

“Off the top of my head I think there were four or five try scoring opportunities that we just didn’t finish off.

“Charlie Gamble was amazing out there and Dean Oakman-Hunt did some good things.

“Overall I was happy with the work of my forward pack, but I want to challenge the guys in the backline to do more.

“What we need to fix is the stuff between those big moments, but we head into Round Two with a win under our belt and that is a good thing.”

“We’ve spoken of those things, you know the soft underbelly and being able to analyse and fix things on the run.”

This was truly a game of two halves with Easts taking their chances in the first 40 minutes with tries to Clay Uyen firstly and then Jack Grant after an early penalty goal to Dan Donato.

They negotiated the period just before the break and to be honest were very lucky not to concede a five pointer at that stage.

That would have put some wind in Souths’ sails going into the break but the adjustments at halftime made by coach Todd Louden seem to work a treat.

Tries to Andrew Tuala and Josh Tangitau tightened the game up and set the scene fo a dramatic couple of minutes at the end with the Rebels bashing away at the Easts try line to no avail.

“It was a typical first (competition) game of the season wasn’t it,” Souths coach Todd Louden pondered in the wake of the game.

“It was quite scrappy and there was a lack of clarity around some of the elements of our game, but we got a lot of learnings from it which was good.

“Looking back it was one of those games where neither side won it, but I feel as though we have the elements of a good side in the making.

“It’s a long season so to lose by only three points to one of the teams considered to be among the competition favourites and not play well I think bodes well for us as this competition matures.

“We’ve got a big pack and our backs aren’t that far off from clicking so it’s all about cohesion for us from here

“At half time I told the side that we weren’t our usual physical selves and we were trying to play a style of rugby that probably just wasn’t us and that our kicking guy wasn’t our kicking game

EASTERN SUBURBS 17 (Jack Grant, Clay Uyen tries; Rohan Saifoloi pen goal, 2 conversions) d SOUTHERN DISTRICTS 14 (Andrew Tuala, Josh Tangitau tries; Christian Kagiassis 2 conversions) at Woollahra Oval.

Look out here comes Sydney Uni – that was the vibe coming out of a number of sources that Rugby News spoke to in the wake of their 56-24 win over the Hunter Wildfires on Saturday.

The Students scored seven five pointers and were awarded a penalty try in the big win over the Wildfires but it was the reappearance of a number of qualities of the teams from their premiership teams of late that impressed.

In the first 40 minutes there were only two unforced errors from the home side and they seem to be able to move the Wildfires defence around almost at will.

Their breakdown work was good and their defensive line as effective as it has been in recent seasons, all due obviously to the work of assistant coach Phil Blake.

“We knew their defensive line was good from looking at what they did in some of the trials but they seem to have lifted it to another level,” Wildfires coach Scott Coleman said.

“Our boys knew what was coming but they just got spooked by the line speed that they were putting on us.”

The Students went into the break with a 45-0 lead and that enabled the visitors to reset to a certain degree and the second stanza was much more competitive..

A total of 24 points followed to only 11 from the home side.

Uni coach Rob Taylor was happy with the first 60 minutes of the afternoon.

“I’m happy we executed about 60 percent of our game plan,” he said.

“Not happy to leak four tries in the last 20 minutes but all credit must go to the Wildfires, they are going to beat some big teams this year.”

Coleman said the road trip down from Newcastle had taken its toll.

“But we’ve just got to get our heads around that this is part of the grind of playing in the Shute Shield,” he said. “It’ll be the same for other teams when they head up to play us.

No.8 Kirk Tufuga was Coleman’s pick as his best while Henry Stowers did well when he came off the bench after playing a full game in reserve grade.

SYDNEY UNI 56 (Eddie Poolman 2, Tim Clements, Declan Moore 2, Henry Robertson, Henry Clunies-Ross, penalty try; Ben Hughes 7 conversions) d HUNTER WILDFIRES 24 (Tiueti Asi, Will Lewesi 2, Abele Atunasia tries; Nathan De Thierry 2 conversions) at Sydney Uni Football Ground.

IMAGE: AJF PHOTOGRAPHY