By MARK CASHMAN

Northern Suburbs hooker James Margan scored a double as the Shoremen kept pace with the top end of the Shute Shield competition with a 35-17 win over Southern Districts on Saturday in the 7TWO TV match of the round.

Norths negotiated what was always going to be a difficult game made even harder by the windy conditions that prevailed throughout the 80 minutes at Rat Park.

Souths were always going to come at Norths hard at scrum time with their Super Rugby quality front row that featured Tim Metcher, Andrew Tuala, who played last year at Norths, and Tetera Faulkner.

The Shoremen did kick off things with a try under the posts from Harry Burey but that was when the Rebels scrum kicked into gear after they were able to get some time inside the Norths 22m area.

They were robust and patient and it eventually led to their No.8 Sama Malolo diving over the top of a ruck for the visitors first score of the game.

Norths did hit back shortly after with Margan’s first try but the toll of some hard scrummaging from Souths was apparent and they managed to force a yellow card to tight head prop Dewald Dekker.

From there Souths scrum half Cooper Chambers slotted over after his forward had hammered the Norths line for a period.

The emerging pattern from the game though was Norths hitting back almost immediately and that’s the way it panned out with Max Burey’s touch of individual brilliance.

Burey has been settling in well at fullback and he found some space on the right edge, chipped through and managed an impossible pick up off his toes for a great try.

The longer the game went the better Norths coped with the big Souths scrum, which had been hit early with the losss of Metcher to a lower leg injury.

The score was 21-12 at the break and the Rebels got themselves right in the game with a try to winger Zak Hickey but from there Norths continued to build and with the phases came the opportunities.

Another try to Margan and then a great effort from Dave Henaway sealed the bonus point victory on what was a pretty tough day to play footy.

“Away from the scrum I was happy with the effort across the board,” Norths coach Earl Va’a said.

“It took us a while to get ouR scrum sorted out but once we got into our shapes and used the ball a bit some good things flowed.

“As we head into the point end of the season we know what is going to be coming our way and we have to do better.”

Norths were disrupted with a couple of late withdrawals with skipper Nick Palmer pulling out and Reece Mau’u not coming up in time after a leg knock against Gordon.

The Shoremen have spent 2020 on the road with North Sydney Oval not being available and have recorded six wins from their six home games at three different “home venues”.

NORTHERN SUBURBS 35 (James Margan 2, Max Burey, Declan Carroll, Harry Burey tries; Angus Sinclair 5 conversions) d SOUTHERN DISTRICTS 17 (Sama Malolo, Zak Hickey, Cooper Chambers; Christian Kagiassis conversion) at Pittwater Rugby Park.

IMAGE: KAREN WATSON