By MARK CASHMAN

Northern Suburbs coach Earl Va’a says his side needs to get out of the blocks quicker if they are to maintain their momentum after the Shoremen’s 53-3 win over Penrith on Saturday.

It took some time for Norths to get the upper hand on a Penrith side that was making its return to Shute Shield competition after a three year break.

They were solid at scrum time which is probably not surprising given that ‘Bubba’ Ryan is their scrum coach and also put on some good hits in defence, a given in any side mentored by John Muggleton.

The Emus defence forced a few turnovers and it took until late in the first half for Norths to get any sort of gap on the visitors.

“Yeah we were slow out of the blocks and missed a number of scoring opportunities in that first half,” Va’a said.

“Penrith did well to keep the pressure on us and they got some pay from their efforts but the second half reflected what we are trying to build here.”

The score at the halftime break was 13-3 after the home side had made the most of a yellow card to Emus’ tight head prop Maciu Latabua.

From there Norths were able to get into some sort of stride and from there six tries flowed as the home side adapted better to the tight nature of the ground and Penrith fatigued.

Reece Mau’u scored twice and was Va’a’s pick of the team on the day while Harry Burey despite getting yellow carded in the first half was good off all of Norths launch plays.

Skipper Nick Palmer was good too while James Margan had an impressive outing working hard in defence and running the ball well on the edges when required.

“There’s not much of him but he’s one of our best carriers into contact,” Va’a added.

Penrith coach John Muggleton said: “That was pretty solid start for us but discipline and fitness killed us off in the end.

“We will get better as we go along but as I said to the group after the game I couldn’t fault their effort and the things that we need to fix are easy to work on.

“We haven’t had much footy at this stage but one thing that pleased me was our defence in both halves that caused turnovers.

“Norths even opted to take a penalty goal when they were in our 22 – that says something about what we were achieving out there.”

NORTHERN SUBURBS 53 (Nick Palmer, Reece Mau’u 2, Harry Burey, Max Burey, Jesse Muir, Isaac Cave, George Murrin tries; Angus Sinclair 3 conversions, 1 pen goal, Connor Winchester 2 conversions) d PENRITH 3 (Netane Misma pen goal) at Bon Andrews Oval.

IMAGE: RAMONA ANDREWS / PENRITH EMUS