Southern Districts suffered their first loss of the season against Sydney University last weekend. Photo: seiserphotography.com

by Brendan Bradford –

A close defeat to Sydney University in a Grand Final replay last weekend saw Southern Districts drop to second place on the table, but Ben Volavola and Grayson Hart are intent on making amends by returning to the running rugby that saw the Rebels surge into the finals in 2012.

Taking on a confident Randwick side fresh off a surprise win over Northern Suburbs last weekend, Volavola says the key to getting that winning feeling back is simple.

Ben Volavola is keen to atone for last weekend’s loss. Photo: seiserphotography.com

“All the boys are hungry to get back on the field on Saturday and just remind everyone what we’re best at – scoring points and playing a good brand of rugby,” says the 22-year-old Waratahs playmaker.

“Randwick usually lift when they’re at home and it was a good win for them against Norths, but after our first loss, we just want to improve and score a lot of points.”

Volavola and Waratahs teammate Hart both agreed that the breakdown was a key area that needs improvement as the season progresses.

“Uni basically won the breakdown and through that they turned a lot of our ball over and capitalised on that and attacked from there,” Volavola said, with Hart adding:

“From my position, the breakdown really stood out. When we had the ball and Uni contested the ruck, it really affected our attack. We’re used to our ball carriers getting over the gainline and getting offloads away, but when you come up against strong defence, that’s not the case, so it’s just securing the ruck and going from there.”

Four points adrift of table-topping Eastwood, the Rebels have ground out most of their six wins in 2013. A far cry from the razzle-dazzle rugby that took the Shute Shield by storm last year, Southos have scored 170 points in seven games – the second lowest of the top eight teams – but have also conceded the fewest points in the competition with 113. Still sitting second on the table though, Hart says it’s nothing to get too worried about.

Grayson Hart isn’t taking Randwick lightly.
Photo: seiserphotography.com

“We’re definitely feeling really positive about our defence,” the 24-year-old halfback says.

“We were scoring quite a lot of points last year, but were letting in quite a lot of points too. In those tight games there’s not going to be a lot of points scored, so it’s going to come down to defence. I think we’ve still got a long way to go to improve our attack, just the continuity between the forwards and the backs, and not always relying on individual line-breaks and counterattack, but being able to build those phases and score points from mounting pressure.”

Randwick finished 10th in 2012 but have shown plenty of improvement this year culminating in their impressive 39-20 Round Seven defeat of Norths.

“That was a really good result for Randwick and I’m sure they’ll be feeling good against us on their home ground,” says Hart.

“It’ll definitely be a good game of footy, they’ve got some dangerous young backs and some experienced guys in their forward pack with guys like Richie [Aho] and Toa [Asa] and it looks like the new coach, Wade [Kelly] has instilled the running rugby of the Randwick of old. That’s the type of game we love at Southern Districts too, so hopefully it’ll be a good game at Coogee and we’re definitely not taking them lightly.”