Some of the Shute Shield’s finest will be on display at Forshaw Park (l-r) Souths’ Apo Latunipulu, Rohan Saifoloi & Lopeti Timani and Uni’s Tom Carter, Tim Davidson & Tom Kingston
Photos: seiserphotography.com

by Paul Cook –

Round 7 of an increasingly interesting Shute Shield season sees the ABC cameras set up under the power lines down at Forshaw Park for a repeat of last season’s thrilling Grand Final between Southern Districts and Sydney University. On that day, an exciting young Rebels outfit contesting their first ever title decider held sway for nearly an hour before eventually being run down by a clinical, experienced and powerful Students side, who reclaimed the throne that has been theirs for the better part of the last ten years.

While both coaches will be at pains to point out that today’s game sees two vastly different line-ups than those which fought out that titanic tussle last September at Concord Oval – less than half of the 46 players involved that day in fact – the significance of this result in the context of the season is undeniably paramount. It may only be round 7 but we’re now entering the second third of the season already, a time when the jostling for those finals spots can truly turn from a progressive canter into a nervy stampede.

The fact that both sides are favoured to feature heavily at the business end of the season also adds an air of expectation and an extra level of intensity. Neither wants to take a backwards step to the other at any point and bragging rights over a revered rival is not to be underrated. Southern Districts remain unbeaten and sit proudly on top of the ladder but while Uni are yet to fire on all cylinders, their history of success marks them down as a team that always commands respect.

Cam Blades & Chris Malone – Photos: seiserphotography.com

“I look at sides like Sydney Uni as a litmus test for us,” says Souths coach Cam Blades, “they teach you a lot about yourselves in terms of exposing your weaknesses and any vulnerability. I’m hoping we’ve grown as a group, not only from last year, but this year as well and this game will certainly give us a benchmark as to where we’re at and where we need to continue to develop. These big games are the ones you want to play and its about who copes under pressure and who’s got that little bit of edge that might be able to take you forward that little bit further later in the season.”

Despite the Rebels impressive start, Blades feels there’s still a lot left in the tank that will be needed to win this one. “We haven’t put a full game together yet,” he explains. “We’ve played well in patches and we’ve slowly been building so it’ll be a good chance for us to see how we go across the entire game because they’re a side that can grind you away if you don’t play the full 80, so we certainly need to make sure we’re conscious of that.

“Even last week [a 43-10 victory over Gordon], probably 50 minutes would have been the extent of our quality of rugby,” Blades continues. “Round one against Eastwood, although it wasn’t spectacular, we certainly had a massive effort across 80 minutes, it was just that the execution wasn’t there. Last week, we had a bit of execution, it just wasn’t right across the 80. I’m not expecting that to happen straight away but we’ll need to be performing at a high level over long periods of time against Uni to come away with the result.”

For Uni head coach Chris Malone, the game is a chance to really test the mettle of his young side, particularly off the back of their most impressive – and most physically confrontational – performance of the season so far against Northern Suburbs last week.

Tim Metcher packs down. Malone is wary of Souths scrum – Photo: seiserphotography.com

“Souths are undefeated, they’re at home and they’ll have a big crowd down there so it’ll be a mountain for us to climb,” he observes “but we’re coming in off the back of two wins which gives us more confidence than we would have had two weeks ago, so we’ll go down there and give it a crack.

“Most of the young guys in the team have had enough exposure now but, on the back of what was a good performance last week, backing up is the hardest thing to do so that’s a challenge for our guys to bring that level of intensity again this week.”

Uni have used 38 players in first grade already this season as they look to blood the next batch of potential champions but despite recording three wins and three losses, Malone is happy with the progress so far. “A couple of games probably got away on us so it could have been better,” he admits “but I’m happy in the knowledge that we’re doing the right things and heading in the right direction. You never really know if you’re going to get players back so it’s a bit of a juggle but it is what it is, we’re a product of our own success and that’s the way it’s always going to be, there’s no point crying about it.

“We’ve had such a lot of change but I’m really happy with the progress of guys like Tom Boidin in the back row. After 12 months out with an injury he’s really starting to build nicely into the season and then there’s a young guy like Sam Jeffries who has come straight out of colts and is playing second row. It’s always good for us to have Liam Winton there, he’s an experienced first grade footballer and then there’s Alex Rokobaro, having him back has been for good for us as well.”

The integration of youth in order to sustain a healthy and hopefully, successful future, is one that Southern Districts have already travelled down in the last few years, the fruits of which was that maiden Grand Final appearance. It was a painful but ultimately positive experience that should benefit the Rebels this year when it comes to the crunch. Cam Blades is hoping this is one such occasion.

“Over the last two or three years, they’ve been growing and growing and it takes a while for guys to get used to coping under pressure for long periods of time,” he points out. “Obviously, the Grand Final was another good experience for them in that way. It gave them a lot of self belief but it also taught them that you have to keep concentrating and you have to keep working hard and sticking to the things that you do well, rather than falling into the trap of shutting a game down or letting things slip into the mode that the opposition want you to play in.

Tom Boidin, one of Uni’s best this year on his return from injury – Photo: seiserphotography.com

“We don’t really get caught up in the past too much in terms of what’s happened in previous games, it’s more about what have we learned from those games that can benefit our progression as a team, what worked for us in certain games against a certain team or what’s working for us at the time so that’s where our general focus always is and also on just becoming a better rugby team in general. We’re a different set of players from last year and we’re starting that journey, not afresh, but certainly as this particular group, in a pretty good way.”

Regarding the approach to an opponent like Sydney University, Blades feels that it is important not to get bogged down by focusing on their traditional strengths. “If you don’t hold parity or control the tight areas, your set-pieces and the fringes of the ruck against Uni, they just get that rhythm going and become very hard to contain,” he says. “Obviously, we need to be strong in those areas but in saying that, we need to play our own game. It’s a real fine line between getting caught up in that ‘grind-it-out’ battle that they want to play and the style of rugby that we do well and that we enjoy playing. Unfortunately, you can’t ignore the fact that they’re very strong in those areas so you need to try and wear them down or knock them out in those areas while staying true to what works for us.”

Malone is equally effusive in his appraisal of the Rebels. “They’ve got a very balanced side and like I said, it’s going to be a mountain to climb for us but it’s a good challenge as well,” he explains. “They’ve got a really good set-piece and they’ve got some sparkling backs, they’ve got pretty good cross-court coverage and they can play from anywhere so, you can’t go down there and turn your back on them that’s for sure.

“I think Apo Latunipulu at 12 is a bit of glue for their backline and they’ve got Ben Volavola back as well and he’s obviously a talented player but then up front they’ve got plenty of good players like Jed Holloway, Lopeti Timani and some of the guys that are there all the time. Mick Kauter at no.6 is a good footballer and so is Jono Hayes their captain and that’s without even mentioning their front row, which has probably dominated most scrums so far this year. We’re starting the second third of the season so it’s all about momentum from here but the end of season is a long way off and it’s about making sure that we turn up individually for the collective goal and hopefully we can do that this week.”

Team Lists:

Southern Districts v Sydney University @ Forshaw Rugby Park (3pm)

Southern Districts: 1 Duncan Chubb, 2 Stephen Folau 3 Tim Metcher, 4 Andrew Leota, 5 Jed Holloway, 6 Luke Smart, 7 Jono Hayes (C), 8 Lopeti Timani, 9 Grayson Hart, 10 Rohan Saifoloi, 11 Alex Gibbon, 12 Apo Latunipulu, 13 Denny Godinet, 14 Oleni Ngungutau, 15 Ben Volavola.

Sydney University: 1 Alisdair King, 2 James Willan, 3 Sam Talakai, 4 Sam Jeffries, 5 Liam Winton, 6 Tom Boidin, 7 David Hickey, 8 Tim Davidson (C), 9 Jake Gordon, 10 Stefano Hunt, 11 Greg Jeloudev, 12 Tom Carter, 13 Michael Hodge, 14 Tom Kingston, 15 Alex Rokobaro.

Referee: Angus Gardner

Penrith v Manly @ Nepean Rugby Park (3pm)

Penrith: 1 Peter Niumata , 2 Kerren Straker, 3 Nigel Vaifale, 4 Tyrone Emelio, 5 Sione Pusi Fifita, 6 David Reopoama, 7 Adam Barrington, 8 Willie Tooala, 9 Siaa Taveuvu (C), 10 Fokolulu Taumalolo , 11 Paula Katoa, 12 James Umu, 13 Wilson Silipa, 14 Keori Okati, 15 Campbell Hislop.

Manly: 1 Andrew Collins, 2 Dave Porecki, 3 Tim Fairbrother (C), 4 Dave Shotton, 5 Phoenix Battye, 6 Harry Bergelin, 7 Kotoni Ale, 8 Dylan Sigg, 9 Adam Crerar, 10 BJ Hartmann, 11 Richard Hooper, 12 Joe Christie, 13 Brian Sefanaia, 14 Damien Reti, 15 Marshall Milroy.

Referee: Anthony Moyes

Northern Suburbs v Randwick @ North Sydney Oval (3pm)

Northern Suburbs: 1 Nick Lah, 2 Will Weeks, 3 Karl Truijens, 4 Matt White, 5 Chris Thomson, 6 Ben Matwijow, 7 AJ Gilbert (C), 8 Hugh Sinclair, 9 Liam Walker, 10 Scott Daruda, 11 Corey Brown, 12 Chris Tuatara-Morrison, 13 Bill Meakes, 14 Blake Murray, 15 Liam Windon.

Randwick: 1 Faitotoa Asa, 2 Nio Halangahu, 3 Richard Aho, 4 Geoff Ingram, 5 Lai Vatadroka, 6 Seilala Lam (C), 7 Tom Conor, 8 Peter Samu, 9 Harrison Boileau, 10 Cayden Matehaere, 11 Timothy Wright, 12 David Horwitz, 13 Terrence Hepetema, 14 Rennie Lautolo, 15 Ethan Ford.

Referee: Richard Goswell

Warringah v West Harbour @ Pittwater Rugby Park (3pm)

Warringah: 1 Ben Ryan, 2 Luke Holmes (C), 3 Wayne Borsak, 4 Ben Adams, 5 James King, 6 Sam Ward, 7 Mark Porpiglia, 8 Boyd Killingworth, 9 Joshua Holmes, 10 David Harvey, 11 Brad Dixon, 12 Michael Adams, 13 Dylan Smouha, 14 Conrad Gillingham, 15 David Feltscheer

West Harbour: 1 David Lolohea, 2 Reg De Jager (C), 3 Vaughan Lomax, 4 Alfred Pinomi, 5 Chris Simons, 6 Matt Coles, 7 Cohen Masson, 8 Vaka Manu, 9 David Osofua, 10 Jack Debreczeni, 11 Tito Mua, 12 Winston Wilson, 13 Henry Seavula, 14 Alofa Alofa, 15 Dylan Taikato-Simpson.

Referee: Nathan Pearce

Eastern Suburbs v Parramatta @Woollahra Oval (3pm)

Eastern Suburbs: 1 Sione Kolo, 2 Alex Walker, 3 Clay Brodie, 4 Keliti Vaingalo 5 Richard Stanford, 6 Andrew Shaw, 7 Ryan Hodson, 8 Pauli Taumoepeau (C), 9 Luke Irwin, 10 Henry Hudson, 11 Damon Anderson, 12 Angus Sinclair, 13 Apakuki Ma’afu, 14 Anton La Vin, 15 Will Fay.

Parramatta: 1 Nick Blacklock, 2 Myles Hunkin, 3 Luke Troy, 4 Charlie Leaeno, 5 Adam Coleman, 6 Josh Kaifa, 7 Rodney Ma’a, 8 William Tuitupou, 9 Troy Lobendahn, 10 Sam Yakopo, 11 Damien Fakafanua, 12 Tukia Muli, 13 Dan Yakopo, 14 Moses Tavola, 15 Sosene Anesi (C).

Referee: Tim Wills

Eastwood v Gordon @T.G. Millner Field (3pm)

Eastwood: 1 Marty Plokstys, 2 Hugh Roach, 3 Dylan Brass, 4 Steve Cummins, 5 Mitch Lees, 6 Gareth Palamo, 7 Hugh Perrett (C), 8 Sione Tau, 9 Shanin Proctor, 10 Jimmy Hilgendorf, 11 Nick Batger, 12 Tom Hill, 13  Michael McDougall, 14 Nick Reily, 15 Ben Batger.

Gordon: 1 Tobias Gukibau (C), 2 Jim Handlin, 3 Willy Maumalanga, 4 Seb Murphy, 5 Mark Johnson, 6 Andrew Turner, 7 Gordon Broome, 8 Jono Broome, 9 Terry Preston, 10 Erik Moss, 11 Vesi Tokalaulevu, 12 Tom Mathews, 13 Mark Preston, 14 Richie Williams, 15 Mitch Walton.

Referee: Jamie McGregor