Nick Cummins, Rob Horne & Sitaleki Timani from Southern Districts face-off against
Toa Asa, Pete Samu & Tim Wright from the Galloping Greens in today’s semi-final
Photos: seiserphotography.com

by Paul Cook –

They wanted the week’s rest but if Southern Districts are to match last year’s efforts in reaching the Shute Shield Grand Final, they’re going to have to go the long way around. Defeat by Eastwood last weekend means the Rebels have to lick their wounds and front up again this afternoon against a Randwick side who were able to successfully put behind them a 78-0 last round demolition by Sydney University, to triumph in style over a highly fancied West Harbour at Concord Oval last Saturday.

The Rebels and the Wicks shared the spoils in the regular season with home advantage giving those clad in myrtle green a 33-25 victory at Coogee Oval in round eight while Souths gained revenge 43-26 only a few weeks ago in round seventeen. But while the vagaries of the draw afford Randwick another ‘home’ game at Coogee, a look at the team sheets alone for today’s match offers plenty of reasons as to why the boys from the Shire go into this one as many people’s favourites.

That round seventeen game at Forshaw Park saw the Timani brothers, Sitaleki and Lopeti, in tandem for Souths and they have since been able to add the Wallaby might of Kane Douglas, Rob Horne and Nick Cummins plus Waratahs tyros Ben Volavola and Jed Holloway, in recent weeks, to a side bristling with young talent.

Unfortunately, 2012 Rookie of the Year Holloway dislocated his shoulder against Eastwood and is out for the rest of the season while Kane Douglas is being wrapped in cotton wool for the upcoming Rugby Championship tests against South Africa and Argentina but the level of players at Souths’ disposal does look favourable. However, as Rebels head coach Cam Blades pointed out to Rugby News this week, a sudden influx of new blood, no matter how talented, can have its drawbacks.

Southern Districts head coach Cam Blades believes there’s plenty more to come from his side
Photo: seiserphotography.com

“I think the effort was there against Eastwood,” he reflected, “it was just the accuracy and execution that let us down and probably having two or three guys coming into the side during the week that haven’t trained much with the team lately meant that some of those little combinations fell down at times. Each week you get to play together with the same blokes, you do pick up those combinations and those little subtleties that let things gel and let things work. We’ve had a good week training on combinations this week and getting some real rhythm into our game.”

Blades felt that the battle at the breakdown was pivotal against the Minor Premiers and conceded that they would have to measure up in that department against the Galloping Greens. “We gave Eastwood too much gain line by not being dominant enough over the ball,” he observed. “I think we’ve been a bit too nice at the breakdown and a bit too technical there instead of just blowing in and trying to disrupt, so that’s an area we need to address and be a little bit more physical because we’re certainly getting our ball slowed down and probably not slowing the opposition’s ball down enough.”

The positive thing for the Rebels, says Blades, is that they almost toppled the best team in the competition throughout the regular season, without being anywhere near their best. As he sees it, there’s plenty of improvement to come. “The scary part is that we played as poorly as we did and only lost by 6pts. We certainly left plenty of points out there or plenty of opportunities for points out there and on one hand that’s encouraging but on the other, it’s obviously frustrating as we’d rather have won the game and had the week off and gone through that route but we can only blame ourselves. We’ve now got a massive challenge against Randwick and there’s no second chances now, if we have an off-day or don’t play well, that’s the end.”

Souths finished the season in 4th spot on the ladder while Randwick scraped into 8th by virtue of a greater points differential over Warringah. However, the slate is wiped clean once finals footy kicks in and Randwick showed last week that they are not a side to be underestimated, especially with home advantage. Blades is under no illusions as to the difficulty of the task at hand.

“Randwick are a club that loves finals footy and they missed out last year so they’ll be up for it,” he points out. “They present plenty of threats from an attacking point of view especially and if you sit back against them, they’ll mesmerise you and dance around you and they did that against us at Coogee earlier in the year but at Forshaw Park, we got in their faces a little bit more and played a bit more rugby against them.

Sekope Kepu is set for his first appearance for the Galloping Greens since the 2010 Grand Final
Photo: seiserphotography.com

“They don’t tend to kick the ball a lot so you’ve got to respect the possession when you’ve got it because they don’t give you much and you’ve really got to take it to them physically so that they don’t have that ability to chuck the ball about and turn it into a game of touch footy. We don’t mind tossing the ball about as well when we’ve got our timing and our rhythm, we’ve just got to stick to the structures that have worked for us and refine a few of them.”

While the Rebels have been able to call upon Super Rugby talent in the last few games, the Galloping Greens – once home to a procession of Wallabies, Waratahs and Brumbies – have been progressing nicely under coach Wade Kelly with a tight knit group of hungry young guns who are relative no-names, for now at least, but today sees the long awaited return of one starman – Sekope Kepu.

The versatile prop is set to make an appearance off the bench in a bid to help his club side secure a spot in the Shute Shield’s final four and having not donned the famous jersey since the 2010 Grand Final against Sydney University, he’s champing at the bit.

“It’s exciting to return to the green and white after such a long time,” he said this week. “Returning to the grassroots where it all began, particularly at a time when there is so much at stake and off the back of a good win, is very exciting.”

Kepu’s mobility, speed and power will provide a significant boost to a pack that has made steady gains during the season under the guiding hand of experienced hooker Nio Halangahu and flanker Seilala Lam and those fledgling forwards were also supplemented by a wealth of knowledge and game smarts last weekend with the timely – and popular – return of former Wallaby Stephen Hoiles.

His presence against West Harbour helped to turn the tide against a formidable and combative Pirates’ unit, allowing the undoubted open field talents of players like Peter Samu, Ethan Ford, Tim Wright and Rennie Lautolo to shine as the Galloping Greens plundered six tries. Hoiles is unavailable this week, giving Kepu even more reason to step up and provide assistance to the engine room.

“I’m there to play Randwick rugby and I’ll do my role to the best of my ability,” he said. “I know the boys stood up against a big Wests pack last week and hopefully we can do the same against Souths.”

Randwick: 1 Faitotoa Asa, 2 Nio Halangahu (c), 3 Tristan Goodbody, 4 Geoff Ingram, 5 William Munro, 6 Pete Samu, 7 Tom Connor, 8 Stephen Hoiles, 9 James Helliwell, 10 David Horwitz, 11 Ethan Ford, 12 Marc Koteczky, 13 Timothy Wright, 14 Callum Fryer 15 Rennie Lautolo.

Southern Districts: 1 Duncan Chubb, 2 Steve Fualau (c), 3 Tim Metcher, 4 Andrew Leota, 5 Sitaleki Timani, 6 Lopeti Timani, 7 Jono Hayes, 8 Luke Smart, 9 Dewet Roos, 10 Rohan Saifoloi, 11 Alex Gibbon, 12 Rob Horne, 13 Apo Latunipulu, 14 Nick Cummins, 15 Ben Volavola

Referee: Damien Mitchelmore