Southern Districts winger Alex Gibbon scored a double on Saturday and will travel to Argentina with the NSW Barbarians next week. Photo: seiserphotography.com

by Brendan Bradford –

Southern Districts were back to their free-running, counter-attacking best with a 32-28 win over Northern Suburbs at a windy Forshaw Park on Saturday afternoon.

Led by a 17-point haul from flyhalf Rohan Saifoloi, the Rebels jumped out of the gates with three quick tries and a penalty to lead the Shoremen 24-0 after half an hour, but were guilty of switching off in the final quarter, conceding three soft tries and gifting Norths two bonus points.

“We back ourselves off turnovers and counterattack to strike hard and it came off for us today, where earlier in the season we weren’t capitalising on those opportunities,” said Southern Districts coach Cam Blades.

“We defended for a long period of time and I thought we dominated the breakdown and when we got opportunities, we scored. That’s maybe why the score jumped away a bit but we mentally switched off after we got to 32-7 and probably made harder work of what should have been a pretty comfortable win – that’s something this team still has to develop.”

With a 17-point haul, flyhalf Rohan Saifoloi was a standout for Souths all afternoon
Photo: seiserphotography.com

Spurred on by the introduction from the bench of Cam Crawford and Corey Brown, the Shoremen started putting plays together in the final 15-minutes, but their comeback was too little too late.

“We didn’t get outplayed, but we didn’t get our structures right and we didn’t have the right guys in the right positions and it meant that we weren’t going anywhere with the ball in the first half,” said Norths coach Scott Fava.

“In the second half, it worked and we got back to what we’ve been doing in training for the past few weeks when we keep possession and construct tries. That was the difference, we constructed our tries, while Southos scored off our mistakes and if we can just cut down on those, we’ll have a real impact on this competition.”

Norths started well, but couldn’t find a way through the rugged defence and an impressive steal at the breakdown by Jed Holloway cleared the Southern Districts line. Dewet Roos, in his first start since returning from France, found a bit of space after a quick Southern Districts lineout and the diminutive scrumhalf put on a step, a 360 degree spin, took off into space and offloaded to openside flanker Jono Hayes who stepped the cover defence for the first try of the match.

Saifoloi added a penalty for a 10-0 lead in the 20th minute and with the wind at their backs, the Rebels pinned the visitors in their own half and a poor Norths lineout let winger Alex Gibbon dot down under the posts to increase the lead to 17-0.

Gibbon scored again just two minutes later when the physical Southern Districts pack earned a turnover on halfway and Saifoloi spotted an overlap to put the flying winger away down the left flank. Saifoloi coolly landed the wide conversion to increase his lead at the top of the competition point scoring table and give his side a 24-0 advantage.

Norths weren’t without their chances in the opening stanza and Will Miller burrowed over from close range before Saifoloi added another penalty after the halftime siren for a 27-7 scoreline at the break.

Liam Windon was a try-scorer for Norths as the Shoremen fell four points short of defeating Southern Districts. Photo: seiserphotography.com

With Norths flyhalf Scott Daruda using the wind to his advantage, Southern Districts were under the pump for much of the second spell as they continued to run out of their own half.

Picking up a loose ball one handed on the run after a massive Sitaleki Timani hit in midfield, Saifoloi – a standout all game – streaked away to the corner for a 32-7 lead.

Crawford entered the fray on the left wing before prop Dan Murray barged over under the posts and Norths began putting some decent rugby together while Southern Districts switched off as fulltime approached.

Quick fire tries to Liam Windon and Corey Brown in the last five minutes gave some respectability to the scoreline and a slim chance of victory, but the Shoremen’s second half fight-back ultimately fell four points short.

The strong coastal winds certainly influenced the match – only 12 of the total 60-points were scored running into it – but as Fava said afterwards: “The wind was a factor, but both sides knew it and it certainly wasn’t the only reason we went 24-points down.”

Southern Districts maintain their third place on the table and are away to Gordon next weekend while Northern Suburbs will need to tighten up those costly mistakes when they host second placed Sydney University.

Southern Districts 32 (Alex Gibbon 2, Jono Hayes, Rohan Saifoloi tries; Rohan Saifoloi 3 cons, 2 pens) d Northern Suburbs 28 (Corey Brown, Will Miller, Dan Murray, Liam Windon tries; Corey Brown 2 cons, Scott Daruda 2 cons)