By MARK CASHMAN

Southern Districts have developed a reputation for playing their games out for the full 80 minutes in this year’s Shute Shield, but they went above and beyond in their come from behind to beat Sydney Uni 32-31 on Saturday.

The Rebels rolled in two late tries to Dominic McGrath, the winning score coming in the 85th minute, to wipe out a nine-point deficit to record what must be one of the pivotal performances from the club in recent times.

The match had been keenly contested throughout and the Students got the break that at the time looked match winning when James Kane and Henry Clunies-Ross scored scored tries to make the score 31-22.

Before that the two sides had gone pretty much score for score with Souths edging their way in front midway through the second half 22-14.

That sparked Uni into action with their backline offering opportunities to Kane and Clunies-Ross that were duly taken.

Then came the referee’s time heroics from the visitors.

“A game like this really shows that the heart of club rugby in Australia is well and truly thriving. This is a great day for the Shute Shield,” Souths skipper Tim Metcher told 7TWO on Saturday.

“It was an intense battle minute one to 80. We were able to claw our way back. What a way to finish the game.”

The game was billed as a bit of showdown between Souths coach Todd Louden and Uni director of rugby and coach Michael Hodge.

Louden had coached Hodge in his years at Uni in 2011 and 2012, snaffling a premiership in the second year of his time there together.

Louden said: “Looking at the game, overall you must say that we got lucky but having said that we created out own luck by just keeping in the game.

“But we are a young side still finding our way. We are far from our potential at this stage of the season but we’ll take a win like that any time.

“I was just proud of the way that they hung in there. It was gutsy the way that they worked their way into the lead, fell behind and then got ahead at the end.”

Uni co-coach Joe Horn-Smith said the playing group would take their lessons from the weekend and work towards being better on Saturday.

“It’s extremely important that we learn from this and work hard to be a better team next week,” Horn-Smith said.

“Southern mauled the ball well and we didn’t problem solve quick enough and work out how to defend it.

“Our back line though looked sharp and executed well at different times during the game.

“Moving on from that game it’s a huge opportunity for both teams when we travel to TG Millner for the game against Eastwood.

“There is a lot of history between the Woods and Uni at T.G. so it should be a great spectacle.”

SOUTHERN DISTRICTS 32 (Laurence Tominiko, Joe Cotton, Apaola Tea Lama, Dominic McGrath 2 tries; Christian Kagiassis 2 conversions, 1 pen goal) d SYDNEY UNI 31 (Tim Lilomaiva, James Kane, Henry Clunies-Ross 2, Tim Clements tries: Kane 3 conversions)

IMAGE: AJF PHOTOGRAPHY