By MARK CASHMAN

Warringah, under pressure after a morale sapping loss to Gordon last weekend, weathered a patchy first half but got their act in some order when they defeated West Harbour 28-14 on Saturday.

The Rats and the Pirates were locked at 7-all for much of the middle stages of the game but got some pay from the efforts of No.8 Mungo Mason at the contact areas and the wizards of Ben Marr a bit wider.

Wests, who changed up their preparation substantially this week, in fact scored first and had the Warringah scrum under some pressure in the first 40 minutes.

But some odd decisions at different times meant that scoring opportunities were missed and the search goes on for that elusive first victory of 2020.

Warringah coach Mike Ruthven said it was pleasing to get a response from his team and the five points that they needed to pout some life into their campaign.

“We again made life hard for ourselves and appear to be our own worst enemy at the moment,” Ruthven said.

“We left three certain tries out there and weren’t able to capitalise on some other very good opportunities but we showed some resilience to turn our performance around.

“We are still searching for that consistent, complete performance but I am confident that it is just around the corner.

“The players continue to keep working hard and their commitment towards that hasn’t diminished one bit.

“I was super impressed with the work rate and positive impact Mungo Mason had for 80mins, Ben Marr had some incredible involvements where is shear desire to compete and his uncanny skill created opportunities for us.”

Ruthven added that his scrum half Josh Holmes really “sparked us up” in the second half after a slow start to the season.

Wests were knocked around by a trio of late withdrawals – Josh Coward, Rod Davies and Jack Debreczini – but Wests coach Mark Gudmunson said poor decisions in scoring opportunities did the damage to his side.

“We dominated scrums, we got into great positions to convert pressure into points and just could not complete,” Gudmunson said.

“Our execution at times was really poor. Our players need to get better as this was a game that we should have won.

“We had a really tough ‘no try’ call early in the game and were without a few guys that we thought would add a lot of experience, but that was no excuse.

“We had the team and created the opportunities to win the game. We just need to work hard and fix these things; they are easy fixes, but we seem to be making them on a regular basis.”

Gudmunson said the road over the next three weeks was a tough one with Manly, Gordon and Sydney Uni on the agenda.

There is no hiding and the players know that, but it gives us a great chance to show what we can do,” he said.

WARRINGAH 28 (Wes Thomas, Charlie McKill, Mungo Mason, Tyson Davis tries; Tom Halse 4 conversions) d WEST HARBOUR 14 (James Turner, Tavite Gadeisuva tries; Patrick Pellegrini 2 conversions)

IMAGE: RISING SUN PHOTOGRAPHY