Before a ball was kicked in 2018, Southern Districts were tipped by many as favourites to breakthrough and win a maiden Shute Shield title after falling just short on a number of occasions in recent years.

But after five rounds, the Rebels are anything but.

Besides an opening round victory over Penrith, Souths are winless in 2018 following disappointing losses to West Harbour, Manly, Eastwood and Warringah so far this year.

“I think we’ve just been lacking that little bit of experience around the park and our game management has suffered as a result of that,” Southern Districts coach Matt Barr told Rugby News.

“We’ve been in every game that we’ve lost this year, but we’ve just let ourselves down at crucial moments and made errors when we shouldn’t have. Our execution has been off and in this competition, the opposition is going to make you pay for that.”

Injuries have hit the Rebels hard early in 2018, particularly in the backline and Barr has been forced to blood a number of first grade debutants already this year.

But the Rebels welcome back recently married centre Apo Latunipulu for this weekend’s crucial clash against Easts and Barr is confident his star centre will have an immediate impact.

“I’ve already noticed the difference at training this week. Apo just brings a lot of confidence to the group and his chat at training and around the field is massively important for our side.

“He’s a very smart rugby player and I think he’ll help a lot with our game management and bring a lot of composure back to the side, which should help the young guys around him.”

While halfback Dewet Roos and flyhalf Rohan Saifoloi aren’t expected to return from injury until after the June mid season break, Barr said he had no plans to restructure the Rebels expansive attacking style.

“You don’t want to change things because you’ve spent so long over the off season and pre season training to play a certain style of rugby, you can’t really make a lot of changes at this point of the year.

“You’ve got to stick to your structures, back your game plan and have confidence that those players that know the structures will fulfil their role and execute.”

A sluggish start to the season is nothing new for Rebels fans at Forshaw and Barr remains confident his side will still play a big part in the back end of this season.

In 2017, the Rebels won nine straight games heading into the playoffs but failed to fire again in the finals for the second straight season.

“Not just last year but over a number of years, this side has been able to fight back from slow starts.  We know we can to stand up to a challenge and come out the other side and I’ve got no doubt that this year’s group will do the same.”

The Rebels first challenge comes on Saturday when they host a vastly improved Eastern Suburbs side who now sit fourth on the ladder with just one loss to their name this season.

“Defensively, they’re ranked number one so it’s going to be a difficult challenge and they’ve also got some handy backs so if we continue to make errors, they’ll punish us.”

The two sides will play for the inaugural Harry Gibbons Cup as Southern Districts celebrate Surf Club day at Forshaw.

Following the first grade fixture, newly reformed Subbies club North Cronulla Sea Lice will then take on local rivals Burraneer in the Harry Gibbons Shield under lights on the main field.

“It’s going to be a massive day, I don’t think we’ve ever had a day as big as this,” Barr said.

“We’ve invited all the local surf clubs to come down and get involved, then we’ve got the Sea Lice, Burraneer match, a number of women’s sevens games and a live band playing that night.”