Souths coach Garrick Morgan admits his side is building nicely into the season after beating GPS 34-15 to claim a second successive Hospital Cup victory. 

After conceding an early try, the Magpies forwards took control of the match and scored three unanswered tries from close range to claim a 19-5 lead midway through the first half. 

“We knew it was going to be physical, particularly in the first 10 minutes, but we came out of the gates hard and then evolved as the game went on,” Morgan told Rugby News. 

Outside back Tye James scored two tries on either side of the halftime break to put Souths’ further in front and while Jeeps scored twice in the second half, the result was never really in doubt at Chipsy Wood Oval. 

“We worked really hard to get on top of them and I thought our set piece laid the platform the for victory,” Morgan continued. 

“Jeeps had the best lineout in the competition last year so we knew we had to be good in that area. 

“But our scrum and lineout both functioned really well. We executed at 93% at lineout time and only lost one and our scrum was at 100%. That was really pleasing. 

“In defence, we were getting up off the line nice and hard and we competed really well at the breakdown. 

“We are getting the basics around our game right, so now we’ll look to add on top of that as the season goes on.”

After “rebuilding” in 2023, Morgan’s side lead the competition after the opening fortnight and look to be a very different team to last season. 

Souths have scored 12 tries in their opening two matches but still have a lot of improvement left in them according to the coach. 

“Finn Hearn at halfback had a brilliant game. He’s a classy No.9 and won our best and fairest award. 

“Conor Vest was also really good, as was young Jake Kurbatoff, they shared two points each and our prop Phransis Sula-Siaosi got one point. 

“I think everyone is excited but we’re not getting ahead of ourselves because we know we still need to improve a lot. 

“We’re striving for perfection and I hope we can get closer towards that this weekend.”

Souths travel to Crosby Park in round three to face a Brothers’ side who scored nine tries in a 51-17 demolition of Easts in their first competition match of 2024. 

“We’re playing against the Australian Club Champions and last year’s premiers next week so it’ll be a great measuring stick for us moving forward,” Morgan said. 

“Our line defence will be really important against them but we’ve got some old heads in our backline who I think will manage that well for us. 

“We don’t know which of our Reds players we’ll have yet. We could have two or three, we might not have any, so we’ll wait to see what out line up looks like later in the week and then plan from there.”

In the rounds other matches, Wests gave up a 24-7 lead but held on to beat a fast finishing Sunnybank outfit 27-26. 

Elsewhere, UQ scored four converted tries in a 28-10 victory over Norths.