Click Here: Match Highlights – Southern Districts v West Harbour

by Paul Cook –

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THE WARM-UP:
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The Rebels went into this clash of the back of two successive defeats; the first a disappointing late reversal at Randwick, the second a nail-biting and, ultimately, agonising last second loss to high-flying Eastwood. With a two week break before their next match, they were desperate to get back in the winner’s circle. The Pirates arrived at Forshaw Park as one of the competition’s big improvers, a lacklustre opening month of the season soon forgotten after a four game winning streak including a historic win over Sydney University and ended only by a narrow loss to table-topping Manly last weekend.

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THE BREAKDOWN:
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It was the home side that clicked first, Denny Godinet over for Souths inside five minutes. But the visitors rallied and two scores of their own from Henry Seavula, punishing some soft home defence, had them up 12-10 at the end of the first quarter.

But the wheels soon fell off for the Pirates, Souths picking up the pace and picking off holes in what has been a meagre defence of late. They constructed a brace of tries, a second for Godinet off a wonderful pass from Ben Volavola, before the electric Atieli Pakalani raced home to mark his 1st Grade debut for 2015.

Those scores and Volavola’s metronomic boot gave the Rebels a 24-12 lead at half-time and they went on with it after the break. The impressive Alex Gibbon scored off a neatly executed set-play that also saw Wests prop Joe Dakuitoga sent to the bin, before Dewet Roos added a fifth as the Pirates’ recent exploits appeared to catch up with them. A late consolation from Ben James restored some pride for the visitors but they were well beaten on the day, a finely tuned Souths machine running out 44-19 winners.

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THE WASH-UP:
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A week after the agonising loss on the bell to Eastwood, Souths coach Matt Barr was over the moon about the effort put in by his side which enabled them to bounce back in style.

“Our starts have been disappointing, we finish like a house on fire and we came from behind against Gordon, we came from behind against Norths, we came from behind against Eastwood and we should have shut the game out against Randwick but we didn’t, so we know our back ends have been good but it’s the start I challenged the boys about today,” Barr told Rugby News.

“Their two tries in the first half were off the back of our mistakes so we need to keep working hard but we’ve got a nice blend of youth and a few guys who have come up from colts who are still new to the club and new to our structures and they’re making a few mistakes and learning the impact that those mistakes can have. What was pleasing today was that while we still made those mistakes, we got back out on the front foot and got on with the job and really held strong in defence for the rest of the game. It was a much better attitude for the whole 80 minutes.

“I thought our forwards gave us a good platform to work from and we always knew with the backline that we’ve got, with Alex Gibbon and Atieli Pakalani coming in alongside the existing players that we’ve had all year, we knew that we’d create some space as we did against what was a good Eastwood backline last week,” he continued. “The effort today with the boys playing right up to the 80th minute and still working hard and getting up off the line and making their tackles, that was what was most pleasing.”

For Wests, the result was a sharp reminder that if you turn up below your best in this competition, you can come unstuck in a big way. After the significant progress they’ve made in recent games, their coach, Joe Barakat, was hugely disappointed with the performance.

“It’s been a fantastic journey for us to take over the last few weeks but this game’s about consistency, it’s about continually performing like Souths have,” he said. “This year they’ve won two games after the bell and lost two games after the bell so they play for 80 minutes, today we played for what – 40?

“We were up for three weeks and beat Easts and Uni and probably should have won against Manly, but we played a team today that prepared for us and attacked us and gave us a taste of our own medicine. We made errors that compounded their ability to whack us and we just never recovered. We got to 12-10 up, stuffed up two restarts where we could have got back into our opponents half but they scored three tries off set-piece that just destroyed us.

“We left two more tries out on the park and that would have been five tries apiece but at the end of the day, if we score those tries, the result is very unrealistic because we didn’t deserve to be five tries apiece. We got taught a lesson today, we had individuals that missed tackles and dropped ball and expected other individuals to cover them and that wore them down, so instead of having 80 minutes in them, they had 60 because they were covering for other people’s errors and we can’t do that to one another.”

Photo: J.B Photography

His captain, Tom Games, didn’t disagree with the assessment but wasn’t about to blame it on the consecutive battles they’ve faced in the last three rounds.

“Full credit to Souths, they were really good today. They had a game plan to put the ball in behind us, they went wide and yeah, we just didn’t seem to be in it,” he conceded. “We really back our defence but for some reason, we were a bit slow off the mark and turnovers killed us as well, we had a few good attacking positions and turned the ball over which is obviously disappointing.

“We said at half-time that we had to be the next to score and it obviously didn’t happen that way and hence, the score at the end of the day. They scored a couple of tries and we didn’t have that line speed and our mistakes kept them in the game when we were going ok but take nothing away from Souths, they were really good and you can see why they played in the final last year.

“We sort of freshened it up a bit this week, we didn’t train as much and tried to cut back and that might have come in to play but we knew what we were up for and we just didn’t perform so I don’t want to use that as an excuse. Ultimately, we’ve got to strive to put in performances like we did against Uni and Manly every week, if we want to be in the finals.”

The additions of Alex Gibbon and Atieli Pakalani to the Rebels backline were an obvious boon, both illustrating their attacking credentials at every opportunity. For coach Barr, their availability is a major positive as he attempts to steer his young group towards a second successive title decider, and hopefully, an inaugural Premiership.

“You just see what they can do one-on-one and they bring a lot in a lot of ways,” purred Barr. “They’re both very smart footballers and bring so much energy and enthusiasm and it’s infectious, it lifts those around them. Together with Paul Asquith at the back there, that’s an Aussie Sevens combination. I know they train a lot together with Sevens so they know each other and each other’s games very well and we’re lucky to have them for the next seven weeks hopefully, while the Sevens boys are on a break.

“They’ve been a part of the Aussie Sevens program for a couple of years now and unfortunately, maybe haven’t quite had the amount of game time in the tournaments that they would have obviously liked. I think they’re at a bit of a crossroads as to what path they go down next but I think there’s a lot of opportunities for those boys over the next couple of years to play fifteens and be picked up by a franchise, especially with so many guys going overseas after the World Cup.”

Ben Volavola was a standout for the Rebels adding 19pts from the boot

For Gibbon himself, running around at Forshaw Park on a Saturday afternoon takes some topping.

“It’s good to be back with all the boys and back to training and back to playing fifteens, it’s good fun,” he enthused. “It’s good to have those two (Asquith and Pakalani) at the back, it makes life a bit easier because we know each other, we compete against each other and we have a bit of fun. There’s nothing better than playing club footy for Souths, being back with your mates and playing and enjoying rugby, it’s great.

He felt the game had gone pretty much according to plan for Souths.

“I thought it was a really good game. I think Wests have improved a hell of a lot, definitely in the forwards and at the set-piece and they don’t throw as many offloads but we’ve really had a big emphasis this year and this week on just working really hard to play 80 minutes and I thought we did that really well today.

“It was a great defensive effort, we were up in the first half but not by a massive score and I think we then held them out for about 30 minutes either side of half-time and that made a big difference. Once we scored that try after the break we said we’d put our foot on the throat and go as hard as we can and play to our structures. We did that and as I said, trying to play for 80 minutes is what we’re working on and we did that really well and that’s how we won.”

Joe Barakat was certainly aware of Gibbons’ presence.

“You could hear one team talking in the second half and it wasn’t us,” he observed. “You could hear Gibbon shouting ‘left corner, left corner’ and you know when a team is really up because they’re talking and there’s a lot of positivity but we were just down, our heads were down and we were just trying to recover the whole game.

“The last three weeks we’ve been up and we’ve been entering some unchartered territory both results and performance wise but today we just weren’t prepared to keep at it and we weren’t good enough to stay there.”

This weekend’s wet weather round affords eight of the 12 Shute Shield teams a day off from competition, a blessing for most as it offers a chance to rest some tired, battered and bruised bodies, recharge the batteries and go again. But for Barakat, it’s timing is a hindrance rather than a help.

“I’d rather be playing next week because we’ve got to think about this result for two weeks now instead of one,” he admitted. “We play Penrith at Penrith in two weeks time and it’s been the game that I’ve highlighted to the players all year because we lost their last year and nothing is going to change my mentality on how we’re going to prepare for it. We’ve let ourselves down here and we’ve got to fix those problems.”

However, the enforced hiatus is music to the ears of a buoyant Matt Barr.

“It’s much needed and I think it’s great that this year we’ve got that opportunity to freshen up,” he said. “There’s a lot of must win games to come because we want that top four spot but we’re certainly in a better place than we were this time last year. We’ve just had that good win, we go into the weekend off now and we come back and make a real good crack at it. I’m really looking forward to the back end of the season.”