by Paul Cook –

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NORTHERN SUBURBS 20 (Richard Woolf, Irae Simone tries;
Angus Sinclair 2 cons, pen, Josh Kay drop goal) defeated WARRINGAH 16
(Manessah Alaga try; Hamish Angus con, 3 pens)
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A tight, tense encounter under the lights at Rat Park last Friday night ebbed and flowed with neither side able to take control for any significant period of time. As a result, it was a game that could have gone either way but it was the Shoremen who held their nerve to open their season with back-to-back victories. (read the full match report here) Rugby News spoke to both camps at full-time…

Northern Suburbs head coach Simon Cron:

“We won but it was not a good game from us as we had far too many unforced errors. To be honest, we gave them so much ball tonight through some poor skill execution, so as a result we were horrific in attack but showed some very good defensive connections. There were just some pretty simple things that we didn’t do well. We didn’t build any phases and our launch plays were poor, then from there it was really hard to get any structure because we often dropped it first phase, so we gave them a lot of possession. It became a ‘Let’s practice our defence night’ because we just decided to say ‘Have the ball again and run at us’.

“We put pressure on ourselves in the game by doing everything so flat that we shut our own time off, and we dropped a lot of ball – I think we probably dropped the ball somewhere in the vicinity of 13-15 times. We ran some beautiful forward shapes but we were trying to catch and pass right in the face of the opposition and it just doesn’t work like that. We had a couple of new combinations out there because we lost two starting backs last week, however, there’s no excuse, catch-and-pass is under 12’s stuff.

“The chat in the sheds was sombre, it was really about focusing on our processes and if we executed those rather than the fact we won. I feel it is an improved performance in regards to shutting a game out, last year we didn’t play the last 10 minutes well in close games so that’s positive and a good reflection of the guys out on the field. The squad unified and stuck it out to the end tonight and we won by four. It was a step backwards from last week’s clinical attack, but in saying that, we got to test our defence which held up well. The skill errors are things that are easily fixable. If you can play with that many turnovers and errors and win, it leaves a lot of room for improvement for us, but we just can’t give the ball away that easily again.”

Norths centre Irae Simone was a constant threat – Photo: Karen Watson

Warringah head coach Greg Marr:

“We did some really good stuff but we made some mistakes – both teams did I suppose – but our biggest issue was losing Josh (Holmes) and having to adjust to a halfback who is not as strong or as quick right now. He’s a good kid and he deserves a crack but Josh normally snipes a little bit more from the back of the ruck or the scrum, so we had to change our width and our runners had to adjust during the game. Also, while Jamie Forbes had a great game at fullback, we missed Dave Feltscheer’s experience back there. It gave these other guys an opportunity and it’s not an excuse, I just think that they took their chances better than we did today.

“I thought it was a step forward again. Our discipline was good. I don’t think we gave away one penalty through infringing on their tackle line, whereas last week, we gave away about 10, so we worked on that all week. And we’re not making glaring mistakes, it’s just the little last passes that are letting us down or a loose carry. We made a lot of breaks, Norths defended well, they rallied and held us out, and I think Jamie Forbes probably made three or four try-saving tackles himself at fullback so both teams had their chances, they just made the most of theirs.

“I went into the changing room after the game and it was like walking into a funeral so they’re obviously hurting about losing, which is a good sign. I told them to get their heads up because they’d lost a tough encounter by four points, and across the season, you’re going to win some of those and you’re going to lose some, you’ve just got to learn from it. If we’d have been beaten by 30pts I’d have been filthy but we got beaten by four and Norths put 50 on Wests last week so we can’t be too far away. I’m not down at all, we toughed it out, we got a bonus point and Norths are a pretty good side. I think they’ll beat a lot more teams this year than will beat them.”

Rats fullback Jamie Forbes gets airborne – Photo: Karen Watson

Northern Suburbs captain Will Miller:

“It was a bit of a slow game to be honest. Everyone was pumped before the game and I don’t know, it might have been the Warringah crowd that affected us a bit because we had a lot of new blokes out there and they’re very vocal out on the hill – it is always a tough ground to come and play at. But our handling skills weren’t up to it tonight. Last week, we executed a lot of plays but tonight we weren’t as precise or crisp. I thought we did well in the last five or ten minutes to really grind it out but we should probably have been a lot more on top of the game before that point.

“We want clean halfback ball because if he’s not getting clean ball it’s going to become an issue for our backs, and we’ve got guys that can carve up out there if we give them the service. But I couldn’t count how many times we dropped the ball off set-piece with the backs running in. It was a little bit slippy with it being a night game but that’s not really a good enough excuse because we dropped a heap of pill. As soon as we started getting around the corner we dropped it so we couldn’t really work into our structures, which we need to be able to build off and get some momentum. We’ll keep moving forward and pick up again for the next game but the big plus for us is that we probably would have lost that game last year. It’s going well so far, hopefully we can keep it up.”