by Paul Cook –

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Southern Districts 52 (Denny Godinet 2, Matt Gibbon, Matt Teki, Mitch Walton, Sean Doyle, Waldo Wessels, Brandon Paenga-Amosa tries;
Matt Teki 6 cons) defeated West Harbour 21 (Wayne Ngaluafe, David Minute, Tayler Adams tries; Tayler Adams 3 cons) HT 7-38
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Round one had seen Wests and Souths at opposite ends of the spectrum when it came to results – the Pirates humbled 59-12 by Norths and the Rebels upsetting Manly 23-17. So this clash loomed as a chance for the home side to kickstart their season or for the visitors to cement themselves as early front-runners, and it was Souths who took the spoils, romping home to consign their hosts to successive 50pt losses. (read the full match report here) Rugby News got the post-match reaction from the sheds…

Southern Districts head coach Matt Barr:

“The first half was a really strong performance, particularly from the forward pack, I thought they really laid the foundation. The lineout was good, we scored a couple of tries from the maul, our scrum was fairly dominant and we capitalised off the back of that. There were a number of opportunities that we left out there in the first half against Manly last week, and it was something we spoke about during the week. Today we converted those, which was really pleasing and that’s what you want to see at this time of year, little improvements on those areas you weren’t as good in the week before.

“We spoke at half-time about being the first scorers in the second half and we did that, then made a few changes. Sean Doyle came off and he was outstanding in that first half so you lose a lot and it probably got a little bit sloppy but it gave some of those new guys and second graders who are doing well at the moment an opportunity. We’ve got to make those changes to create depth so it was good to be in a position to give them a sniff as well.

“The only two things I spoke to the group about at the end were our exits, because they led to two of Wests’ tries, and some of our first-up tackles. We’ve done so much work in the pre-season on the low chop and getting a man to the deck but we were guilty at times of going too high, and once they get a bit of front-foot ball and a bit of momentum, they’re pretty hard to stop and they scored a couple of tries off the back of that. They’re little things that we can work on, but we’ll take a lot of positives out of today. If we go back a couple of years we dropped our first three games, and since then I’ve certainly stressed in pre-season about not being in that same position again so it’s nice to be two from two. It’s been a good start.”

Souths’ scrumhalf Waldo Wessels has made an impressive start to the 2016 season – Photo: J.B Photography

West Harbour head coach Neil Tunnah:

“The biggest thing for us right now is starting the game. We gave something like four penalties away early on and they kicked to the corner and put us straight under pressure and got the try, and 20 minutes in they were 30pts up and we’re chasing the game. It’s just discipline, we’re giving silly penalties away and it’s something we spoke about during the week and we set some systems up at training so we can work hard on that, on holding the line defensively and getting off the line quickly. But we’re just getting individuals having brain-snaps and hitting high shots and late shots and that’s something we have to deal with this week.

“We’ve got the basis of a defensive system from last year but we’ve tried to evolve it as well, so in terms of the structure the roles have changed slightly within that so there is some new stuff for the guys to absorb. We had our biggest and best defensive session last Thursday, the boys nailed it, so have we concentrated too much on offence? At this stage I would say no, I’m comfortable with where we are and what we’re doing. I think we saw glimpses of our defensive stuff in the second half with the repeat efforts and the tackle-bounce-reload, hitting the rucks hard and getting through the rucks. We’ve probably just got to be a little bit smarter.

“No excuses, Souths were the better team today. But what we’ve got to remember is where we are in our evolution as a team and as a squad. There are a lot of new guys in the team and for us to pull it together quickly the discipline needs to be good, and it needs to be driven by the guys that have been here for a while. We’ve got some real quality players and I think we saw that in the first 20 minutes of the second half where we started to build a little bit of momentum and look like we could play footy. The target is still a finals place, absolutely, and I think any team in the competition is targeting that, that’s how close this competition is this year. We’ll take our medicine, go back to work and try and move forward.”

Ex-leauguie David Minute is going to cause plenty of problems for opposition defences in Wests colours this year – Photo: J.B Photography

Southern Districts prop Duncan Chubb:

“Our focus the last couple of weeks has been on defence but we have the ability to create a lot of opportunities, we just need to follow through on that. So there was probably a bit more chat this week on making those opportunities count, and maybe that showed today. We’ve set really high standards for ourselves this year, we took a little step forward and hopefully we can do that again next week and continue to get better.

“Losing our intensity when we are up in a game is something we’ve been guilty of in the past, but this group has some really strong leaders with guys like Sean Doyle, Marcus Carbone and Mitch Walton, who are really good at keeping the boy’s heads in the game. We’re going to play to our standards no matter who we’re playing against and make sure we believe every week, for the whole game.

“Wests have been a bit of a bogey team for us over the years so we were pretty aware of that coming into the week and it was something we talked about. But there’s a lot of young guys in the team that haven’t played a lot of 1^st grade at Souths or new guys that have come in from other clubs so I didn’t think that it was going to be much of an issue, and it wasn’t. I’m happy with the two wins but not happy with where we are yet. It was a little step up but our defence needs to get a bit better and I think the best thing is that we’re winning but you can still see that there’s a lot more to come.”