by Paul Cook –

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Northern Suburbs 36 (Jordan Heyer 3, Sam Kitchen 2,
Larry Hermens tries; lrae Simone 2 cons, Josh Kay con)
defeated Parramatta 0
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Three losses in a row had left Norths at the wrong end of the ladder, and given their finals intentions, this was simply a must-win game to get back into the winners circle. However, they would never have predicted the ease with which victory came, as a below par Parramatta barely fired a shot in anger in a 36-0 wake-up call. (read the full match report here) Rugby News got the post-match reaction from the sheds…

Northern Suburbs head coach Simon Cron:

“I’ve watched some of Parra’s games and they’re an impressive side, and going into today I was a bit anxious because they pushed the Rats to a 4pt loss and they probably should have won that game, and I thought they did some really good things last week against Easts too. But we went in with a plan around the areas we felt would work for us and the boys used it well. I’d like to think that if an opposition leave us a gap in their defence and there’s an opportunity there, that we should have the skills and the know-how now to be able to exploit it.

“One of the biggest things for us is our execution of the basics so the weather did dictate slightly in terms of what pattern we were going to play versus what we conventionally play. However, one of the things we’ve worked on in the last few weeks is respect for the ball because even in the games we’d won, it wasn’t great and we’d had too many weak carries. We really battled to get cohesiveness against Eastwood and Easts and had far too many really basic unforced errors. We created opportunities and then due to these errors we missed a lot of points so this has been a major focus for us. We executed that much better today and I thought the boys were a lot more clinical and stuck to what we know we’re good at, but we probably left a couple of tries out there still.

“One of the goals we set for the second half was zero points, and our defensive system is working really well. I still feel like we could have been more ruthless, we started to push the pass at times, but we didn’t let them back in which is important. One win is nothing to get excited about, however we did execute a number of the areas we have been talking about since day one, such as building phases to maximise pressure and our reaction time after we breach their line. I would have taken that result in a heartbeat, especially with the opportunities that we’ve had in the last three weeks that we haven’t taken.”

Parra scrumhalf Kaleb Rech had precious little front-foot ball to work with

Parramatta head coach Paul Hardwick:

“I thought we might put on a better display after a bit of a dip last week and we trained particularly well during the week and knew what we wanted to do. But trying to stay to our systems was a bit tough in wet weather football and Norths were able to put a bit of pressure on us, and credit to them, as a result of that we certainly didn’t build any pressure ourselves. I think in that first half we might have had the ball for two phases at a maximum. We knew we’d have to shore everything up a bit in the wet but Norths were very, very good at keeping their defensive line intact, which meant that we ran out of attacking options, and ran out of them too early. Their enthusiasm to get back behind the ball and support their players, especially in the wet when a side with the ball can get that momentum going forward, was very good.

“If you look at our second half football this year, against Manly, West Harbour and today, we play much better after half-time. The trouble is, when sides are fresh they’re beating us before we’ve really started, and they’re beating us nice and easy. I think that’s down to a bit of self-belief, I think it’s down to a bit of inability to execute a game plan when the opposition is fresher and a lot more hungry. It’s as if the players need constant reminders and we’ve got to bring them in just to relay the message because in the heat of the moment under pressure, they’re making the wrong decisions, and that’s something we need to be able to prepare them better for.

“This obviously isn’t where we hoped to be after round six, especially after those first few weeks. I could talk about suspensions to players in key positions, and losing those players at different times in games, and that our confidence is low and our self-esteem has taken a bit of a hit. Last week against Easts we took a backward step in all facets of our game and I knew we’d have a slump at some stage because we had been riding a bit of a crest of a wave without actually getting a win, and the boys were celebrating minor victories within a game rather than a win itself. But that elusive first win looks a long way off based on the last two weeks.”

Norths flanker Michael Smith hit anything that moved in a great individual display – Photo: Karen Watson

Northern Suburbs no.8 Hugh Sinclair:

“It was definitely pleasing to keep them to zero, they were on our line a fair bit in that second half so it was good to hold them out. We worked hard all pre-season and every week in training on getting our defensive structures. Defence can win you games so it’s been a pretty big emphasis for us and it’s all about our linespeed in the game. We didn’t do that very well last week and we weren’t physical enough so this week we wanted to change that and up the ante and put some pressure on them, which was good.

“We wanted to keep playing the way we want to play even though it was wet and they are a big side. We didn’t want to keep it too tight and we wanted to move them around a bit and play and most of the passes stuck. We had a plan around not giving them any ball and holding onto it ourselves and if we did that, we knew we could get points but we’re a little bit disappointed that we didn’t get a few more.

“It was massive for us to get a win again today because I think we’d lost a bit of confidence in recent weeks. Three on the bounce isn’t good and it wasn’t like we were getting belted but we were dropping the ball a lot, giving away penalties and not taking our opportunities and against good sides like Easts, Eastwood and Souths, they took advantage of that. This week was about putting a marker down and saying ‘That’s enough’ and getting back on track and getting our confidence and taking our opportunities, and I think we did that today.”