After a couple of wins and some tough physical losses the first grade team needed a win against Northern Suburbs to maintain their progression this season.

With the team setting objectives for the second round of the competition of winning the games won in round one plus winning the games that got away from them in round one, North’s was a must win!

A very strong team ran on the field with a major emphasis on being completely dominant at the set piece and playing field position through a variety of kicking options; the team started well. Scrummaging well and improvement in the lineout set a solid platform for the backs to run off.    

The team performed across the field with all players contributing and setting a high standard for each other.

The main theme of improvement for coming weeks is to execute their jobs consistently, from individual skills in general play to set piece jobs.

A tough 4 weeks lies ahead taking on the top four teams. We have set standards within the group to not be happy with being competitive and move from being a good team who is consistent to a great team who wins the tight games. We confidently look forward to the challenge!

Congratulations to all grade teams and colts teams on results so far this season. Let’s not be happy with competitive, we are better than that. Let’s continue to prove it to the competition.

See you at Randwick,

Rappy

A lot easier to write this article today than some other weeks!

First Grade took to the field against Penrith with a spring in their step after a hard week of training including a tough session with fitness guru David Millard and an added Friday night team run.

After a disappointing 2nd half team performance against Eastwood, the team was out to prove they didn’t belong at the bottom of the comp and the embarrassment of last week cut deep, especially after being the only grade team to go down the week before.

With a range of changes, due to injury, performance and returning from higher honours the team looked very stable and finally played the game plan that had been missing over the last few weeks; the points came.

A strong team performance with patience and aggression brought many points with the fact we played for a full 80 minutes being the difference. To score points just before half time and at full time shows we were committed to getting a good result and we can score points.

All this comes on the back of a solid scrum and lineout with controlled kicking and of course aggressive defence!  Something that we work very hard on.

The big thrill of the day was to see Southern Districts back with points in the Club Championship. A real pleasure to be apart of for all parties involved. Congratulations to players, coaches, management for Saturday and let’s keep the wheel rolling this Saturday against Parramatta.

Regards,

Rappy

After a rugby lesson last week, the first grade team set upon sticking to the game plan and having confidence in their own defence, as goals for the game.

After a steady swapping of territory in the start of the game, the Rebels lost their play maker Kane Hancy to an AC joint injury for the rest of the game. This also was a turning point in the loss of the Rebels direction and structured game plan.

Going into Half time behind 8 – 5, I felt if we got back on track with our game plan and increased our enthusiasm in defence we would be in the running for a win................ not to be!

Once again, a lack of enthusiasm from some players in defence especially and not keeping to our game plan saw another huge loss to the team.

For a team that had set the goal of priding itself on its defence at the start of the season, today’s loss was far from acceptable. Embarrassing even.

The team must stick together and drag each other through this trouble. Because there are some quality players within this group they just need to believe that.

The hard work will be done and we will come through the other side. Congratulations to all other grades on their wins on the weekend, it was great to see the Rebels back in the winners circles!

Bring on the Emus

Rappy

After a spirited first win for the season against 2008 premiers University, things were looking up and the team headed to Manly with a spring in their step. This was short lived as the team ran into a strong willed and dynamic Manly team.

The Manly team played the game in the exact style the Rebels had planned to in their game plan. Only difference was, the Manly squad stuck to and committed themselves to their game plan when things got hard and had confidence in the game plan.

With lack of field position the frustration grew and the Rebels tried to run the ball from areas on the field that they should not have and created more work for themselves than needed. This in turn took out all the attacking power when they got to the right end of the field.

The Rebels defence was a weakness and players individual missed tackles culminated in numerous easy tries to the opposition. This leading to Manly handing out a huge lesson in playing rugby, as a team, to our boys.

Rappy

The monkey is off the back!

The 1st Grade team went onto the field on Saturday with one objective, and that was to be aggressive. With the loss of experienced players Tim McGann, David Pusey and Joe Harwood, people may have questioned whether we had the experience but within the player group, it didn’t come down to experience it came down passion and the will to do the hard work, and we knew we had that.
In weeks gone by injury and our own mistakes cost us cohesion, confidence and ultimately some victories. Saturday’s performance was built on aggression, commitment to the team, confidence in ourselves and our game plan and limited mistakes with the ball.

Players individually became leaders of themselves and this was shown through our willing defence and support of each other in a hard game. A strong Southern Districts trait!
Getting that first win will give the team and club great confidence that we do have the ability to start a long run of wins if we continue to do the hard work when it is asked of us.
Looking at this week’s game against an unbeaten Manly side away from our home of Forshaw Rugby Park, we hope our supporters can make the trip and give us the same support we loved so much on Saturday. It truly does lift the players and inspire the winning spirit we need.

See you in sunny Manly,
Rappy

Training had been of a high intensity and very positive going into Saturday’s game versus Gordon.  With new faces to the 1st grade team with Stan Tuionuku playing his 1st comp game for the club after a hamstring strain in the trials, Kane Hansie flying in from New Zealand to play 5/8th, Joey Lynch’s arrival to the front row from North Sydney and the old war horse Charlie Williamson Back in the top grade. Players moved in positions from the game against Randwick due to injuries to Michael Black (neck), Matt Raftery (knee), Zac Mullane (thumb), and Ben Ross (concussion).

With a great start to the game, sticking to our game plan and putting plenty of pressure on the Gordon defence in the red zone (22m to try line) the feeling was positive and cohesion of the team looked promising and a true reward for time and effort at training. Yet mistakes at vital times released the pressure and turned the game away from us.

Although early injuries to Tim McGann (calf strain) and Dave Pusey (medial ligament strain) did pose a question to our leadership on the field it did not cost us the game. Once again our own errors crept into the game and made us work to hard without the ball.

From week to week the development of the team has progressed in a positive light. And from a coach’s point of view, the primary reason we have lost these close battles (bar this week!) is our own fault. Miss tackles, poor ball control, poor support on our ball carries are things we can control and we can fix through training. Better these problems than just not having the cattle. We do have the cattle!! And it is showing throughout all the results from colts to grade.

Looking ahead, Sydney Uni at home this week; they are always a strong opposition but always a game that our club loves to play. We look forward to the challenge and thank you all for your support.

 Tim Rapp
Head Coach