Randwick vs Southern Districts match report-by Sam Ryan

Southern Districts have fallen to their second successive defeat, going down 33 - 25 to a classy Randwick outfit at Coogee Oval. In near perfect conditions for running rugby, Randwick dominated both territory and possession throughout the game, giving the visitors very little opportunity to attack. Coach Cam Blades was bitterly disappointed with his sides performance. "Randwick were a far better side and to be fair, 33-25 probably flatters us." "We stood back in the first half and watched Randwick play a bit of Rugby so I was really disappointed by half time." "There were stages in that second half were we showed a hell of a lot of character. But we didn't show much attack unfortunately," he said. The Rebels looked impressive in the early stages and opened the scoring when fly half Rohan Saifolio snuck through a tight gap off a centre field scrum to score the opening try. A penalty goal soon after extended the Rebels lead to ten before momentum shifted completely towards the home side. Randwick began to dominate possession and found themselves deep in Southern Districts territory for most of the half. Two quick tries to Faitotoa Asa and Seilala Lam from close range gave the home side a four point lead. The Rebels looked a shadow of the side that won their opening six matches of the year, making a number of uncharacteristic errors and missed tackles. Alex Gibbons and Jed Holloway kept the Rebels in the match with tries against the run of play, however their hard work was undone when lazy defence handed Seilala Lam his second try and Randwick a four point lead at the break. Despite being completely outplayed in the opening half, the Rebels remained in contention and were back within a point after the break when Saifolio added his second penalty goal of the afternoon. Randwick continued to dominate possession and territory throughout the half however some gutsy Southern Districts defence repeatedly repelled their attacks. Grayson Hart was given a yellow card with fifteen minutes remaining as the Rebels continued to defend inside their defensive quarter. However the continuous attack finally found a way through when Tristan Goodbuddy crashed over to give his side an eight point lead. Southern Districts had an opportunity to attack in the closing stages, however the Randwick defence held on for a well deserved victory. Rebels captain Jono Hayes said his sides attitude was the main problem. "We just didn't turn up in the right headspace. We were pretty complacent after our six wins in a row, he said." "We couldn't seem to get out of our own end. We gave away silly penalties, poor options and just kept giving away cheap possession." Blades defended his captains decision to turn down a number of kickable penalty goal attempts. "Look maybe we should have, but if we had got our touch kick right and scored the try, we would have got two points for finishing within seven and the four tries. We will always try and chance our arm, that's the kind of team we aim to be. Hindsight is a wonderful thing." Whilst he credited his sides defence, he admitted they were completely outplayed. "It was a pretty good defensive effort in the second half against a very good attacking outfit in Randwick." "I set pretty high standards for most of these players and I hope that they do as well. To be fair I don't think there is anyone that could come out of that game and say that they had one of their better games." The loss sees the Rebels drop to third place behind Manly on the Shute Shield ladder. The two sides will meet at Forshaw Park next week. Randwick 33 (Faitotoa Asa, Terrence Hepetema, Tristen Goodbody, Seilala Lam 2 tries, Cayden Matehaere 4 cons) d Southern Districts 25 (Alex Gibbon, Jed Holloway, Rohan Saifolio tries, Rohan Saifolio 2 cons 2 pens) at Coogee Oval. Referee Will Houston.