13th June 2018
Another win thats now 6 wins on the trot, but it was a ugly win on the back of way too many errors. Souths decided to rest their four SOO stars and went with the team that did the job the week before, but they were put under pressure by the big Titans pack and stifling tactics. As St George and Penrith also won we are 2 points off the competition lead cementing our 3rd place. We still need 3 more wins to make the finals. And well on track for Top 4 finish.
AJ Returns
A minor reschuffle in the team this week saw the return of Alex Johnston back at fullback. He chimmed in well with one good long break and scoringa try to become the leading Souths Try Scorer verses the Gold Coast.
Rodwell progressing well
Ky Rodwell is pogressing well in his step up from U20s to Reserve Grade this year. He continues to do a great job well called upon as a Prop or Lock, running well and also makinghis share of tackles. One to keep a eye on.
Studdon NSW State Captain
A big congratulations to MAddie Studdon who join the elite Souths group to have captained their state while playing for Souths. Her class is very evident during the game as she posses a great passing game from her Touch Football skills
Penalty Crackdown working
Wellits halway through the season and the penalty crackdown continues. Teams are trying to force referees to stop blowing penalties, but they continue to infringe. What we saw on the weekend was a Titans team that attempted to strip the ball in almost every tackle all game. But the referees keep true to their word and the first player sin binned twice in the same game in 16 years occurred. There are a number of coaches who prefer to winge that change their tactics and continue to pay the price on the field.
Round 14 - Stat Attack
Statistically a very poor game on the back of way too many errors. Completion rates dropped to 64% from 84% last week. Errors inceased to 16 from 7 last week. We gave away 10 penalties down from 8 last week. Souths Effective 1st tackle dropped to a poor level of 39.8m from 32.6m last week. Our missed tackles improved to outstanding level of 19 from 31 missed tackles last week. Opposition offloads dropped to 10 from 14 last week.
Looking at our left side defence - Jennings-Hunt-Walker-Sutton (0-1-1-0) was improved to 2 from 6 missed tackles last week. On the right side Graham-Doueihi-Reynolds-SBurgess (0-2-1-3) was improved to 6 from 8 missed tackles last week. Ruck defence TBurgess/Tatola-Farah-GBurgess/Nicholls-Murray/Clark (4-1-3-2) was improved to 10 from 14 last week.
Our go forward this week dropped to 1310m from 1478m last week. George Burgess, Farah, Alex Johnston, Hunt and Doueihi made 10+m per run. Sam Burgess, George Burgess, Sutton, Hunt, Jennings and Alex Johnston making 100+m in the match. Defensively Farah was our best in the tackling raking up 48 tackles. Sutton, Graham and Jennings didn't miss a tackle.