Shute Shield rugby union: Flat Wildfires in need of spark after consecutive loss

A flat Wildfires outfit looked and played like they needed a week off in an upset 31-24 loss to Southern Districts at No.2 Sportsground on Saturday.

It was a consecutive defeat for the Wildfires and followed a 42-21 slump to Warringah. Sitting pretty in fourth a fortnight ago, the Wildfires have slipped to seventh.

"The ball is in our court," Coleman said. "We probably have to win four of the last eight to make the play-offs. That is our goal now. We have to front up from here on in."

After the weekend off, the Wildfires are away to Norths to complete the first round.

"The break has definitely come at a good time but it doesn't get any easier," Coleman said. "We have Norths at Norths and Sydney Uni here.

"It is not our fitness this year. We are fitter than we have been. It is our intent and concentration levels that go missing at times.

"The last two weeks, it's evident that we got carried away with the four wins on the trot. We thought we we were better than we were. We have to go back to basics now. The guys standards have dropped a bit."

Southern Districts had a point to prove after the sacking on Friday of coach Todd Louden.

Slow starts have been an issue for the Wildfires, but there were on the front from the kick-off against the Rebels.

The home side was camped on the visitor's line for the opening 10 minutes but couldn't find a hole.

From there it was all the visitors. Southern Districts No.8 Otto Wendt swooped on a miss-directed pass and stormed into the Fires' 22m. Four phases later Wendt charged over. Christian Kagiassis added the extras and then landed a penalty for a 10-0 advantage.

Wildfires captain Rob Puli'uvea rumbled over from close range on the stroke of half-time to cut the gap to three, but the scoreline was deceptive.

The home side rarely bent the defensive line, their scrum was well held and they missed a heap of tackles.

"There is no excuse for the first half," Coleman said."It was embarrassing. Credit to Souths. We knew they had something to prove after the sacking of their coach.

"For us it was a one-man show. Donny Freeman was enormous. I told them to have a look at themselves. Donny is our smallest forward and had done most of the carries and was the only one to get over the ad line."

The Wildfires struck first in the second half. After using inside centre Penikolo Latu as a battering ram from the set piece, fly-half Connor Winchester threw a cut-out to pass to Tom Watson, who ran a great line to score beside the posts.

However, the lead was short-lived. The home side turned the ball over from the restart. Then Reebls winger William Ngatai broke some feeble defence to cross.

Three minutes later the Wildfires let a midfield bomb bounce and it landed in the arms of Liam Richmon to race 30 metres. All of a sudden it was 24-14. The Rebels stretched the gap to 34-17 before Wildfires No.8 Lona Holaholo scored from a quick tap to set up an exciting final three minutes.

"I thought we were poorly organised in attack," Coleman said. "Connor was cleaning out rucks when he should be setting up our pods. We were really scattered.

"The games we have won, we didn't win convincingly. But we showed heart and didn't give up. I don't think we gave up today. We just had no attack shape and missed too many tackles."

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