Southern Lions were expecting a very tough game after Mandurah had produced an impressive 19-0 win away to Curtin Uni in Round 1 and so it turned out.
Mandurah started strongly from the kick-off and had Southern Lions under pressure early on. Southern Lions defence kept Mandurah out and some strong team work led to the opening try to Konnor Day. Nathan Lamatoa converted and later added a penalty. to give Southern Lions a 10-0 lead.
Mandurah didn't give up, scoring a try and converting to narrow the gap to 10-7.
Southern Lions came back hard and Jack Ayscough scored from very very short range to extend the lead to 15-17 with the conversion missed.
With plenty of time remaining, Mandurah kept up the pressure and scored a nice try to close the gap to 15-12 with the conversion missed.
Southern Lions held out for a tough win against a strong Mandurah side and should expect some very competitive games through the season from Mandurah.

Southern Lions co-coach Dan King provided the following summary of the game -

"This week the Lions had the luxury of playing their first home game of the season in perfect conditions against a strong Mandurah who like the home side had a strong win in their opening game of the competition.

It was pretty clear from the whistle that the away side had come to play and they wasn't going to make it an easy game for the Lads today. As the game progressed there was some big carries from both sides along with some physical hits going into contact.

We played well in periods of the game and the lads executed some training ground moves and structures but there will be a big focus on the things we need to improve at training leading to next weeks game against Perth Irish. At times we lost shape and structure and our passing didn't go to hand or we offloaded at the wrong times. Exit kicking could have been better too as we missed touch a few times and handed the ball back to their back line who were pretty good going forward. I wasn't happy with forwards kicking the ball away and giving them possession also players slowing down into contact.

A win is a win and we got the result we wanted so I'm happy even though at times we made it hard ourselves, to their credit Mandurah gave us a good hard game so we will be better for that going forward.

In the lads second game of the season they scored 2 tries, 1 conversation and a penalty. Player of the day being awarded to Konnor Day who was threat all during the game, showed some good footwork and skills and created the first try of the game through strong running and slicing through gaps. Nathan Lamatoa kicked really well converting the try also a nice penalty during the game, a kick that proved the difference at the end of the game.

The backrow carried really well with youngsters Branden Niemann, Jesse Loala and Peter Jackson all carrying strong into contact with good support play taking us forward all day.

I was really pleased with our second try scored by the returning Jack Ayscough who went over for his first try of the season after some some good passages of patient play and a great offload from Nathan Lamatoa found Jack to crash over, which was great to see.
The pack played well but there is still improvements that we have identified and need to address for the next game. Lineouts were good
and we attacked their ball excellently disrupting a few of their throws so that was pleasing. I thought Tim Coffey, Irwin Swinny and Tom Cleary worked well as jumping options today and credit goes to the lifters for their part alongside good throws from our hookers. We spotted some quick ball options which was something we trained on this week alongside some good catch and drive moves.

Backline went fairly well with some good combinations but at times the final pass didn't find hand or touch the wrong option, when the moves came off they boys looked excellent and I know they have been working hard this week. We are expecting a better performance next week but the boys did enough today and our defence and communication was sound. Some pretty strong carries by Blake Rigby and Michael Clifton kept us on the front foot also veterans Hami Henry and Junior Tairea went really well in the backline with strong organisation and communicating constantly.

We left 2 or 3 tries on the park during the game but upon reflection it was a good hard, honest game and we will come back next week even stronger when the areas of the game we need to address are worked on."

Congratulations to the coaches and players on continuing the great start to the season.

Team Selection

1 Jak Terry
2 Aaron Baker
3 Rawiri Hinder
4 Tom Cleary
5 Irwin Swinny
6 Branden Niemann
7 Jeese Loala
8 Peter Jackson
9 Nathan Lamatoa
10 Haami Henry
11 Blake Rigby
12 Junior Tairea
13 Michael Clifton
14 Kurt Delome
15 Konnor Day
16 Ben Hinder
17 Sam Forde
18 Dan King
19 Jayden Jacques
20 Dawid Van Sittert
21 Cameron Upson
22 Tim Coffey
23 Jack Ayscough