Southern Lions and Mandurah played out a tough game in Round 2 with Lions victorious 15-12. Lions were expecting another tough game and so it proved. Lions started strongly and jumped out an early 10-0 lead. Mandurah then controlled the game for long periods and bounced back to lead 14-10. Lions never gave up and snatched back the lead with a well worked try. The missed conversion would come back to haunt them. Mandurah gained a penalty with 5 mins to go straight in front and slotted it to take a 17-15 lead. Strong work by Lions came close to getting the vital score but Mandurah held out for the narrow win.

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

"A really entertaining game but sadly we didn’t get the result we wanted but the lads really gave it a good go, I am impressed with their effort and commitment as that was our toughest game to date and we will learn and get better for it.

Mandurah game here to play and that they did, we always knew this was going to be a tough and physical clash, some of the lads took a few bangs and I am sure a few of their lads will be sore. It was a fairly even contest and could have gone any way. They put us under a lot of pressure in the first half and despite this we manage to score 10 points through Nathan's boot also a good try from Craig. The pressure told towards the end of the half and they scored with a good kick from their 10 who had a pretty good game I thought.

I was pleased with our defence and communication but a few bad habits crept in again, mainly discipline and infringements and the Ref was pretty hard on us and they lived off this, our mistakes cost us in the end. You cannot give good teams like Mandurah free rugby and passion basically. We were missing a few players through work and injury but I thought everyone stood up today and did the jersey proud so they boys will grow and learn from this.

The second half was a tough encounter and they scored a well worked try again through pressure. With only a few minutes to go Irwin went over for a good try but we didn’t get the conversion it cost us the game on to the end at 15 – 17 to us but a needless penalty in the last few minutes gave their 10 an easy kick in front of the sticks. The message to the boys is heads up and we go again after the break, I am proud of them and this is a minor dent in the fantastic work the players have been producing, we will bounce back I am 200% sure of it."

Commiserations to the coaches and players on a narrow loss.
They will get another chance to defeat Mandurah in the second half of the season.

1. Loose head prop Haapu, Rewi
2. Hooker Meyer, Bruce C
3. Tight head prop Ayscough, Jack
4. Left lock Cleary, Thomas D
5. Right lock Coffey, Timothy J
6. Left flanker Niemann, Branden
7. Right flanker Woodford, Brad J
8. Number eight Swinny, Irwin E (c) 1 Try
9. Scrum half Clifton, Michael A
10. Fly half Wynyard, Reon T
11. Left wing Delome, Kurt D 1 Try
12. Left centre Henry, Hami
13. Right centre Lamatoa, Nathan I 1 Pen 1 Conv
14. Right wing Halliday, Craig
15. Full back Day, Konnor J
16. Reserve Olislaegers, Ben P
17. Reserve Rigby, Blake E
18. Reserve Terry, Jak
19. Reserve King, Jason
20. Reserve Jackson, Murray P
21. Reserve Van Sittert, Dawid
22. Reserve Tairea, Junior
23. Reserve Jacques, Jayden P