Southern Lions had started the year with two good wins against Rockingham and Mandurah, whilst Perth Irish had a strong win against Swan Suburbs (plus postponed Arks game).

It was the first competition game at Perth Irish's new ground - Centenary Park, Belmont - and the home side were up for the game from the start. Early penalties from the home side led to a surprise 6-0, then 9-7 lead for Perth Irish. Southern Lions picked up the pace from then on and controlled the game for the most part, but with some uncharacteristic errors keeping Perth Irish in the game.

Southern Lions won 35-12 scoring 5 tries to 0 and with 5 successful conversions.

Southern Lions coach Brett Fell provided the following summary of the game -

"Southern Lions 1st grade continued their winning way on Saturday with a victory of 35 points to 12 over a spirited Perth Irish side. Perth Irish produced an excellent line-out, a solid scrum and attacked the breakdown with real physicality making it difficult for the boys to get any flow in their game. As a result of this, the game was a stop start affair with lots of scrums and line-outs along with lots of penalties being awarded. In saying this, our team was still able to score 5 tries with the try scorers being Mike Furze, Craig Atthis, Ra Hinder, Greg Jackson & Beau Cassidy. The Man of the match for his ball carry and defence was Mike Furze. This type of game will do the team a lot of good moving forward as it has identified some areas that need work. The team now has scored over 20 tries in 3 games but collectively as a group we must be prepared to continue to challenge ourselves and look to improve as a team on a weekly basis, as we continue in our search to produce the high quality of rugby that we are capable of and can all be proud of."

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

Team Selection

1 Rawiri Hinder
2 Sione Takulua
3 Heamasi Akauola
4 Scott Turnbull
5 Sam Toy
6 Mike Furze
7 Dean Kingi
8 Craig Atthis
9 Kyle Fell
10 Mike Perkins
11 Dan Cassidy
12 Beau Cassidy
13 Greg Jackson
14 Joel Lamatoa
15 Dane Jobe
16 Nathan Lamatoa
17 Tom Cleary
18 Sam Price
19 Hammi Henry
20 Jesse Touala
21 Mike Smith