Shute Shield wrap: West Pirates smash Southern Districts 49-14

WEST Harbour put a controversial week behind them to smash Southern Districts 49-14 in round eight of the Shute Shield.

West Harbour's Henry Seavula with the ball. Shute Shield Rugby Union. West Harbour (Black and white v Southern Districts (red white and blue). Action from Game.

WEST Harbour put a controversial week behind them to smash Southern Districts 49-14 in round eight of the Shute Shield.

The Pirates, who were forced to open an internal investigation last week into the behaviour of some of their fans following the abuse of match officials, responded on the field with a spirited display.

Centre Henry Seavula scored a hat-trick while backrowers Cohen Masson and Tom Games also crossed. Playmaker Dave Harvey scored a try, kicked five conversions and three penalties for a personal haul of 24 points at Forshaw Rugby Park.

West Harbour president Tony Horrocks announced the club would investigate an ugly incident following the Pirates’ controversial loss to Warringah the previous weekend when match officials had to be escorted by Rats players from the field amid a torrent of abuse from riled spectators at Concord Oval.

Warringah had scored three tries in the final 10 minutes to win 34-32, leading to heavy criticism of the referee and touch judges from the sidelines.

The Pirates players reacted in the best possible way to the dramas with one of their finest displays of the year.

Souths skipper Jed Holloway spoke last week about the need for his side to put in their best defensive performance of the season, but they fell away majorly from their form of the previous three rounds.

The bonus-point win lifts West Harbour to eighth, while Souths fell to sixth behind Randwick on points difference.

The Galloping Greens ground out a tough 15-5 victory over Parramatta, with winger-turned-five-eighth Ethan Ford stepping up capably in the absence of the injured David Horwitz.

“We really concentrated on maintaining possession and ball security this week and it showed,” Ford said.

“We still aren’t where we want to be but we made less mistakes and competed more so that’s a positive and I guess that’s what got us the win in the end.

“Hopefully we can carry that form into next week against the Beasties.”

Parramatta five-eighth Sam Yakopo was outstanding in a beaten side, but lamented his team’s errors.

“Our discipline really let us down, we dropped too much ball and missed tackles,” Yakopo said.

“We defended the whole game and made it hard on ourselves.”

Meanwhile, Manly continued their unbeaten season with a convincing 49-19 win over Gordon to kick five points clear at the top of the table.

Neighbours Warringah remain second after a close 22-17 victory over Northern Suburbs.

In other round eight results, Eastern Suburbs stunned Eastwood to notch a heavy 51-21 win, while Sydney University ran rampant over bottom-placed Penrith 61-21.

Originally published as Shute Shield wrap: West Pirates smash Southern Districts 49-14