Casuarina Cougars looking to stretch Darwin Dragons when the sides meet at Rugby Park

CASUARINA Cougars are eager to force the Darwin Dragons’ strong forwards into a running battle in Round 12 of the Darwin A-grade rugby union competition at Rugby Park.

Casuarina Cougars Suliasi Tavodi on the run against South Darwin. Picture: Che Chorley

CASUARINA Cougars are eager to force the Darwin Dragons’ strong forwards into a running battle in Round 12 of the Darwin A-grade rugby union competition at Rugby Park.

The Cougars have found themselves on the wrong side of the scoreboard against both University Pirates (18-17) and South Darwin (32-13) since the break, despite strong starts.

But coach Joe Albert feels it’s only a matter of converting those good starts into whole-game performances, while sticking to structures that will see the fourth-placed Cougars back in the winners’ circle.

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“We were in the game through the first half, but just lost the arm-wrestle as they piled on the pressure in the second,” Albert told the NT News.

“It wasn’t all bad from us.

“We just lost our way later on and Souths are a good side and punished us for that.

“So for us it’s just about sticking to our game plan.

“It has been really competitive this year as a competition, which has been good and forced us all to stay on our toes.”

Cougars are in for a battle up front against reigning premiers Darwin Dragons, who are known for their strong forward pack led by three-time Eric Johnston medallist Hirini Murfitt.

But with the likes of Eric Erickson and Matthew Travers running the show up front, Casuarina should see their fair share of time in possession with the ball.

Zach Phillips will run the show from fly-half, directing the pace, and likely forcing the Darwin pack to run against a set of Cougars backs such as Simaika Salaa and Aidan Singleton, who are always eager to pounce.

“You can always expect a hard battle up front against Dragons with their strong forward pack,” Albert said.

“Our defence has to be strong against them and we need to be good enough to play to our structures and keep our smarts about us.

“They have a few big boys across their side, so we need to push them wide and utilise our kicking game to force them on the run.”

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Meanwhile, South Darwin will look to solidify their place on top of the table when they take on potential bogey side Palmerston Crocs at Warren Park.