Casuarina Cougars clinch victory over Darwin Dragons but coach Joe Albert knows there’s still plenty to do

CASUARINA Cougars coach Joe Albert felt his side had plenty to work on to be competitive come finals after a tight 7-5 win over Darwin Dragons in Round 8 of the Darwin A-grade rugby competition

Casuarina’s Ryan McMurray made life hard for the Darwin Dragons’ defenders in his side’s 7-5 win. Picture: Felicity Elliott

CASUARINA Cougars coach Joe Albert felt his side had plenty to work on to be competitive come finals after a tight 7-5 win over Darwin Dragons in Round 8 of the Darwin A-grade rugby competition.

It was the Dragons that crossed the line first with Josef Stanek but a missed conversion would be the reigning premier’s undoing.

Strong physical defence from both sides killed most scoring opportunities for the rest of the game until Cougars’ Zac Phillips found space to put Simaika Salaa through for a try late in the second half.

Half back Ryan McMurray also had a big game for Casuarina making important breaks alongside Phillips making life hard for the Dragon’s defenders.

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Despite the win Albert felt his side could have achieved more throughout the game were it not for missed ­opportunities in attack.

“There’s still a sense of disappointment. We just couldn’t get into the game tonight despite doing what we needed to,” Albert said.

“We let ourselves down a bit with our handling and decision making and though we came away with the win those mistakes could have hurt us.

“The second half was better as we changed around a little and earned the right to go wide through more front foot ball which we weren’t doing early. But we still wasted chances.”

With a spot in the top four assured their eyes will now be set on the semi-finals on August 8 with two regular season games, against Palmerston and South Darwin, left to play.

“There will be a heavy focus on skill work for us and we will look to focus on the basics as a few boys got lost out there against Dragons,” Albert said.

“Dragons put a lot of pressure on us and they’re a big, physical side and we will need to bar up more against that as we did in the second half.

“All the boys dug pretty deep and managed a big defensive shift so that’s the positive we will take from this to build on towards finals.”

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Meanwhile, in other A-grade action South Darwin managed a 36-29 win over ­bottom placed Palmerston.