BOWRAL’S inability to finish off their attacking raids and turnovers in their own red zone cost them any chance of rattling second placed Shoalhaven at Shoalhaven on Saturday.

The Blacks went down 26-3 after only trailing 7-3 at the break. Bowral should have led at the break but Ryan Lonsdale, after crossing the line and attempting to improve his position, had the ball knocked out of his grasp by a Shoalhaven cover defender.

Lonsdale could have put the visitors back in front after Andrew Tyson opened the scoring for Bowral with a penalty and Shoalhaven scored from a lucky bounce that saw the ball bounce back towards their chasers midway through the term.

The English centre beat several defenders following a Shoalhaven turnover but captain-coach Chris Creber said, while not being too critical, Lonsdale should have gone for the safe option and planted the ball as soon as he got over.

Shoalhaven have only conceded 167 points this year so you take every point you can get against the title favourites.

Despite the 23-point loss Creber said he was happy with the Blacks performance.

"All their tries came off four mistakes and our defence held up really well," he said.

"Not once did they breach our line from a set piece."

"We butchered at least five or six tries with last passes getting knocked down or not coming off."

Missing Country representative prop co-captain Liam Vaughn and Illawarrior prop Mark Minter along with Adam Walsh, Simon Badgery, Troy Ingrey and Andrew Hindmarsh did not help the Blacks' cause either.

For the full story see the Southern Highland News, Monday, August 11

sport.highlandnews@ruralpress.com