Western Rams under 18s lost 28-16 to the Illawarra Dragons

Shellharbour's Ron Constello Oval hosted both the Western Rams 16s and 18s on Sunday with both sides unable to win against Illawarra.

Western 18s coach Kurt Hancock felt his side let the game slip away from them late in the first half.

"I thought we were very good in the first 25 minutes, the first half wasn't too bad," he said.

"I thought we fell away at the back of the first half which led into the second half.

"It's a bit disappointing, we spoke about a tiding a few little things up and getting back to what was working for in the first 25 minutes.

"As a playing group they agreed but we didn't respond well after half-time."

Western got on the board inside the first two minutes as Thomas Lemmich burrowed his way over from dummy-half to score the Rams opening points of the match with Nick Murphy adding the extras to make the score 6-0.

Minutes late Murphy made a move down the right hand side of the field only to throw a wayward cut out pass which hit the feet of winger Jake Cuthill who cleverly booted the ball along the ground twice.

Skipper Lachlan Lawson dived on the loose ball to score the Rams second try with Murphy unable to add the extra points to give Western a 10-0 lead after as many minutes.

The Western onslaught continued as Tyrone Tattersall found himself in open space before handing the ball off to Murphy who raced away to score under the posts before converting his own try to move the score to 16-0 after just 13 minutes.

The Dragons got their first points of the encounter after an intercept lead to a brilliant 80 metre by winger Flynn Allen before Kyle McCarthy muscled his way over some scrambling defence before the kick was converted to move the score to 16-6.

The game looked to be in the balance as both teams failed to complete their sets before the Dragons parked themselves down the Rams end of the field and continually applied pressure to their defence but they were unable to score as Western led 16-6 at half-time.

Some poor defence lead Dragons five-eighth Ashton Ward straight up the middle of the field before he threw a pass to Kyan Hjaltason who score under the posts with the conversion being successful to give the Rams a 16-12 lead.

A set play by the Dragons allowed McCarthy to score his second try of the match out wide just five minutes into the second half as the hosts lead for the first time 18-16 after the conversion was successful.

As the second half continued the game was once again in the balance with both sides doing all they could to try and score.

The Dragons crossed again in the 58^th minute through Ward before the kick was converted to give the hosts a 24-16 lead with just over 10 minutes remaining.

Western tried to hit back but constant errors cost them any chance of getting in good field position to mount an attack as the Dragons defence held on before Allen crossed on the full-time siren to hand Illawarra a 28-16 victory.

SOUTH COAST ILLAWARRA DRAGONS 28 (Kyle McCarthy 2, Kyan Hjaltason, Ashton Ward, Jack Piccirilli tries; Kynan Clough 4 goals) defeated WESTERN RAMS 16 (Nick Murphy, Lachlan Lawson, Thomas Lemmich tries; Murphy 2 goals)

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