HTC I like your take on the Souths v Bond game from last week (if you were there).
When Brother's played Souths, Souths got off to a flier. One of the tries (Moseley to Filpo? to Ngamanu) in the first half was a stunner. It didn't help that when Brothers were attacking (30 m out) when they threw an intercept pass for a 7 pointer. They also did this against GPS the previous week.
In terms of the forwards thought that Brothers was superior in the set pieces and probably Souths were the third best pack (behind Uni and the Bank), even though they were fairly similar in skill level to the Bank.
They did fairly well at the break down even though they had the ref's grace for quite a few times. Brother's started really slowly (as they did the week before against GPS) and Souths controlled the ball well in the first half. Even when Brother's did get the ball there were quite a few knock-on's. Not necessarily from pressure from South's, but more because of lack of respect for the ball and not taking there time in attack. This will need to be addressed by them this week.
At half time it was 17-7 for South's and they would of had at least 60% of the ball. It was 17-0 until the final 7 minutes of the half, when Brother's finally awoke from slumber and started to compete.
The second half was a contrast to the first and South's were the first to score with a penalty (20-7). Brother's started to control the ball a little better, however there were still too many errors from them, which stifled a number of opportunities. They finally started putting some movements together and scored 2 tries and a conversion. With the score 20-19 with 4-5 minutes to go, the South's forwards were probably more tired than Brother's; this was a gradual process over the half and allowed Brother's more momentum, even though the error rate was still reasonably high from them.
The game went on well after the full time hooter (probably for 4-5 minutes) and Brother's went from inside there 22 m and were held out twice from scoring. South's fails on two occasions to get the ball dead (from set pieces), which eventually lead to a penalty to Brother's 34 m out and on the 15 m line. This was changed down on the first attempt and the subsequent penalty missed to the left by 4 m. An exciting game and a good win for South's;
In general terms I thought the scoreline was probably fair, with either team deserving to win. I thought the referring was poor and this probably assisted South's. A good win for South's.