Avondale claim dominant Illawarra Rugby victory over Vikings

Vikings fought hard to remain in contact with the Wombats throughout Saturday's match, however Avondale proved too good, pulling away from their opponents to claim a 41-5 victory.

Aiono was pleased with his team's performance, however he said there were still plenty of areas for his side to improve.

"It was a good performance," Aiono said. "We played well in patches, but we still need to be more consistent and play for the full 80 minutes.

"The last few weeks we've started slow, on Saturday we started from the first whistle, but we slowed down a little in the second half before we came back strong in the last 20 minutes."

The Wombats have dropped just two games so far this season, the only hiccups being a round one loss to University and the loss to Bowral in a match cut short by injury.

With the team now enjoying a week off ahead of the Queen's Birthday public holiday, Aiono has been pleased by the improvement his team has shown throughout the first eight rounds of the season.

"The week off will be good for us to rest some of the niggles a few of the boys are carrying.

"Everything's starting to click for us now. All the boys are on the same page, our defence was awesome on Saturday, all the boys were committed in defence, our patterns are working well and our attack is coming together.

"Our focus for the last portion of the first round is on our defense and being patient. That's an important factor in our game, keeping cool heads and not panicking, knowing everything will play out if we stick to our structure."

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For Vikings, the match was a disappointing outcome and sees the side slip to fifth on the ladder. The squad must now regroup ahead of next week's clash with Shamrocks at Ocean Park, with Woonona celebrating their 50^th anniversary.

Coach Sean Barrett was pleased with his team's effort but lamented a few missed opportunities that could have swung the match.

"We put a lot of effort in," Barrett said. "We had 10 players unavailable, which is no excuse but it was a drain on us. We had a strategy and maybe it didn't work. Their sheer weight of possession burnt us out. Avondale can be damaging in attack and defence, we tried to fix a few things on the run but it didn't work."

Shamrocks enjoyed the perfect preparation for next week's celebrations by running rampant in a 55-3 victory over Camden on Saturday. The team ran in nine tries to zero to secure their sixth-straight win.

In Saturday's other matches, University returned to form with a comprehensive 59-14 win over Campbelltown, Kiama edged Tech 24-22 in a tight affair at Kiama Showground and Bowral defeated Shoalhaven 48-14.

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