Kiama show their Illawarra rugby title intent with big win over Shamrocks

The 47-21 win over Shamrocks at Ocean Park was also the second straight game Kiama posted 40 or more points, after the Cows started the 2024 season with a 45-13 home win over Tech Waratahs.

While this pleased Patrick, the coach felt Kiama had more to give and was expecting his chargers to improve as the season progresses.

Patrick was happy to get the win over the gallant Shamrocks but said Kiama would only know how well they were tracking when they played back-to-back defending champions Shoalhaven.

"We've been building for a little while. This is my fourth year back at Kiama and things are tracking well," he said.

"We were struggling to field a team early on but we've gathered momentum through friends and family and stuff like that to come back and play.

"There is a good buzz around the place at the moment, we've got a couple of local juniors that played a long time ago, went to league and they've come back.

"So we're doing something right, I'm not sure what it is but it's a bit early in the season to say we're title contenders. Shoalhaven is the peak and we will know what we are when we play them."

Kiama looked a class above the undermanned Shamrocks from the get-go and raced to a early 14-0 lead courtesy of converted tries to fullback Matt Forsyth and No 3 Darius Mafileo.

Will Ridgway hit back for Shamrocks with a try converted by Ryan Schoupp to reduce the deficit to only seven points but the visitors then scored two more converted tries, through Frank Prodger and Robert Siteine, to see Kiama head to the halftime break 28-7 to the good.

The halftime break did Shamrocks well with the home side playing some of their best rugby in the first 20 minutes of the second half.

Importantly the Paul Ridgway-coached Shamrocks capitalised on this dominance and scored two converted tries, through Alex Crotti and Ben Ridgway, to again reduce the deficit to only seven points.

But that's as close as they got, with Kiama scoring the next three tries, all to winger Mick Taylor, to run out comfortable 26-point winners.

Patrick said he was happy to take any win over Shamrocks at Ocean Park.

"Whether it is two points or 40 points, any win over Shamrocks you have to earn, and that was the case again today," he said.

"I'm happy but we could be better. We were pretty good last week, but today I thought we'd sort of got a lead and then we wanted to try and score off every phase, which doesn't work against the good teams like Shoalhaven.

"But you take the win up here, Shamrocks is a very hard venue to win. I played a lot here with a dominant team and lost.

"As far as the way the boys are tracking, good but we just got to tidy up little things."

Despite missing star men Jesse Parahi and loose-head prop Lachlan Caudoro as well as powerful No 6 Tyreece George, a patched-up Shamrocks outfit showed good signs, especially the first 20 minutes of the second half.

This was not lost on Patrick, who was nevertheless happy with the way his team responded in the final 20 minutes of the game.

"Anybody that plays Shamrocks knows that they've got to be in it for 80 minutes otherwise they're standing on their try line. I thought we could have definitely played better but I was happy with how we responded when they hit back early in the second half," he said.

Meantime in other matches on Saturday, defending premiers Shoalhaven secured a hard-fought 24-14 home win over Campbelltown Harlequins, Camden beat Tech Waratahs 42-23 at Saunders Oval and Bowral spoiled Vikings homecoming with a 20-10 victory.