Wins for Campbelltown and Illawarra rugby heavyweights Shoalhaven and Kiama

While only nine points separated the two teams in the end, the Harlequins never really looked like losing and could have won by more if not for a couple of late tries including a "cheap" penalty try to the Shamrocks.

The visitors also weren't helped by poor discipline which saw them penalised 21 times as opposed to seven awarded against Shamrocks.

Campbelltown were particularly impressive in the first half, especially their work at the scrum, with two of their four first half tries coming on the back of powerful scrum work.

The Adam Choice-coached Harlequins hit the scoreboard first thanks to a smart try to No 2 Tim Lilomaiava before Shamrocks responded with a Ryan Schoupp penalty goal.

Campbelltown then raced to a 19-3 lead midway through the first stanza thanks to tries to Zachary Tuala and Abela Tuare before another penalty goal to Schoupp.

Though it was the Harlequins who had the last laugh in the half when Lilomaiava crossed for his second five-pointer.

With Joseph Mar adding three goals, Campbelltown were good value for their 26-6 halftime lead.

The home side needed to score first in the second stanza to keep in the game, and they did, when Liam Roundtree took a quick tap and caught the Campbelltown defenders unawares and dived in for a five-pointer to reduce the deficit to only 13 points.

Shamrocks' efforts to come back weren't helped when their skipper Ryan Schoupp limped off early in the second half.

Then Ken Sio and Norwin Latu scored in quick time for Campbelltown to see them jump out to a 36-18 lead.

The Shamrocks refused to lie down and added some respectability to the scoreline through a penalty try, awarded after Campbelltown winger AJ Afamiliona hit the ball over the dead-ball line, and a smart try to Baillie Leonard.

Choice was happy to come away with the win and five-points but was frustrated at certain elements of the game, including his team's lack of discipline.

"It's something we've got to look at. We look at our discipline every week," he said.

"It's frustrating. The boys are getting frustrated too. Sometimes I don't think it is a clear representation of how the game is going but it is what it is, we've got to work with it."

Campbelltown's dominant first half:

Choice was though happy with how his team competed, especially in the first half.

"We had a really good first half. There were a few silly things in the second half that kept them in it but we kept our heads, we finished the game and we walked away with five points," he said.

"I was also very happy with our set pieces. Our backs when we got the ball also looked very good again.

"Our scrum was also pretty good. We had one poor one but our boys fixed it and we were very good after that. It is definitely a weapon of ours.

"So there were plenty of positives to take out of the game, a couple of negatives, but we'll work on them again."

Shutting out outside noise:

Choice added Campbelltown were also working hard not to let other teams verbally rattle them.

"The biggest thing for us is to control what we do and not let anyone get in the way of that," he said.

"We want to play hard, fast footy."

Campbelltown sit in third spot, having won three of five games they've played to date.

Choice felt the Harlequins were performing as well as he thought they'd be at this stage of the rain-interrupted campaign.

"We've had both Kiama and Shoalhaven away, so two pretty tough road trips early in the season, and we weren't disgraced in either performance.

"We are at home against Bowral next week, which will finish our first-half of the season off, so if we put in a good performance there, we will be sitting pretty comfortable."

Meantime in other round seven matches on Saturday, Shoalhaven dug deep to maintain their unbeaten record, downing Camden 20-0, while Kiama regrouped after a last-start loss to Shoals to hammer Bowral 64-14.

The 50-point win sees Kiama on top of the ladder with 20 points after seven rounds.

Shoalhaven (18 points) is in second followed by Campbelltown (16) and Camden (15).