Sunshine Coast has won consecutive games for the first time with a 20-13 victory over Norths in round 11 of Trinity Premier Rugby.

The Eagles remain in third place despite losing four successive games, but a growing injury list and lack of depth in key positions is taking its toll on the club.

Norths managed seven straight victories earlier in the season, but defensive deficiencies, new combinations and a lack of creative flair have crippled the one time competition leaders.

“[A win] today would have enabled more of a gap between the top four and the rest, so [the loss] is disappointing.  It’s not the end of the earth, but it’s disappointing,” Norths coach Chris Roche said.

“We just miss critical tackles, which has been our problem the last couple of weeks and it’s an issue we’ve got to address.”

Both sides were desperate for a victory and it showed in the heated affair, which produced a yellow card to Norths fullback Craig Evans.

Sunshine Coast five-eighth Nathan Williams was the standout in the first half with a try, a penalty goal and a well constructed chip kick for Brock Gibbon, ensuring the visitors led 15-3 at the interval.

Norths enthusiasm and desire lifted in the second half, with a try to debutant and Papa New Guinea import David Eri bringing the score to 15-13.

Eri commenced the game at outside centre, but after some initial defensive struggles and a lack of room in attack, Roche moved the promising young talent to the wing where he showed some brilliant pieces of attacking football.

Momentum was in favour of the home side for the first time in the match, but another try to Gibbon against the run of play halted any chance of a comeback.

Sunshine Coast coach Glen Panoho said there will be a new found respect for his side following its successive victories over Norths and University - the first back to back wins since the Stingrays joined Premier Rugby in 2005.

“We will no longer be seen as the team that you put 60 or 70 points on and if anything that is what we wanted to do this year,” he said.

“We wanted people to turn around and say 'hey listen, these guys turn up so you better turn up too, because if you don’t you're going to get a smack'.

“The thing is we need to respond now because teams are going to turn up to play and if we don’t lift our game again, we will start getting points put on us.”

He said while his side’s victory was a complete team effort, the dominance shown by his forward pack was critical.

“Our scrum was very good again and that’s something the boys have worked on very hard,” Panoho said.

“Our defence was also very good today.  If you look at it one of their tries came from an opportunistic kick and other than that there were no points scored through tries.”

Sunshine Coast 20 (B Gibbon 2, N Williams tries, N Williams con, pen) d Norths 13 (D Eri try, M Peterson con, 2 pen)

Match report by Brendan Altadonna

Brothers secured the Caxton Cup and ended the undefeated run of competition leaders, Norths, in a 28-17 win in round eight of Trinity Premier Rugby at Crosby Park.

A spirited crowd was treated to converted tries by both teams inside the 6th minute with Brothers’ James Harvey scoring from a charge down on Norths try line, and Norths Emmanuel Cole Manolis sprinting clear for a try from  an intercept within his 22.

Brothers led the top of the table wrestle 13-10 at half time and early in the second half tries by Andrew Shaw and in form winger Paul Doneley provided a buffer against a Norths try by Kolio Stone in the 60th.

The steady boot of Brothers captain Brendan McKibbin secured 13 points for his side, maintaining pressure on Norths.

Norths Coach Chris Roche said Brothers urgency for possession was the difference between the sides.

“Brothers forced turnovers that other teams haven’t been able to do – I think they did that very well. They played a good territorial game,” Roche said.

“We deserved to lose. Brothers were more urgent. Each one of their players worked harder than ours,” he said.

Brothers Coach Rob Murdoch acknowledged the support of a large and vocal Crosby Park crowd, and said his team’s excellent performance could have been improved further by second half consistency in translating possession to points.

“First of all, I think there was a fantastic crowd – great to see for club rugby and Brisbane.” Murdoch said.

“I thought we set up a really strong first half but when we’ve got good field possession, we have to walk away with the points. We have to be a little bit more clinical. But that’s just a minor criticism of what was pretty good all round” he said.

Brothers 28 (A Shaw, J Harvey, P Doneley tries, 2 con, 3 pen) d Norths 17 (M Cole-Manolis, S Kolio tries, M Petersen 2 con, 1 pen)

Match report by Alice McCarthy

Norths remain unbeaten and on top of the table after their 24-17 defeat of Wests at Shaw Road in round seven of Trinity Premier Rugby.

The Eagles were able to sustain an attacking onslaught from the visitors early in the first half with a penalty goal to Tim Mosey all Wests could manage.

Norths second-rower Josh Sio left the field soon after with a suspected broken hand, but this didn’t faze the Eagles who struck back soon after with Ryan Schultz scoring his first try of the season.

Veteran Dan Thompson continued his good form with another try just before the break to put the home side up 14-3.

Norths were rewarded for playing an attacking brand of football, opting to go for a try rather than a penalty goal with Blair Connor adding to his try scoring tally to put the game out of reach.

Wests scored twice in the second half with tries to Byron Birch and Peter Nelson and looked certain to add points late in the match, but Norths' defence proved too strong.

Norths coach Chris Roche believed his side was mentally and physically flat for the game, but was relieved with the outcome.

“I thought our guys weren’t as urgent as they have been previously and they have got to learn that every game you really have to be on your game,” he said.

Wests future looks brighter with the return of key players from injury ensuring their side will be a force in the second half of the competition.

“I thought we dominated the game from start to finish, just not on the scoreboard. But I think that’s a reflection of only winning one from seven games…the guys have just forgotten how to win,” Wests coach David Witt said.

“We’ve got a lot of injuries and we are running second last in the competition, but we are a much better football side than that.

“I had five new backs today that were playing together for the first time all year, so give us another week or so.

“We just made a couple of basic errors that turned into tries and when you’re losing all the time nothing seems to go your way.”

Norths 24 (B Connor, D Thompson, R Schultz tries, M Petersen 3 con, 1 pen) d  Wests 17 (P Nelson, B Burch tries, T Mosey 2 con, pen)

Match report by Brendan Altadonna

Norths maintained its unbeaten run and successfully defended the Caxton Cup after a remarkable second half demolition of University at St Lucia in Round 5 of Trinity Premier Rugby.

With the Red Heavies in command in the first half leading 19-3, Norths came out firing to score six tries and condemn University to its fourth successive loss, by 41-29.

University played an exciting brand of football in the first half with Australian Sevens captain Shaun Mackay and Chris Siale excelling to give the students a well deserved lead.

But Norths proved why they are still the team to beat as they rallied to score 38 points, with Blair Connor bagging two tries and setting up another in an exceptional individual performance.

Norths co-coach Chris Roche said he was pleased with the steel shown by his players to come back in the second half.

“I’m very happy with the second half, I was absolutely livid about the first half,” Roche said.

“The boys I think subconsciously undervalued University and we were trying to tell them ‘look they’re coming for us’ and they didn’t give them the respect they deserved,” he said.

“I thought Uni played very well up to half time and it was a credit to our guys to actually come back and come over the top of them.”

University head coach Nick Leah was again left ruing what could have been and blamed a poor attitude for his side’s second half capitulation.

“The second half was all attitude, it’s as simple as that,” Leah said.

“The boys thought they had it won and we just went away from everything we practised, essentially.

“In the second half we didn’t take them seriously, we thought they were the Norths of old but they weren’t, they toughed it out so you’ve got to give them a lot of credit for that.”

While Blair Connor continues to push his case for Queensland Reds selection, both coaches were singing his praises.

“I don’t like singling players out but he is special. He is, I reckon, the hottest property running around in Queensland rugby today,” Roche said.

 Nick Leah echoed the sentiment.

“He’s playing out of his skin at the moment,” he said.

“He probably made three of four try-saving tackles in that game and scored two tries and you could see he was out on his feet at the end.”

Norths 41 (B Connor 2, R Schultz, S Kolio, S Ghabihla, M Petersen tries, M Petersen 4 con, pen) d University  29 (G Willmott 2, S Mackay, R Gilliman, S Hillman tries, W Tuffley 2 con)

Norths moved to outright first on the ladder after defeating Caxton Cup holders the Gold Coast Breakers 24-19 in round four of Trinity Premier Rugby.

Norths took advantage of a howling breeze in the first half with Blair Connor carrying three players across the line only minutes after Lloyd Johansson took an intercept to put the visitors on the board.

Despite being starved of possession and territory, Norths secured a four-try bonus point before the break, with tries to captain Matt Petersen, Dan Thompson and Jesse Mogg.

A vocal crowd lifted the home side after two Gold Coast tries brought the game within five points late in the second half, but that was as close as the visitors would get, with Norths' defence ensuring they ended the game the only unbeaten team in the competition.

Norths' coach Chris Roche credited the amount of defensive work at training as the anchor to his side’s victory.

“We told the boys that defence will win it or lose it, but it’s got to be offense and defence, so we had to attack them and that’s what we did,” he said.

“Either side could have won it. We had a good breeze in the first half and so did the Gold Coast [in the second half] and it really was a question of who scored the most points in that half with the wind.”

Norths five year program to success has been rewarded with the club becoming the third side this year to hold the Caxton Cup trophy.

“It means everything, it’s a great concept…and the good thing for us is that it gives us another thing to say to the boys - now we've got this thing we’re not going to let it go," Roche said.

“We are in the fourth of a five year rehabilitation program…and the fact that we have done it the long way, the hard way, but the best way, by developing through the colts has brought a new breed of player here at Norths.”

Gold Coast assistant coach Garrick Morgan had no qualms with the effort from his players, believing it was a lack of ball control in critical positions that was to blame for the loss.

“Fifty-fifty passes that didn’t stick normally would stick, but today they didn’t,” he said.

“It’s the first time this year we had to come from behind and we nearly won the game in the end.

“The most disappointing thing is that we know we are better than that.  We just lost it for ourselves, so we will go back to the drawing board next week and ensure the boys come out on top.”

Norths 24 (D Thompson, B Connor, M Petersen, J Mogg tries, M Petersen 2 con)  def Gold Coast 19 (L Holtsbaum, L Johansson, M Francis tries, M Milroy 2 con)

Norths consolidated their second position on the Trinity Premier Rugby table with a comprehensive 48-26 win over the Sunshine Coast Stingrays at Stockland Park in round two of the competition.

Taking advantage of a strong Kawana wind, the Eagles scored two tries in the first five minutes through deft ball handling and support skills, and continued in the same vein to lead 26-9 at the break.

Norths carried on where they left off in the second half, getting out to a lead of 41-9, with stand-out player Blair Connor bagging a hat trick of tries.

With Norths emptying their reserves bench, the Stingrays were finally rewarded for their persistence with a late flurry of points, including a try hat trick to winger Tim Bransdon, the club’s leading tryscorer.

Norths Coach Chris Roche took as much satisfaction from the fact that 11 of the starting 15 for Norths were under 21, with the majority of them coming up through Colts, as he did from the win itself.

"They are talented individuals with a strong belief in themselves and who are learning how to play unselfish rugby,” Roche said.

Norths' joy over the victory was tempered by a serious injury to flyhalf Francis Genia, brother of QR Reds scrumhalf  Will Genia, who suffered a season ending broken and dislocated ankle after coming on as a replacement.

“This is a terrible blow for our club and particularly for Frankie who has enormous talent,” Roche said.

Stingrays coach Glen Panoho said he regretted reshuffling his side going into the match, particularly the three changes to his starting forward pack.

“I made too many changes and probably should have stayed with the same pack," Panoho said. “The responsibility lies solely with me.”

Norths 48 (B Connor 3, R Schultz, M McLean, C Evans, J Mogg tries, M Paterson 5 con, pen) def Sunshine Coast 26 (T Bransdon 3 tries, A Parry con, A Dear 3 pen)

A young and spirited Norths outfit have won their opening Trinity Premier Rugby clash, defeating Souths 29-15 at Shaw Park.

The match opened at a cracking pace with both sides displaying good ball movement, but it was Australian Sevens representative Blair Connor who opened the scoring with a 30 metre dash to the try line.

Souths Anthony Ongoles put the visitors on the board with a try under the posts but the conversion was unsuccessful, leaving Souths trailing 10-5 at the break.

A piece of individual brilliance from Connor, a QAS Reds Academy player who shone in last year's Australian Rugby Championship, led to Jesse Mogg scoring in the corner off a well-executed scrum play to increase Norths' lead to 20-8.

Souths struck back minutes later with a try to debutant fullback Rhys Meredith to set the game up for an exciting finish, but ill-discipline and missed opportunities haunted the visitors, with Norths' Matt Petersen slotting three long range penalty goals to secure the win.

Norths Coach Chris Roche was delighted with the victory against what he describes as a very good Souths team.

“We had a particular style that we wanted to play and the boys seemed to achieve that with what was a real team effort,” Roche said.

“We have had a bunch of guys come up from the colts that are real competitors individually and collectively, where in the past we have had positions where we have been really light, but now we can put out a team across the park that is competitive.

“It’s been a five year plan and it seems to be, touch wood, at this point going okay.”

Roche was delighted with the team effort shown throughout the match.

“I don’t want to single anybody out as that was a real team effort.  You couldn’t beat that Souths outfit any other way,” Roche said.

Souths Coach Dan McKellar said his side was out-enthused from the opening whistle and tipped Norths to win more games than they lose in 2008.

"We put a plan together to try and nullify how they play, but we just didn’t put it into action, unfortunately,” McKellar said.

“When we build pressure and maintain pressure we are as good a football team as any, but we aren’t maintaining possession or building pressure for any long period of time.

“In patches we showed what we can do, but patches just aren’t good enough.”

Norths 29 (B Connor, J Mogg tries, M Petersen 2 con, 5 pen) def Souths 15 (A Ongoles, R Meredith tries, R Meredith con, pen)