Port Macquarie Sharks defeat Macleay Valley Mustangs in Group 3

The Sharks always appeared in control of the contest in Port Macquarie after they jumped out to an early 8-0 lead before the Mustangs had even completed a set of six.

Macleay Valley, however, hung in the contest, but were thwarted by some resolute defence.

Coach Ant Cowan lamented another week where discipline and errors proved costly as they suffered a second-straight defeat.

"We're two losses back-to-back and that's not us this year. We don't want to be doing that and falling too far behind in the ladder," Cowan said.

"We need to give ourselves every opportunity because the season is getting away from us. We can't sit back and rely on those two good wins we had at the start of the season."

Cowan acknowledged their slow starts to matches were beginning to be a problem. Macleay Valley couldn't create any sustained pressure and were monstered in the forwards.

"Our completion rate was poor and they rolled through the middle. We couldn't build our brick wall and they kept knocking it over," he said.

"It's back to the drawing board again. I don't know what the penalty count was, how many errors we made or sets we didn't complete."

Despite all the challenges thrown their way, the Mustangs hung in the contest and were still a chance of stealing a draw with five minutes remaining.

But it wasn't to be.

"We were pretty poor and had a couple of opportunities, but we couldn't execute," Cowan said.

"We just couldn't execute and they were too strong in defence and shut our opportunities down."

Sharks coach Matt Hogan, however, admitted to a sense of relief and he hoped the 12-point victory could kick-start their season.

But they couldn't quite land the knockout punch needed despite scoring five tries to two.

"It's not the prettiest win I've ever seen, but you know what? We'll take it," Hogan said.

"I've been drumming into them all week that if we don't complete we don't compete and I thought we did that really well today."

Port Macquarie's spluttering start the season has now resulted in a loss-win-loss-win pattern and their completion rates have been a real problem.

The second-half performance against the Mustangs showed signs that they might have turned a corner with James Read's try in the 53^rd minute the only points.

"There's still a lot of improvement to be had right across the board and we were very clunky, but we're a work in progress and I think that's a step in the right direction," Hogan said.

"We kicked to corners and put numbers in our chases and we kept them inside the bad ball areas."

Captain Lee Price led the way up front while hooker Mitch Squire and backrower Koby Smith all battled it out for man of the match honours.

On numerous occasions in the second half the Sharks turned the Mustangs away with patches of resolute defence that has rarely been showcased in the opening four rounds.

"We were really resilient. In the past when we drop the ball we haven't been able to hold our defence for back-to-back sets particularly deep in a game," Hogan said.

"As soon as there's been consecutive errors we get a little bit heads down but the chat got louder today and I think they (the players) thrived off that."

Port Macquarie Sharks 22 (tries: Mitch Squire, Oliver Nosworthy, Ratu Vasuturaga, Lee Price, James Read, goals: Shayden Schrader 1/6) defeated Macleay Valley Mustangs 10 (tries: Dean Jones 2. Goals: Tirell Dungay 1/2)

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