Southern Districts kept their Shute Shield finals hopes alive with a tense 36-30 win over Eastern Suburbs on Saturday.
The Rebels remain in eighth place on the table, one point behind West Harbour who occupy the last finals position with four games remaining.
Souths’ main issue in reaching the finals will be their tough run home. They play the top two teams, Northern Suburbs and Sydney University, starting with the Shoremen at North Sydney Oval on Saturday.
The Rebels then take on struggling Gordon before hosting finals-bound Warringah in the final match of the regular season.
It is likely Souths will need to win all four games to make the finals.
The six-point win over Easts keeps the Rebels’ finals dream alive for now. Denny Godinet scored a double for Souths while flanker Conor Mitchel, winger Luke Smart and fly-half Rohan Saifoloi also crossed for five-pointers.
The victory at Woollahra Oval also saw Southern Districts reclaim the Sir Roden Cutler Shield from Easts.
In other first grade results, West Harbour beat Eastwood 33-26, Sydney University downed Parramatta 29-8, Warringah thrashed Gordon 83-14 while Randwick and Manly played out an exciting 36-all draw.
Souths fell 41-23 to Easts in second grade, 50-19 in third grade and 27-12 in fourth grade.
It was a better day for the Rebels’ Colts sides at Forshaw Rugby Park, with Souths winning the Colts 1 clash 19-16 and Colts 2 39-26. Souths went down 17-15 in Colts 3.
