It was a very wet, cold and windy Townson Oval, which only added to Macquarie’s discomfort.

The Scorpions ran with the strong southerly breeze in the first half, but it was Souths who scored out wide after only two minutes of play to lead 4-nil.

That early setback caused the sort of response expected from the premiers: they started to control the game, and crossed for tries through Kye Hopwood, Matt Hay and Malik Deyalou to lead 16-4 after 20 minutes.

At that point many Macquarie supporters were anticipating a comfortable win.

But a series of unforced errors and penalties kept inviting Souths back into the game.

Souths enjoyed a run of possession and scored five minutes before halftime to trail 16-10 at the break.

Macqurie’s lead was a skinny one, given the breeze advantage Souths would enjoy in the run home.

In the second half, more Macquarie mistakes gifted Souths field position, and the home team finished the stronger to post two late tries to take the win.

Scorpions coach Adam Bettridge was bitterly disappointed with his side’s performance.

“Once again we gave away too many penalties and made far too many errors and, although we competed really well, we made it very tough for ourselves,” Bettridge said.

“This loss was our third loss in a row, and it was a game we should have won if we had played a bit smarter. 

“We led 16-4 after only 20 minutes of the first half running with a very strong breeze, but we failed to score another point in the game.

“I thought our two debutantes in Malik Deyalou and Dillon Rowney played very well along with half Kye Hopwood, who was back from the Knights under-20s, but overall it was a disappointing performance.

“We have a number of players still on the sidelines with injuries, but our replacement players all performed well so I don’t want to use that as an excuse.”

Macquarie will resume after the long weekend break with a game at Toronto against Cessnock on Saturday, June 16.