Stoic defence was the key to Pirates' hard-earned win over Southern in a gripping game at Tahuna Park.
There was little between the teams in this match but Pirates probably won it with unflinching defence as Southern hammered away at its line for almost all of the third quarter.
Pirates had a clear territorial edge in the first half but could not crack a stout Southern defence and scored through two penalty goals by James Rosenberg.
Southern tried to run the ball more in the second spell but was denied by desperate Pirates defence and by crucial handling mistakes and forward passes.
Southern did not help its own cause by losing Jed Vercoe and Ollie Spence to the sinbin in the last 15 minutes, and Pirates finally sealed victory when, from the last scrum of the game, it worked the blind and flanker Josh Clark took an in-pass from fullback Kieran Flower to crash over.
No 8 Warren Kearney was a fine loose forward and leader for Pirates, lock Nic Wilson won quality line-out ball and the front row held up well.
Steve Bruce was a clever, enterprising halfback, Rosenberg was solid at first five-eighth and Flower displayed good positional sense at the back.
Fullback Apelu Apalati and midfielder Hamish McKenzie were lively runners in the Southern backline and Julius Glasson showed some classy touches at first five-eighth, although he also made several glaring errors.
Cam Goodhue had an excellent game from No 8, Carl Anderson was a hard worker from the openside flank and Simon Knight had a sound game at lock but the Southern forwards would have been disappointed their backs did not make better use of their possession.
Southern kicked only one goal from four attempts, while Rosenberg kicked two out of four for Pirates.
Pirates 11 (Josh Clark try, James Rosenberg 2 penalty goals); Southern 3 (Joe Burford penalty goal).
Half-time: 6-0.
Referee: Todd Pullar.
