While it was just a pre-season tournament, Will Miller's all-conquering Shoals showed they had what it took to win a third straight Illawarra rugby title.

All the big guns were on show at Kiama Showground, including the Miller brothers Will and George as well as the electric Brandon siblings, Steven, Mark and Keiran, as Shoalhaven exceeded all expectations to defeat West Harbour 19-15 in the Plate Final after falling short of Randwick in the main Cup semi.

Player-coach Will Miller was very happy with his team's showing at the Kiama Sevens, adding Shoal were tracking well and looking forward to the start of the Illawarra competition on April 13.

In a wide-ranging interview with the Mercury, Miller spoke at length on a range of issues, from his team's chances of winning the title for a third straight year to how Shoalhaven has adapted to the new tackle rules which came into effect in February this year.

The Rugby Australia trial has seen the legal height of tackles in the game lowered to below the sternum.

The trial is designed to reduce the risk of head-to-head and head-to-shoulder contact between ball carriers and tacklers.

The new 9.13 law will see match officials place greater emphasis on preventing a ball carrier "dipping" into a tackle and placing themselves, and potentially the defender, in an unsafe position for contact.

Shoalhaven is embracing the radical changes:

"I've sort of tried to get our boys to tackle low anyway so we can give on-ballers a chance to attack the breakdown and whatnot," Miller said.

"It's interesting, the interpretation being taken by different referees is the hard part.

"You see some boys holding them up from the ball and they get done for a high tackle and then other ones that slip down or whatever.

"It's going to be interesting to see how that rule goes and how it's refereed."

Miller said finding ways to adapt to this change would take time for all players and referees.

"This rule change isn't that big really, it's only three inches lower than it was before, but it's something that we still need to work on," he said.

"It's probably more going to be a hard one around how the refs do interpret it and whether anyone that gets touched above the chest is a penalty, or if that's so what will come, will it be yellow cards after multiple infringements or more lenient.......it's going to be interesting to see how the refs interpret that and take it forward.

'It is like anything, some refs will ref it slightly differently, might be more lenient to it, others might be doing a hard stance. Either way it will take a little bit of getting used to.

"It's also habits. It's hard to break habits of 20 to 30-year-olds who have been doing it for 15 to 25 years. I guess you have got to change there tackling style slightly, which can be hard to do, so it will be interesting to see how other teams react to that as well."

Getting in shape for new season:

Shoalhaven have won 24 games on the trot heading into their season opener against Shamrocks at Ocean Park, but the back-to-back premiers are not resting on their laurels.

Miller said his team were working as hard as possible to be playing some of their best rugby come April 13.

"We've been doing some conditioning games and stuff at training and have also worked a lot on our skills," he said.

"Importantly we've also done work around the pattern and play we are trying to play this year.

"It's been pretty good so far, the guys are really buying into it and working hard."

This year's challengers:

Shoalhaven's pursuit for a hat-trick of titles has been made easier by the defection of high-flying Avondale Wombats to rugby league.

Miller said he was sad to see Avondale depart but felt this year's competition would be closer than ever.

"I think there are four or five teams at this stage that look like they're going to be strong this year, but I wouldn't be surprised to see a couple of others," he said.

"You look at Campbelltown and they were coming good at the end of last year and I've heard they've got a heap of recruits,so it'll be good to see them going really well again.

"And then there's Kiama, who have got all the Asquith brothers and a few others in the squad. I've heard there's a few other Kiwi boys come over that were relations to the ones that played last year, so they'll be even stronger again.

"They'll be both really good sides. again I think, as will Shamrocks and Tech Waratahs, who always seem to have lots of numbers from the grapevine and some really good juniors.

"It will also be interesting to see how Vikings go this year. It really is great to have them back in first grade and I hope they do well.

"I really do think it's going to be one of the most even competitions in a long time."