By Jonathan B Geddes 

EASTERN Suburbs coach Ben Batger said the race for the Shute Shield premiership was wide open after the two competition frontrunners both suffered their first losses of the season on the weekend.

Batger’s side suffered a comprehensive 33-10 defeat at the hands of an impressive Sydney University, while Warringah went down 27-24 to a gutsy Eastwood outfit.

In another boilover, the underrated Two Blues beat the Wildfires 31-29, again highlighting the unpredictability of the competition.

Heading into last weekend, Easts and Warringah were both top of the ladder on 34 points, nine points clear of the third-placed Gordon.

What some people regarded as a two-horse race for grand final glory has now officially become an intriguing battle with plenty of upsets inevitably still to come.

“It’s wide open,” Batger told Rugby News after Easts’ first loss. “Early season form can be flattering, I think – people are trying out new combinations, new players are involved.

“I think it was flattering for us and the Rats because we had similar squads to last year.

“Now you see a few teams rise up … so I guess that is good overall for the competition – but not good if you are an Easts coach currently.”

One of those sides on the up is University, judging by their effort on Saturday.

“We’d like to think we are one of the better sides and they just gave us a good old-fashioned spanking,” Batger said.  “They have good cattle, they have a good coach.”             

‘WE WERE EMBARRASED’

EVEN allowing for the strength of Uni’s game, it was an uncharacteristic display by Easts, riddled with errors.

Batger described the loss as “a very disappointing performance”.                                                  

“Everything that could go wrong did go wrong,” he said. “Everything we meant to do we almost did the opposite.

“The lineout which has been such a weapon for us for so long was a shambles. I think every kick we meant to go out stayed in, it was one of those days.”

Batger said Sydney University really beat Easts in the physical battle as well.

“They started that first half by running harder and we were waiting for them,” he said. “I thought we were embarrassed in that first half, to be honest.”

One positive for Easts was the impact of interchange prop Edwin Langi.

“He’s just a young man and he came on and had a really good game,” Batger said.  

This weekend’s bye round could not come at a worse time for Batger, who would rather get straight back onto the horse.

“Personally, I will be stewing on it for two weeks, the players will be stewing on it for two weeks,” he said. “It’s not what you want heading into a bye, you want to be able to relax and sit nice and comfy after a good win – so this is the absolute reverse.”         

 ‘A HUGE WIN’

 EASTWOOD co-captain Isaac Crowe summed up what defeating the defending premiers Warringah at TG Millner Field meant to his team.

“It was a huge win for us, it means the world,” he told Stan Sport. “The boys just dug in there and I can’t believe it honestly.”

The spirit in the Woodies side was displayed when they held out a relentless Warringah attack close to their line at the death.

“I think we have been working towards it all year and this is probably the first time we have really put it together, so it’s just been a year-long build,” Crowe said.

Winger Lachlan Shelley also described the victory as “huge” and a good confidence boost for the Woodies going into the bye round. 

“We worked really hard in the off-season and also leading up to this game, to make sure we didn’t give those penalties away and could really handle it at the end … I think we proved that then, we really did well to stick in, so I am really proud of the boys.”

There was added relief for Shelley at full-time after he was yellow-carded in the 48th minute for deliberately knocking down the ball when the Rats had an overlap in attack.

“Honestly, I was just trying to make up for it, it’s never good letting the boys down,” he said. “In the heat of the moment l sort of just tried to stop the try.”