By MARK CASHMAN

You would think that Eastwood coach Ben Batger would come away from a pretty handy victory over Eastern Suburbs at Woollahra Oval with a smile on his face but that was far from the case.

Wins are a lot better than the alternative, particularly at this time of the Shute Shield season, but Batger put on his big picture goggles when he spoke to Rugby News in the wake of the 42-28 victory.

“The team certainly didn’t make it easy on themselves,” Batger said.

“We’re just a bit hot and cold at the moment and if we are to compete with the Sydney Unis and the other big teams in this competition we’ve just got to find some sort of consistency.

“At the moment we are slipping in and out games – we conceded 28 points at one stage there on Saturday in the lead up to halftime but we were able to turn that around after I sprayed them at the break.

“The same thing happened at training and I want them to get to the stage where they are managing those sort of things themselves and control the ebbs and flows of games.

“I can’t always do that but I suppose a little bit about that comes from being such a young group but we need to learn from these sort of situations.”

The Woods in fact scored 22 unanswered points in that second half – post the Batger spray.

Before that the Beasties had recovered from conceding the first two tries – the first to Woods centre Bart Picone and the next to Lachlan Shelley.

They led 28-20 at the break but the Woods just powered away after a subtle dose of reality from the coach.

Iceley was at the centre of a lot of that stuff and has now scored seven tries in the past four games and has tipped his side’s tackle count for the past two weeks.

Strong set piece was also part of that story in the second half and also some fine work from centre Enoke Muliufi.

Muliufi is now in his third season at the Woods after coming across from West Harbour and a solid pre-season has him playing some of the best footy of his career.

He has dropped 13kg after arriving at TG Millner Field at 118kg.

The Woods love a good big centre but what ‘Noke’ now brings to the table is second and third efforts that haven’t been a part of his game until now.

His surge through traffic late in the game at Woollahra showed agility that is of Super Rugby level.

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Tane Edmed was a huge contributor to the visitors cause and Mark Nawaqanitawase a constant thorn out wide.

Beasties coach Paul Taumoepeau said that his side “just got beaten by a better side”.

“Mark Nawaqanitawase was a real handful for us and Eastwood took their opportunities quickly and made us pay for it,” Taumoepeau said.

“They’re a side that showed some patience and their style of play can really grind you down.

“They hold the ball for long periods of time and we weren’t good enough to keep at it.

“I thought they were a class outfit on the weekend.”

IMAGE: SERGE GONZALEZ / EASTWOOD RUGBY