Eastwood club legend and first grade coach Ben Batger has labelled his side’s 28-25 victory over Southern Districts as the most heroic performance he’s seen in his 18 seasons at the club. 

The Woodies played with 14 men for more than 70 minutes after No.8 Sione Tau received a red card for a dangerous tackle in the early stages of the match.

Despite that, Eastwood raced away to a 22-3 first half lead before the Rebels forwards took control of the contest creating space for Souths’ to score back to back tries out wide. 

“Ten minutes in I was thinking ‘Oh God we’re in a lot of strife here’ but you can’t let that become apparent at the time so the message was to keep believing in ourselves, play some good footy and see what happens,” Batger told Rugby News. 

“From that point we ran in three tries in the next 20 minutes but as the game wore on the petrol started to run low and they came back into it.”

Souths skipper Phil Potgeitter scored off the back of a driving maul midway through the second half to give the Rebels the lead. 

But Eastwood hit back with two penalty goals, then defended courageously in the final five minutes to seal an impressive and somewhat unlikely win. 

“The general consensus was that the red card was a harsh call, but at the end of the day you’ve just got to move on and deal with what’s in front of you in those circumstances,” Batger said. 

“When those things happen you need to get something like five percent extra from everyone and we really went beyond that.

“Souths are a tough physical side.

“There is nothing special in what they throw at you but they’re set piece is excellent and they just knuckle down and play that tough grinding style of footy that works for them.”

Click on the cover to see all the Shute Shield teams!

Batger was full of praise for flyhalf Chris Bell, who kicked brilliantly in play and from the tee all afternoon and looks to have settled back in nicely to his preferred role in the number 10 jersey. 

“He was exceptional in getting us into the right parts of the field. Towards the end, he had missed a few kicks but when the chance came to win the game he stepped up from 45 metres and nailed it.”

The lack of combinations in Souths’ new look backline was fairly evident but the Rebels forwards did show glimpses of how brutal and dominant they could be this year. 

While Todd Louden expected that it would take his side a few weeks to find their best, the winless Rebels’ will need to do so quickly with clashes against Warringah, Norths and Gordon to come in a particularly tough opening five round stretch. 

IMAGE: SERGE GONZALEZ / EASTWOOD RUGBY