Warringah, Sydney Uni and Norths all claimed tight victories on the opening weekend of the playoffs to keep their seasons alive, while Manly lived to fight another day thanks to other results.

Norths will host Warringah in a grand final rematch next weekend, while Sydney Uni play Manly at Camperdown.

Warringah 34-28 Manly

Warringah kept their premiership defence alive with a hard fought 34-28 win over an understrength Manly side in front of another huge crowd on the Northern Beaches.

It was the big men that did the damage early at Rat Park. Rory O’Connor scored Warringah’s first before Manly prop Charles Abel responded with an incredible piece of athleticism that should see him banished from the front rowers club.

Abel leaped forward from a line out on Warringah’s five metre line and intercepted Josh Holmes pass to score.

Warringah winger Esera Chee Kam finished off tries on either side of the half time break to give the Rats a 17-7 lead, but Manly refused to go away.

Sam Shires found space through the middle of the Warringah ruck to score and reduce the deficit then Josh Turner took an intercept and raced away to give the Marlins an unlikely 21-17 lead.

Warringah hit back through centre Sailosi … and went further ahead after forwards Manny Meafou and Mahe Veii combined nicely for the Rats fifth try.

Josh Holmes then split the defence form the back of a scrum and passed to Dave Feltscheer who raced away to score in the corned to put the result beyond doubt.

Manly kept fighting late in the match and eventually crossed through reserve fullback James Ohmsen. Although it wasn’t enough, the Marlins proved to their travelling fans that they haven’t lost hope in their 2018 campaign.

Warringah head to North Sydney Oval to take on Norths next week, while Manly survive despite the loss and will play Sydney Uni at Camperdown for a spot in the grand final.

Sydney Uni 21-13 Eastern Suburbs

Sydney Uni survived their first scare of the playoffs in a tight win over a much improved Eastern Suburbs outfit at Camperdown.

Just two weeks after conceding 50 points to Norths at home, the Beasties looked like a different side in their first finals appearance since 2013 and opened the scoring through centre James Field.

Towards the end of a tight and tough first half, Jake Gordon found a way through to give Uni the lead, but Easts hit back with a penalty goal on the stroke of half time to take an 8-7 advantage to the break.

With a player in the bin, the Sydney Uni forwards looked to take control and looked dominant every time they entered Easts’ 22.

Eventually, the Students broke a resilient Beasties defensive line and Lachie Swinton scored to give his side a 14-8 lead.

Playing for their season, the Easts’ forwards rose to the challenge and continued to match the star studded Uni pack. Led by Tom Staniforth, the Beasties refused to go away and scored midway through the second half through Cody Walker to reduce the deficit to one point.

Little separated the two sides in the final quarter of the match but Easts struggled to find a way out of their own half.

With five minutes remaining, they finally cracked and Jake Gordon charged through a gaping hole in the Easts defensive line and slammed the ball down next to the posts to score the match sealing try.

The eight point victory sets up a preliminary final clash against Manly at Camperdown next weekend.

Easts will be disappointed to end their season prematurely, but were brave in defeat against a very good University side.

Northern Suburbs 16-10 Eastwood

Norths grinded out a tough 16-10 win on a windy ole day at North Sydney Oval to set up a grand final rematch against Warringah in next week’s preliminary final.

With a big breeze behind their backs, the Shoreman controlled territory perfectly in the first half and gave Eastwood little opportunity to play their way into the match.

Irae Simone threw a “well-planned” bounce pass to Lochie Creagh to set up Norths first try.

Sam Giltrap added a penalty goal soon after before Nick Duffy darted over from close range after Norths controlled possession deep inside Eastwood territory to give the home side a 13-0 lead at the break.

With the wind in the second half, Eastwood seemed confident that they could fight back but didn’t use the breeze as well as Norths did in the second stanza.

The Woodies opened their account with a penalty goal, before Pat Sio barged over on the back of a dominant Eastwood scrum to reduce the deficit to three points.

But that’s as close as the 2014 and 2015 premiers would get. They weren’t able to capitalise on the wind in the final 20 minutes and fell six points short after Norths added another penalty goal.

Photo: Serge Gonzales