By MARK CASHMAN

Eastern Suburbs skipper Jack Digby was starting to wonder whether it was him and that hoodoo playing their Battle of the East rivals Randwick was something very real and to be feared.

After all he had travelled to Coogee Oval four times for not much return and as he outlined to Rugby News in the wake of the game most of those games had the same storyline.

You know herculean struggle, not much between the two sides, scores close and then Randwick finish over the top with the crowd at the halfway mark baying for the blood of the visiting side.

Not this time though with Easts grabbing a try to James Donato in a scramble near the try line that saw the visitors nudge ahead 31-22.

All through the previous 80 minutes the lead had changed hands numerous times and either side looked like the eventual winner.

But a yellow card to Randwick No.8 Jamie Rickward late in the piece gave Easts the chance to get on the front foot and take their chance to win this one.

“It was pretty good, pretty good,” Digby said as he reflected on the importance of hitting back after the last round stutter against Manly at Woollahra.

“It could have gone either way to be honest. Our line out accuracy has let us down in the past (in situations like this) but we were able to get over the line in this one.

“As the game wore on a major thing for us was to stay calm, centred and internally focussed. You know what some of these games are like as the crowd comes into play it can get quite frantic and you can lose your head a bit.

“So I was really proud of the way that we were able to navigate our way through the end of the game.”

There was also a special mention for playmaker Rohan Saifoloi who hit the posts twice with his kicks at crucial times.

“With about five or six minutes to go I know I was feeling really calm and Rohan helped a lot in those circumstances.

“His demeanour in those moments is always very calming. There was no panic just a confidence in our ability to navigate through those crucial minutes.

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“It feels pretty good, couldn’t be happier, couldn’t be any prouder of the effort and the result.”

That man Saifoloi had kicked off proceeding for the visitors with a penalty goal and it would take some time for the home side to get their nose in front after a try, a conversion and a penalty goal to fullback Zac Carr.

From there there wasn’t much difference between the two sides and the score fluctuated with Randwick nudging ahead 22-21 and then the Beasties grabbing a penalty goal from Saifoloi to go 24-22 ahead.

That set the scene for the heroics of the final few minutes with the yellow card to Rickward a matter for much discussion act the Coogee Diggers for both sides of the argument.

Randwick coach Ben McCormack said Easts made his side pay for their errors.

“You can’t give good goal kickers like Rohan (Saifoloi) and (Nic) Jooste penalties like we did, I think we gave away seven bad penalties in kickable range and they took advantage of it,” he said.

“They also made us pay with tries when we dropped a kickoff and then shanked a 22m restart. We were still ahead towards the back end and should have closed it out but some poor decisions and game management cost us.

“All controllable on our end which is both the worst and best thing about the loss. Tough to lose a derby like that and it definitely hurt the whole group. onwards and upwards though, no time to sulk in this competition so we’ve got to fix those things and move on.”.

IMAGE: BRETT DOOLEY / RANDWICK RUGBY