Easts and Manly head into their respective Anzac Round local derbies as the Shute Shield’s only undefeated sides after beating the Two Blues and Pirates on a wet Saturday in Sydney. 

Elsewhere, Eastwood upset Warringah, Randwick struck late to beat Sydney Uni, Gordon beat Hunter and Norths were too good for Souths. 

Eastern Suburbs 35-13 Western Sydney

Easts handed Western Sydney their first loss of the season and retained their spot at the top of the Shute Shield ladder with an impressive 35-13 victory on a wet and windy day at Woollahra. 

Easts scored the only try of the first half, from a driving maul in the 20th minute, and led at the break 10-6.

Beasties No.8 George Gibson barged over early in the second half to extend the home side’s lead which grew to 20-6 following a Jack Bowen penalty goal. 

Western Sydney refused to go away though and scored after spreading the ball through six sets of hands to reduce the deficit to seven points with 10 minutes remaining. 

But Easts pushed ahead with a penalty goal, then sealed the result with a second maul try in the 75th minute. 

Jack Bowen then sliced through the tiring Two Blues defence and set up Jack Grant in the final minutes to score and claim a four try bonus point and seal a 35-13 win. 

Easts head into next week’s local derby at Coogee Oval on the back of three straight wins. 

Manly 29-14 West Harbour

Manly’s forwards dominated on a Heavy 9 track at Manly Oval to beat West Harbour and extend the Marlins unbeaten start to the season. 

The Pirates afternoon couldn’t have started any worse. Following a deep kick off, the visitors coughed up the ball immediately and conceded a try, scored by Scottish recruit Sam Daly, after just 21 seconds. 

West Harbour hit back with a try from close range to lock Will McDonald, but as the conditions deteriorated, the Manly forwards took control of the match and scored through a driving maul, then off the back of a dominant five metre scrum to take a 19-7 lead to hold time. 

The home side extended their lead with a penalty goal and planted themselves deep in West Harbour territory for the majority of the second half. 

Eventually, winger Fraser Toohey found space on a short side and scored to seal the result and a 29-14 win for the Marlins. 

Manly are undefeated and full of confidence heading into Thursday’s Anzac Day local derby against Warringah at Manly Oval. 

Get there early, it’s going to be a sell out. 

Eastwood 20-17 Warringah – Image: Serge Gonzalez

Eastwood produced their best half of rugby this season to stun Warringah and claim their first victory of 2024. 

Searching for their third straight win under new coach Josh Holmes, Warringah looked dangerous early and scored after Komiti Tuilagi set up a try for Ben Marr against his former club. 

Warringah then had two tries disallowed just minutes later but eventually crossed through winger Harvey Elm midway through the second half to claim a 10-3 lead. 

Eastwood responded with a penalty goal late in the first half, then took the lead two minutes into the second stanza when Aussie 7s speedster James McGregor capitalised on some scrappy play and showed his speed to score untouched. 

Woodies flyhalf Harry Snook then threw a lovely dummy to split the Warringah defence and set up a try for Harry Turner to give his side a 20-10 lead after 50 minutes. 

From the restart, Eastwood coughed up possession allowing Harvey Elm to scoop up the ball and offload to Ben Marr for his second try of the afternoon. 

Wes Thomas looked to have scored a match winning try for Warringah in the 75th minute from the back of a driving maul but Eastwood’s desperate defence held him up. 

The Rats then had another chance to score from a maul after the full time siren, but couldn’t control possession in the wet conditions. 

Randwick 27-8 Sydney Uni

Randwick’s forward set up two tries in the final five minutes to seal a 27-8 victory over Sydney Uni at a wet Coogee Oval in a match that was far closer than the scoreline suggests. 

Attacking against 14 men following an early yellow card to Luke Ratcliff, Randwick lock Angus Houston found space next to the ruck and linked with Kai Willoughby to score Randwick’s first try in the 12th minute. 

Randwick added a penalty goal to extend their lead to 10 points before Ratcliff, back from the naughty corner, scooped up a loose ball and threw a long pass to winger Josh Calvert who scored in the corner to reduce the deficit to just five points at half time. 

Both sides kicked penalty goals in a tight and gritty second half before Randwick’s forwards landed the killer blow in the 75th minute with a driving maul try. 

Replacement scrumhalf Tom Sippel then stepped through the Uni defence to score after the full time siren on the back of a dominant five metre scrum from the home side. 

Randwick remain at home next week and will host Easts on Saturday in the local derby, while Uni travel to Chatswood to face Gordon. 

Gordon 29-9 Hunter

Gordon scored four tries to claim a bonus point win in a gritty 29-9 victory over Hunter in a fairly ugly affair at Chatswood Oval.

Hunter kicked three penalty goals in the first half but trailed at the half time break following two driving maul tries from the home side. 

Former West Harbour backrower Pres Tufuga broke through some lazy Hunter defence early in the second half to score Gordon’s third try and give the Stags a 21-9 lead. 

Flyhalf Ben Pollack then sealed the bonus point win when he scored from a grubber close to the Wildfires line in the 75th minute.

Despite wining just one match this season, Gordon are seventh on the Shute Shield ladder after picking up their fourth bonus point for the season. 

Hunter, who also have one win to their name, are 10th and return to Newcastle to host Eastwood next weekend. 

Northern Suburbs 32-0 Southern Districts 

Norths did what they needed to do and took maximum points from their match played in heavy rain at North Sydney Oval against Southern Districts. 

The Shoremen scored two tries inside the opening 10 minutes, through forwards James Margan and Ed Timpson to claim a 14-0 lead then added two penalty goals to take a 20 point advantage to the half time break. 

The home side pushed further ahead with a maul try in the 49th minute. 

Then scored the try of the match when new Welsh winger Carrick McDonough showed his blistering speed to set up a counter attack try for Roan Frostwick. 

Welsh born McDonough, Scot Roan Frostwick and Englishmen Ed Timpson all looked very at home in the wet, heavy conditions in Sydney.