Eastwood coach Stu Woodhouse believes his side executed a near perfect game plan in Saturday’s 40-34 semi final victory over minor premiers Manly.

After sneaking into the playoffs, the sixth placed Woodies produced their best performance of the season to shock the Manly Oval crowd and set up a preliminary final clash against Northern Suburbs this Sunday.

“I don’t want to give too much away but the plan was to target certain individuals in their back line, particularly in first phase and stick to our kicking strategy,” Woodhouse told Rugby News.

“We knew we needed to starve their fullback (Josh Turner) of quality possession because he is very dangerous, so we varied our kicks – high kicks, contestable kicks, work to one corner and kick to the other, we spent a lot of time on that during the week and I think it worked pretty well.

“We’ve seen Souths and Warringah do something similar, so it’s not really anything new, we just expanded on it.”

Eastwood silenced a solid Manly Oval crowd early and raced out to a 20-0 lead in the first half, after Marlins hooker James Hilterbrand was given a yellow card.

While Manly fought back and scored five tries to make a match of it, Eastwood’s strong start proved the difference.

“I think our line speed was key as well and we were able to limit the roll on of their forwards and from there, we were able to put some pressure on at the breakdown,” Woodhouse added.

“At a place like Manly Oval, you need to start well to keep the crowd out of the game and we did that. You always want to start well but this week we had a specific emphasis on accumulating points in the early stages.”

Two intercept tries to winger Fabian Goodall also helped the Woodies cause when momentum seemed to be shifting back to the home side.

“In saying that though, I think we bombed a couple of tries as well. One more pass would have seen us probably score a few more times I think but that’s finals footy, you’ve got to make the most of your opportunities.

“Fabian (Goodall) made some good reads. Both our wingers have a rugby league background and they always make great reads in defence.”

After losing just two of their first 11 matches this year, Eastwood’s season looked all but over when they lost five of their final six regular season games.

But after edging out Sydney Uni and West Harbour for the sixth and final playoff spot, the 2015 premiers now find themselves just 80 minutes away from the 2017 decider, ahead of Sunday’s preliminary final against Norths.

“When you’re missing your captain and No.10 for the rest of the season, you’re never going to be a pretty footy side so we just need to play to our strengths and execute when it matters and we did that on Saturday,” Woodhouse said.

“Norths are a very good side. They are clinical at the breakdown and have great line speed and I think if we play like we did against Manly, we could be in trouble. We’ll need to improve again because across the park, they are very good.”

While Woodhouse seemed keen to hold onto his side’s underdog status, he admitted there was a good feeling around the club at the moment.

“I think Eastwood sides are always under a lot of pressure to play finals footy, because we’ve been around at this time of the year quite a bit in recent times, but we’ve got a lot of new guys in this group and I think they felt the pressure a bit towards the end of the regular season,” he said.

“Once we qualified for the finals, that weight was lifted from our shoulders and the group started to relax. It was probably the best week of training we’ve had leading into last week’s semi because we knew the pressure was now on the other sides and I think that will continue again this week.”

All four Eastwood grade sides will play for a spot in the grand final at North Sydney Oval this Sunday, while two of the club’s colts sides are also still alive.

“We’ve got six of our seven sides playing this weekend and that’s really exciting for the club. Plus, it helps with our preparation because we can all train together through the finals like we have all year. There will be a really good atmosphere around the place all week.”

Photo: Serge Gonzalez