By Henry Jacobs

Eastwood scored eight tries to defeat Norths 72-29 in its Shute Shield round 11 match at North Sydney Oval on Saturday.

After a close opening period, John Manenti’s side was too strong in the second half and came out the comprehensive victor.

“Some of our attack today was as good as it has been all year, we found out where the space was and worked it well,” Manenti said.

“I was kind of surprised that the scoreboard just accumulated, I wouldnt have thought the teams were that far apart . . . once we held the ball it was just a matter of building pressure.”

After a victory over Randwick last week put Norths in touch with the top four, coach Simon Cron was unhappy with its defensive effort.

“We had plenty of opportunities in this game and we didn’t take any of them really, one on one missed tackles from certain guys in the team just opened us up,” Cron said.

“Eastwood roll it up hard, so you’ve got to have line speed on them and today we didn’t; we waited for them to come at us, when you do that it just makes life easy for them.”

Eastwood opened the scoring within the first five minutes as flyhalf Jai Ayoub weaved through the defence and offloaded to flanker Michael Kovacic.

Norths hit back shortly after as Josh Kay crossed the line unopposed, following a line break the phase before.

Ben Batger added two penalties, before prop Sam Needs finished off a simple overlap on the right hand side to give the visitor a 20-7 lead after 30 minutes.

Norths stayed in touch as captain Ben Matwijow found himself in space and passed to halfback Tim Duchense to score under the posts, but Eastwood finished the half strongly, after a John Grant charge down eventuated in a try to centre Tom Hill, to take a 27-14 lead to the break.

Norths opened the scoring in the second half through a Josh Kay penalty, but the visitor added two quick tries to lead 41-17 after 50 minutes.

Nick Palmer crossed the line soon after for the home side, following a Michael Wells line break, however Eastwood continued to pile on the points through a long range penalty to Tom Hill and an easy try to halfback Matthew Gonzalez.

Richard Woolf scored out wide for Norths to give it some hope, trailing 29-51 with 20 minutes remaining.

Three late tries to Eastwood capped of an emphatic win and solidified it’s place on top of the ladder ahead of the long weekend break.

“When we got two or three tries clear we certainly didn’t think we were home and hosed, our big thing was giving an 80 minute performance,” Manenti said.

“We’ve had a hell of a run coming off Manly, Uni, Souths and Norths – they’re all tough games, so to get through that I’m really happy.”

Eastwood face Southern Districts for the second time in three matches, when it travels to Forshaw Rugby Park after the break.

Souths rebounded from a close loss to Eastwood last week with a comprehensive 44-19 win over West Harbour on Saturday.

“We won’t be taking anything for granted. We are just really keen to have a bit of time off to freshen up physically and mentally, but we won’t think too much about them till after the long weekend,” Manenti said.

Norths visit a Warringah side fresh from a close defeat to Manly in the Northern Beaches derby and just out of the top four.

“Last time we played them [Warringah] we started really well but they are a good side . . . for us it’s really going to be defensive based and we’ve got a lot of work to do on our one on one tackle technique and also just maintaining possession for long periods,” Cron said.

The Shute Shield now takes a one week break before returning on Saturday June 13.