By Jon Geddes

EASTWOOD five-eighth Tane Edmed has been labelled a future Waratahs captain as he quickly makes up for lost time on his return to the Shute Shield after a frustrating Super Rugby campaign.

In his first game back for the Woodies, Edmed stood out leading his side to their decisive 50-28 win over Hunter Wildfires last Saturday.

“By his own admission he had a disappointing Super Rugby season because he missed 10 weeks with a back injury,” Eastwood coach Ben Batger told Rugby News.

“Once people see how good he is, I think Tane will be on the fringes for the Australia A or even World Cup squad.”

It is a measure of the high regard in which Edmed is held that while he was only able to train on the Thursday prior to the Hunter game, Batger had no hesitation naming him skipper straight away.            

“He was our captain at the back end of last year and he is a leader through and through,” Batger said.

“He will captain the Waratahs one day in my opinion, he leads by actions and by words and the boys really respond to him.

“He actually enjoys the responsibility as well and he is a bit like Steve Smith – make him captain and he becomes a better player.”

Waratahs coach Darren Coleman has watched that game against Hunter and said Edmed was the difference in the second half.

He said the remaining Shute Shield rounds presented Edmed with a great opportunity to really fine-tune his game, lead his team deep into the finals and get more match practice.    

“With Ben Donaldson leaving we’ve got high hopes of what Tane can deliver for us,” Coleman said.            

LEADER OF THE PACK      

IN fact, Edmed has already captained the Waratahs – in a pre-season trial against the Brumbies early this year in Griffith.

“That was awesome, there were a lot of boys out so I can’t read too much into it,” he said. “But just being recognised by DC (coach Coleman) as somewhat of a leader at Super Rugby level was pretty cool.”

And steering the ship as skipper is a responsibility that Edmed openly embraces.

“In the future I aspire to be a leader in Super Rugby,” he said. “I really love being captain, it’s something I pride myself on.

“Obviously it can be tough sometimes being only 22 marshalling around a group of grown men who have been there for a while.

“I think it makes me perform better and to get the ‘c’ next to my name is a privilege as well – there are some great captains who have come through Eastwood.”                            

A REAL CLUBMAN

HE is also a Super player who is proud to pulls on his Eastwood jumper in the Shute Shield.

“Whenever he is available, he always plays,” Batger said.

As Edmed said: “I always love coming back to the boys, it’s always good fun.

“And it’s been good to get out on the field and play, I missed out on a fair bit of footy.”

Due to the nature of the injury he suffered Edmed is carefully monitoring his workload and that sensible approach has paid dividends.

“It’s really good to be able to play 80 minutes,” he said.

Edmed will again lead the Woodies in Saturday’s game against the Two Blues at Eric Tweedale Stadium.

BACK ON TRACK

 AFTER a slow start a revitalised Eastwood have started to gain momentum and now sit in fifth spot, on equal points with fourth-placed Randwick.

“We are definitely trending in the right direction towards the business end and we have a few boys still to come back from various Super Rugby clubs,” Edmed said.

“It will be good to keep building the combinations, it was my first game and the boys are getting used to how I play and vice versa.”

Batger is also well aware with the tightness of this year’s competition that complacency can quickly see a team go into freefall.

“You have seen the ladder, it is so congested – two bad games and you can slip down to eighth spot,” he said.