West Harbour host the defending premiers, Souths look to bounce back against Norths and the Students head to TG Millner.

We should know a lot more about a number of side’s premiership chances after this weekend.

West Harbour v Warringah

West Harbour secured their spot in the top three with a win over Parramatta, but the Pirates didn’t have things all their own way and were outscored by the Two Blues 21-7 in the second half.

“West Harbour and Parramatta games are always tight affairs so it was good to get out Granville with a bonus point win,” Pirates coach Todd Louden told Rugby News.

Louden has been forced to make a number of changes to his side ahead of Saturday’s clash against Warringah, but the coach said he wasn’t losing sleep over it at this point of the year.

“We’re always working with the aim of hitting strong form towards the back end of the season. In saying that, we’ll learn a lot from this game particularly at the mid point of the regular season.

“To win this weekend against the reigning premiers, we’ll need to have strong discipline and execute our game plan.”

Warringah blew Easts away in the final 15 minutes to claim a 29-8 victory at Rat Park last week but coach Darren Coleman admitted the scoreline probably wasn’t a fair reflection of the match.

“It was a very physical and intense game and I was really please that our guys stuck at it for 80 minutes and got the result.”

The Rats are now fifth, three competition points behind the fourth placed Pirates and Coleman said his side was expecting a battle at Concord.

“We’ve focussed on a few technical things this week to help us combat some of Wests’ strengths,” Coleman said.

“They’re a physical side with plenty of big ball carriers and a few former Rats actually, but they’re also a lot more patient now and they’re able to build pressure by holding onto the ball for long passages.”

Southern Districts v Northern Suburbs

Southern Districts leaked 26 unanswered points in a disappointing 40-12 loss to Sydney Uni last weekend but coach Matt Barr said the scoreline didn’t really reflect his side’s performance.

“We looked good at times with the ball and made 90 % of our tackles, but we were punished on the back of turnover ball and a dominant Uni scrum,” Barr said.

The Rebels will be without a number of their big names again for Saturday’s clash against Norths at Forshaw, in a replay of last year’s quarter final.

Fifth placed Norths ambushed the second placed Rebels in the opening week of the 2017 playoffs and ended Souths’ season for the second consecutive year, but Barr is hopeful his side can reverse the trend this weekend.

“Our set piece needs to bounce back and we have to limit the amount of opportunities we provide Norths.”

The Shoreman head south full of confidence after last week’s big win over Gordon. Norths scored 15 tries at Chatswood Oval but coach Shannon Fraser said his sides attack still wasn’t the most pleasing aspect of the afternoon.

“Our capacity to stick to our plan and avoid playing ‘loose’ rugby was outstanding. We remained controlled and calculated for long periods of time irrespective of the rising score,” he said.

“Souths are a strong club who have shown in their results that they’re tough to beat at home. We’ll need to match them at set-piece to provide us the foundation to apply pressure.”

Manly v Gordon

Manly claimed back to back wins for the first time this season after outlasting Randwick at Coogee Oval and will look to make it three straight when they host Gordon on Saturday.

“Last weeks match after a derby win was always going to be a banana skin match,” Marlins coach Billy Melrose said.

“Randwick were desperate and played with great energy. We had another few out and trialled some new combinations and fortunately managed to just get on top.

“It’s an important win in the context of a very close competition. Winning back to back games against top sides helps the side’s belief.”

Manly have picked up former Brumbies centre Tyrone Smith, younger brother of George, for the remainder of the season and Melrose has named his new recruit to start at outside centre this weekend.

“Tyrone called us and said he wanted to play. He’s closer to the end of his career than the start but credit to him, he’s in great condition and keen to try to and force his way into the side and add value.”

New Gordon coach Kolose Feaunati admitted last weekend’s big loss to Norths on the club’s Old Boys Day was difficult for all involved.

“Norths are a classy outfit and after 15 or so minutes competing against them, they blew us off the park. Our boys are hurting so they’ll be looking for a much better performance this weekend against Manly.”

Feaunati said the side has regrouped since Saturday though and have set their sights on spoiling Manly’s Ladies Day this weekend.

“They’ll be full of confidence but we need to get back to basics and believe in each other and that we can win games.”

“We’re looking forward to the opportunity.”

Eastwood v Sydney University

Eastwood made the most of their bye weekend. The club ran a campaign to raise funds and awareness for the Cancer Council by convincing 15 grade players to shave off their luscious locks.

While some look better than others, the group managed to raise over $20,000 for a worthy cause.

The Woodies return to TG Millner and face arguably their toughest test of the season to date, when they host a red hot Sydney Uni side looking to claim their fifth straight win.

Uni dominated up front again in a 40-12 victory over Southern Districts last weekend in a match coach Rob Taylor thinks was the perfect preparation for a trip to TG Millner.

“It was physical and Souths really challenged us in defence, which will be similar to this weekend I think,” Taylor said.

“Eastwood have a very strong set piece and love the physical confrontation so it should be a good test.”

The Students are expected to welcome back Paddy Ryan for Saturday’s clash but Taylor has named a similar side to the one that beat the Rebels.

In a scary thought for opposition coaches, he thinks the competition leaders are still a long way off playing their best rugby this year.

“We need to keep building on our last performance. In this comp, you can’t afford to stop improving.”

Parramatta v Randwick 

Parramatta outscored West Harbour 21-7 in the back end of last weekend’s match but it was too little too late for the Two Blues.

“It was very frustrating. We continue to let ourselves down by turning over possession too easily,” assistant coach Riley Carter told Rugby News.

“When things are going well for us, we look dangerous but it’s the tough periods in games when we are not performing. We’ve got to be willing to roll our sleeves up and do the hard work when teams are putting us under pressure if we want to win games in this competition.”

Parramatta are 10th heading into round nine but are looking to take momentum from the back end of last weekend’s match against West Harbour into their clash against Randwick on Saturday.

“We’ve got a great opportunity against Randwick but we must be willing to go through the right processes first, especially in attack. Teams in this competition are too good defensively to be throwing the ball around aimlessly.

“If we are able to build pressure in attack through multiple phases and also improve our decision making at vital moments I think we’ll give ourselves an excellent chance.”

Randwick fell short again last weekend against Manly in a match Owen Finegan said he thought could have gone either way.

The Galloping Greens are now 10 points outside of the top six and will need to win on Saturday to revive their chances of playing finals footy this year.

“We’ve worked on our attack and our ability to convert field position into points this week,” Fingegan said.

“We’ve got a big month coming up with two byes and games against Parra, Southern Districts and Uni.

“We need to stop being competitive and start winning.”