By Beale Stainton

When Eastwood captain Jai Ayoub first started playing Shute Shield rugby it was dominated by one or two teams.

More recently though, Sydney’s first grade competition has been wide open, with three different premiers lifting the iconic shield in the past three seasons.

In 2018, it’s tighter than ever and while Eastwood’s campaign has been plagued by inconsistency this year, the Woodies remain in the mix heading into the final month of the regular season.

“I think the strength of the competition is one of the main reasons for that inconsistency. Looking at the draw and looking at all the teams competing this year, I don’t think there are any easy games,” Ayoub told Rugby News.

“It just means that you’ve got to be at your highest level week in and week out, and to be fair, apart from one or two teams, I don’t think that many sides have found that consistency this season.”

With four rounds remaining, eight teams are battling for six playoff positions and Ayoub said it was far too early to rule out any side with a mathematical chance of playing finals footy.

“Even the guys who are on the fringe like Souths and Randwick can beat anyone on any given day,” Ayoub continued

“I think the strength of the competition is credit to the players though. That’s what’s formed this tight battle between six, seven, eight teams and anyone can win on their day.”

The 31-year old has been in and out of Eastwood’s starting XV all season with three separate injuries keeping the veteran playmaker on the sideline.

“I’ve obviously had a very disruptive season, which is never ideal, but the depth at Eastwood is a very strong, positive thing. Our second and third grade teams always perform quite well and we’ve had Jackson Bird come into the flyhalf role last year and perform well again this year.

“I think he’s really made the position his own and I’ve enjoyed working closely with him alongside the coaching staff. I think the team is very comfortable with him in that position.”

Eastwood return home to TG Millner without their injured playmaker on Saturday to face an improving Gordon side who have caused a number of scares in recent weeks.

Although Ayoub said the Woodies won’t be taking Gordon lightly, his side are looking to take maximum points from the match.

“You have to make sure you win your home games, but it won’t be easy. Also we want to thank our old boys and our home crowd for turning out all year, because there’s certainly no guarantee that we’ll be seeing them for the rest of the year.”

The Woodies face Manly and Warringah on either side of a bye in the run towards the finals and while Ayoub acknowledged it won’t be easy, he said the tough matches will be perfect preparation for the playoffs, if they can make it.

“We’ll probably start playing finals footy a bit earlier than we would have liked,” he said.

“Depending on the results over the next few weeks, they will probably be games that we’ll need to win to solidify our spot in the finals and hopefully earn home ground advantage. That’s certainly the ultimate goal.”