By MARK CASHMAN

Warringah will get a taste of life without their talisman skipper Ben Marr when they travel to North Sydney Oval on Saturday to take on Northern Suburbs for their Round 10 Shute Shield match – broadcast live on Stan Sport.

Marr dislocated his shoulder scoring a vital try in the Battle of the Beaches derby against Manly a fortnight ago at Rat Park and the original thinking was that could be out for between four and six weeks.

But scans this week revealed that he would need a full reconstruction and is gone for the season.

That’s Warringah’s skipper and best player sidelined until 2022 and you could hear the disappointment in Rats coach Mike Ruthven’s voice when Rugby News spoke to him.

“It’s a massive loss for us but we just need to get on with rest of our season,” Ruthven said.

“Ben’s been out best player for much of the past 18 months and the leadership role was bringing a whole new dimension to his game.”

Marr will have the operation some time in July and from there he will be in the hands of the more than capable S&C staff.

We got a preview of the configuration that the Rats will default to in the second half of the game against Manly when Ben Woollett moved to fullback and Charlie Tupu came on to the wing.

That was more than serviceable and Woollett scored a very “Ben Marr style” try after the bell in the derby so there is plenty of spark in the Rats’ back three still.

But like the derby this game will be won and lost at set piece and the breakdown.

Norths crashed to their first loss of the season when they conceded a penalty try after the bell against Eastern Suburbs at Woollahra Oval.

That game was seemingly in the Shoremen’s grasp but the Beasties wouldn’t lie down and were able to put themselves in a position to win.

Norths coach Zak Beer has again turned to Max Burey to run the shop for him with Angus Sinclair still working his way back from a quad strain.

Sinclair, I am told is close to a return, and may play a role of Saturday but the man that Norths will look to is James Turner on the right edge.

Turner is rightfully getting recognition further up the pathway and his work on the fast Woollahra surface was a joy to watch.

Teams are rightfully coming at Norths at scrum time but they are quietly working away at this part of their game with input from Angus Scott.

Jack Brewer is coming along nicely on the loose head side and how the eight cope with the very good Warringah scrum will be a sub plot to this one.

Rory O’Connor was simply superb two weeks ago and he will again play a vital role for the visitors.

Warringah are very solid in the midfield with Tyson Davis and Seb Wileman making a mark but how they cope with the Shoremen’s edge game remains to be see.

It will be a cracker!

IMAGE: KAREN WATSON