by Paul Cook –

Six defeats and a draw from their 16 matches thus far, had left reigning Premiers Eastwood firmly in the last-chance saloon. Lose again and they could kiss goodbye to any dreams of a title hat-trick. But in order to keep that dream alive, they had to down a Randwick side sitting proudly atop the ladder ahead of kick-off, and coming in off the back of five wins on the bounce. But while the Woodies now had the experienced trio of Jared Barry, Tom Hill and Damien Fitzpatrick back in tandem, the Wicks came in minus the old heads of Adam Freier and Stephen Hoiles, and one of the most consistent performers of the 2016 Intrust Super Shute Shield, skipper Mark Baldwin.

The first round clash between these two sides had seen a fired-up Randwick side blast out of the blocks with a pace and intensity that a misfiring Woodies didn’t come to terms with until it was too late. Perhaps still smarting from that defeat, the tables were turned by the home side on this occasion, as they started at a frenetic pace and with a trademark aggression and physicality that was strangely lacking that day at Coogee Oval.

But for all their positive intent – skipper Jai Ayoub turning down two kickable penalties in search of a more damaging early blow – they came up empty-handed for the opening 15 minutes, until a powerful surge from Damien Fitzpatrick was finished off by a sniping Max Page from a metre.

Turning the screw at scrum-time, the Woodies continued to set the tone with a queue of willing ball runners keeping them on the front-foot, while the vision and kicking game of the evergreen Ayoub pinned the visitors back in their own half. However, this Wicks outfit has got plenty of starch, and their work at the breakdown and ability to milk a penalty when under the pump, continued to thwart Eastwood until they applied the afterburners at the half hour mark.

A charge-down from the hardworking Miles McCaffrey on an Andrew Deegan clearance, ricocheted the ball forward in favour of the predatory Fitzpatrick, fresh from a hat-trick performance the previous weekend. A terrific cover tackle from fullback Lachie Anderson held the hooker out on this occasion, but his offload fell back to McCaffrey, who cleverly grubbered ahead, only to knock on as he dived for the line to finish off his good work.

A demonstrative surge from the Woodies pack knocked Randwick off their own ball from the ensuing five metre scrum, and with the Wicks being marched back towards their own line, Nick Kellaway’s not-so-subtle intervention to clear the ball must have brought himself and his side perilously close to a yellow card and a penalty try respectively.

No matter, warning had been served and it only took a minute for the home side’s pressure to tell. Working again off a dominant scrum, they shifted across field, came back towards the posts, and finally sent it wide again for Ayoub to pull out a peach of a pass to put Cam Mitchell over in the corner with Randwick stretched.

Tom Hill couldn’t add the extras from out wide, and when the normally reliable centre passed up another opportunity to extend the lead from an offside penalty on the stroke of half-time, 12-0 at oranges was suddenly looking a lot healthier for the visitors than the potential 17 with no reply they could have been staring down at.

Their second half revival mission wasn’t helped when the hardworking Will Munro went to the bin only three minutes after the restart for no arms in the tackle. But again, Hill’s radar was mysteriously off-kilter from in front and Randwick went unpunished.

The Wicks did a pretty good job of running down the clock in Munro’s absence, pinned inside their own 22 but defending resolutely and aiming up at scrum time, despite the man disadvantage. But when a relieving kick from Deegan landed straight into the arms of Johnathan Malo on halfway, danger loomed.

The Woodies fullback returned with interest, drifting through two myrtle green jerseys before stepping Deegan in style and fixing the last man, Lachie Anderson, to offload for Cohen Masson to run in off his shoulder. The predatory openside now has nine tries to his name in his debut season at the club.

Jai Ayoub assumed kicking duties from Hill and duly made it 19-0 before yet another scrum penalty – Randwick’s fifth of the afternoon – allowed him to increase the advantage even further on 53 minutes.

The Wicks had barely made it out of their own half without Munro, but no sooner had he returned from the bin, they were back to a man down when locking partner Ned Hanigan took his enforcement qualities a touch too far with a man on the ground, and referee Richard Goswell sent him to take a pew on the still-warm naughty seat.

The departure of home favourite Sam Needs from the Woodies engine room was only ameliorated by the arrival in his place of another equally popular front rower, as Jed Gillespie continued his return from long-term injury. As expected, they didn’t lose anything at scrum time and, after several more assertions of power – tighthead Marty Plokstys having a field day – Hanigan was given somebody to talk to in purgatory when replacement Wicks tighthead Rhys Brodie was sent to join him.

Now two men to the good, the Woodies naturally opted to use their advantage, driving the scrum and maul at every opportunity. And it was little surprise when, having just knocked on over the line from one mighty surge through Fitzpatrick, they succeeded a minute later, marching the under-manned Wicks pack back over their line for McCaffrey to dab down the bonus point try.

Ayoub converted for 29-0 and with less than 15 to play, Wicks coach Shannon Fraser emptied the bench in the hope of injecting something back into a side whose biggest loss of the season prior to the match had been by only 7pts. And from pretty much their first visit to the Woodies’ 22 in the half, it was two replacements that helped to create what appeared to be a mere consolation try, Ed Kennedy sailing through off a good line from an Andrew Deegan pass after neat build-up play from the wily Patrick Phibbs.

But that consolation score was quickly upgraded to the initial stirrings of a comeback two minutes later, when those in green finally galloped towards a tiring Eastwood line and a lovely sleight of hand pass from Lachie Anderson put Chris Taripo in for a second.

Deegan’s conversion made it 29-14, and all of a sudden, the seemingly impossible was on. Belief coursing through the Wicks veins, they hammered their hosts’ line for the next five minutes and received another shot in the arm when replacement Woods prop Wayne Borsak paid the price for persistent offside team infringements and saw yellow.

But a quick tap and go penalty was intercepted, an act which led to the play of the match, at least in the eyes of the home support or anyone who appreciates the more idiosyncratic moments of the game. The stray pass was plucked from the air by loose forward Rhys Allen who, realising he had some 80 metres to run it home duly fed inside… to prop Gillespie. Understandably, he too didn’t fancy stretching the hammies and, much to the delight of the TG Millner faithful, he put boot to ball and cleared upfield like a seasoned flyhalf.

And that was pretty much that.

The parallels between this clash and the one between the two sides back in round four are striking given the scoring progression. Back then, the Wicks kicked-on from victory to mount their title challenge, while the Woodies tail-spinned into a shadow of their former selves.

But with one round to go before the finals, even a home win next week for the Wicks may still not be enough to ensure the home semi-final that seemed rubber-stamped for them not so long ago. And should Eastwood get the bonus point win at Gordon and other results go their way, no-one will fancy taking on the champions in knockout footy. Not in this form.

Eastwood 29 (Max Page, Cam Mitchell, Cohen Masson, Miles McCaffrey tries; Jai Ayoub 2 cons, pen, Tom Hill con) defeated Randwick 14 (Ed Kennedy, Chris Taripo tries; Andrew Deegan 2 cons)