by Paul Cook –

Unbeaten Randwick hosted Premiers Eastwood in the clash of the day at Coogee Oval, with the Wicks keen to claim another big scalp as they set their stall out as the real deal in 2016. The Woods came in minus the services of Jed Gillespie, Jared Barry, Matt Gonzalez and Jai Ayoub, while the Wicks were without Ned Hanigan and Nick Kellaway, and Nick’s twin brother Andrew was preparing to strut his stuff six kilometres up the road at Moore Park for the Waratahs.

The opening quarter saw both teams feeling each other out, the Woodies happy to put a few kicks in behind and keep their opponents on the backfoot, while the Wicks’ vastly improved physicality quelled any dominance from the visitors at the breakdown. The first penalty opportunity didn’t arrive until the 9th minute and the home side showed their intent by opting for the lineout, only for a knock-on to thwart their bravado.

A succession of offside penalties eventually led to the first points of the game, Wicks skipper Mark Baldwin pointing to the posts on 13 minutes and Andrew Deegan doing the honours. But the hosts suffered a setback a few minutes later when combative lock Will Munro was led from the field after a nasty head collision.

The Woods were struggling to hold any meaningful possession and were being pinged off the park in the process, and their sixth penalty concession in the opening quarter led to the first try of the afternoon. A high shot allowed Deegan to set the platform from a five metre lineout, and after the forwards had done the donkey work to soften the line, it was the impressive flyhalf who produced the killer pass for Ben Starkey to put Lachie Anderson away past some lethargic defence.

The nippy fullback was almost in again a minute later, countering from deep to race 60 metres before feeding inside to his support, when pinning back the ears and backing himself may have been the better option. However, Eastwood’s Brad Curtis was adjudged to have halted the Galloping Greens’ progress illegally with an early tackle, and when he was duly issued with a yellow card, the reigning Premiers were well and truly under the pump.

And it didn’t take long for the Wicks to take advantage, striking off the ensuing lineout play when Harry Boileau caught the defence napping around the ruck to dive home.

Deegan’s surprising missed conversion left the score at 15-0 but an increasingly confident Randwick soon received another boost when Eastwood acquired a second yellow card, this time for Cohen Masson. The industrious openside was guilty of a high shot, enough for referee Will Houston to make him the scapegoat for repeat offences and send him to keep Curtis company in the sin bin.

The visitors fronted up to force a mistake and clear their lines for a much-needed platform of attack from the lineout. But the throw was stolen by Jock Armstrong, and when the ball went through the hands, the Woods were always going to be prey to a numbers game, Ben Starkey putting Jack Pennington over for his third of the season.

A trademark Sam Needs charge from a tap-and-go finally got the Woodies into the opposition 22. But after holding fort for virtually the rest of the half, five successive handling errors put paid to any hopes of troubling the scoreboard before the break, and when the two sides trudged to the sheds, the reigning Premiers were staring down the barrel at their first scoreless 40 minutes in many a long while.

When a scrum penalty two minutes after the restart allowed Deegan to extend the advantage to 25-0, you wondered how badly this could end for the Woodies. But like any good champion pinged to the ropes, they absorbed the potential knockout blow and came back with a flurry of punches of their own.

They needed something tangible on the scoreboard – and fast. But despite setting up camp in the Wicks’ 22 and putting together their most disciplined and consistent phases of play, they met a seemingly unmoveable force in the home side’s defence. Time and again, the myrtle green jerseys swarmed and scrambled to hold their line intact, and despite their obvious qualities in attack, it is this marked improvement in both attitude and aggression in defence over the last 12 months, that marks them out as genuine title challengers.

But 10 minutes of concerted effort finally caught up with them when Ben James pounced off a Jarome McKenzie surge to breach the green line at last, and the returned Brad Curtis rubber stamped a potential fightback.

The unusually high error rate from the champions continued – Max Page failing to find touch with a penalty and James Neale spilling the pill as he stretched for the line. But they persevered and off the back of a scrum that was starting to gain some ascendancy after some first half wobbles, they struck again, George Kent powering over after his fellow pack members had marched the Wicks’ eight backwards.

Having had the game in the bag at 25-0, the Wicks were suddenly looking over their shoulders with an 11pt gap. So it appeared to be the match-sealer when effervescent skipper Baldwin went under the posts with only eight minutes remaining.

The Woods shot themselves in the foot with a lost lineout and when the ball came infield, it was Ben Starkey again who played provider, picking just the right moment to release his captain through a gaping hole and away to glory, and replacement Chris Taripo added the extras for a 32-14 lead. But there were a couple more twists in the tail still to come.

A standout best on the losing side, Cohen Masson added a five-pointer to his name when Eastwood conjured up a textbook rolling maul on 75 minutes. And when Jarome McKenzie and replacement Ed Craig combined to carry their side 80 metres from their own 22, and Masson was on the spot to swoop again and dive home for another, more than a few hearts were fluttering around Coogee Oval.

They would have beaten even more had Curtis managed to convert both tries from out wide to make it a four-point ball game. But the late rally was abruptly halted by the final whistle, and ultimately, served only to put a more respectable look on the scoreboard than the previous 80 minutes of football had suggested.

Injuries in key positions undoubtedly left the Woodies hamstrung on the day, and the longer term absence of inside centre Tom Hill (due back from Italy in June) should also not be underestimated. But take nothing away from a clinical Randwick side keen to play down their title challenge in-house, but whose stock is rising with every performance.

Randwick 32 (Lachie Anderson, Harry Boileau, Jack Pennington, Mark Baldwin tries; Andrew Deegan 2 cons, 2 pens, Chris Taripo con) defeated Eastwood 24 (Cohen Masson 2, Ben James, George Kent tries; Brad Curtis 2 cons)