By MARK CASHMAN

Warringah coach Mike Ruthven hailed the “presence” of his openside breakaway Rory Suttor in the wake of the Rats’ 40-37 Shute Shield win over Eastwood at TG Millner field on Saturday.

The Rats showed some signs that they are in the race for a finals spot this season with a victory that involved them conceding two penalty tries, two yellow cards, being behind 18-13 at the break and their skipper Ben Marr having a mixed day from the kicking tee.

Throw into the mix the fact that the Woods also grabbed an alarming amount of the Warringah lineout ball and you will know that this was an afternoon to cherish for the visitors.

Leading the way was the increasing presence of Suttor who returned to the Rats at the start of last season after a number of years at Sydney Uni while he studied.

Charlie McKill, his back row mate scored two tries but it was the work of Suttor, who played Australian Under 20s and has been in the wider Waratahs squad at different times, that drew the praise of his coach and the back slaps from his teammates in the rooms after the game.

“He was in everything,” Ruthven told Rugby News.

“Defensively he was great and there was a real presence in all the stuff that he did around the field.

“It was really good win for us and a game that potentially in past years we may not have come through on the right side of the ledger.
“I was proud of the mental resolve of the guys to stay in the game and close it out at the end.

“That was the first real test in our season and while I appreciate that Eastwood were down a few troops out there it will be a big confidence boost for us.

“We will take a lot out of that performance.”

While Suttor was doing a lot of the heavy lifting for the Rats on a day where they also got home in the reserve grade fixture skipper Marr was once again the Energiser Bunny for the visitors.

Watching his involvements and enthusiasm was at times exhausting.

“He’s energetic that’s for sure,” Ruthven added.

“You want your best players touching the ball as often as possible. Ben pushes that a little bit but yes he’s a real talent.”

Eastwood coach Ben Batger was a disappointed man in the wake of the defeat and said there was a lot of immaturity around the performance.

“Very disappointed in that – probably the dumbest Eastwood performances in a long time,” Batger said.

“Individually there were some flashes of positivity out there but at the moment we’re not playing as a team and leaking far too many points.

“Overall they conceded two yellow cards, we got two penalty tries, stole 90 percent of their line out ball but somehow we still lost that footy game.

“That says that we aren’t connecting as a team defensively. We are a young team and sometimes groups like that think that things are just going to happen.

“In attack we weren’t working hard to get into good position and defensively we did a lot wrong.”

Chris Bell continues to show some good form for the Woods though but as Batger emphasised after the match he can’t do it all on his own.

Fabian Goodall got two tries and there was some good work at line out time from Charlie Cale who switched to No.8 for this one was a presence at line out time and around the field.

On the Rats front scrum half Harry Anderson-Brown continues to step out from the shadow of the now retired Josh Holmes and No.10 Dean Blore continues to blossom as the team’s playmaker.

Tyson Davis was another to perform well, this time at inside centre after last week show some versatility by playing fullback.

He’s now a big body in the middle of the field for the Rats and will play a significant role as the Shute Shield season matures.

IMAGE: SERGE GONZALEZ / EASTWOOD RUGBY