West Harbour players celebrate after claiming a late win over Randwick at Concord Oval
Photo: Paul Seiser Photography

by Brendan Bradford –

West Harbour scored three late tries to pull off a remarkable 28-26 bonus point win over Randwick at Concord Oval in the first round of the Shute Shield this Saturday afternoon. In a hard fought, entertaining match, the Pirates trailed by 15-points with 25-minutes to play before kicking into overdrive as the Galloping Greens switched off, seemingly with the game in the bag. Two quick tries set the platform for a tense last ten minutes and it was outside centre Alofa Alofa who levelled the scores on fulltime before his midfield partner Winston Wilson nailed the conversion and secured the win.

“To come back from 15 points and score three tries to win in the last 20 minutes is very pleasing,” said West Harbour coach Matt Briggs.

“That was a really high quality rugby match, it wasn’t razzle-dazzle – there were glimpses of it – but it was a genuine, hard, honest club rugby match and a great way to start the year.”

Impressive centre Terrence Hepetema scored the Galloping Greens’ first try
Photo: Paul Seiser Photography

Disappointed with the loss after looking dominant for large portions of the game, Randwick coach Wade Kelly said there were plenty of positives to take out the first hit-out.

“When we do what we want to do and play how we want to play, we look good, but as soon as we go away from that and start doing individual things that get us a bit off track, we let other teams in the game,” he said

“I think the players thought we had the game won with 20-minutes to go and started to fade. If we just stick to our game plan, we’ll be a good side though.”

It was end to end stuff for the opening quarter of an hour with both teams running the ball and looking to get it out wide. West Harbour inside centre Winston Wilson and Wicks flyhalf Toby Browne traded early penalties before Randwick inside centre Terrence Hepetema barged over from close range to put the visitors up 10-3.

Another three points to Wilson closed the gap to four after 20 minutes but the ill-disciplined Pirates gave away a succession of penalties which let Randwick dominate territory and possession. Browne slotted two more penalties to build a 16-6 lead but West Harbour winger Macquire Tatola finished off a backline move from an attacking scrum on halftime to make the score 16-11 at the break.

Ill-discipline continued to destroy West Harbour in the second half. Unable to gain any territory or manage any continuity on attack, the Pirates let in another 10-points through a Browne penalty and a converted try to winger Ethan Ford before the tide began to turn.

The Pirates were trailing 26-11 with 25 minutes to play before they finally got on the right side of the referee and earned some valuable field position. Fullback Dylan Taikato-Simpson finished off an overlap in the right corner to halt the Wicks’ momentum and it was game-on when captain Tom Games dotted down in the other corner to narrow the score to 21-26 with 15 minutes to play.

Hard working openside flanker Cohen Masson is new to West Harbour this season
Photo: Paul Seiser Photography

West Harbour dominated possession in a hectic final ten minutes and battered the Randwick line in search of the winning points. The Galloping Greens didn’t do themselves any favours though and gave away a series of penalties before hooker Nio Halangahu was sin-binned with five minutes to play.

Starved of possession, Randwick’s resolute defensive effort looked set to win them the game when the Pirates knocked-on and the ball was cleared. But with their last roll of the dice, West Harbour set up a backline move from a lineout on halfway, spread it wide, broke the line and executed three timely offloads before Alofa sped away to score near the left corner to tie it up 26-all.

The crowd fell silent as Winston Wilson – who had been playing in Spain before signing with the Pirates in the off-season – lined up the difficult conversion. Having missed the previous two attempts, the powerfully built Samoan centre made no mistakes with this one and the Pirates were celebrating before the ball had sailed between the posts.

“To come back like we did is very gratifying and very indicative of how we’ve trained,” said Briggs.

“The off-season has been very hard, and we’ve been pretty relentless on them because I think that’s something that has been one of the issues in the past. But I think the skill levels, the counter-rucking skills from the backs and the turnover ball in the last 20-25 minutes was excellent and was a big momentum shifter.”

Both clubs have recruited well and although there were signs of early season rust, there’s a massive amount of potential for each side to have a successful year.

“We’re a young, developing side and so are they,” said Briggs.

“There’s no question that Randwick have improved – that’s not the same side that played last year and Wade’s done an outstanding job. They’re a very good side and they’ll win a lot of games – no question, they were in our face all day.”

With talent and depth, the goal for Randwick is learning how to win games, rather than just building a lead.

“It doesn’t help when you’re not used to winning, but that’ll come with confidence as the season goes on,” said Kelly.

“I think if we had just kept doing the things we’d been working on and just kept it simple, we should have won that game, but it’s early days yet and we’ll keep getting better.”

West Harbour are away to Manly next weekend while Randwick take on Parramatta at Coogee Oval.

West Harbour 28 (Dylan Taikato-Simpson, Alofa Alofa, Tom Games, Macquarie Tatola tries; Winston Wilson con, 2 pens) d Randwick 26 (Ethan Ford, Terrance Hopetema tries; Toby Browne 2 cons, 4 pens) at Concord Oval. Referee Michael Hogan.