by Paul Cook –

The new Shute Shield season kicks off in just over five weeks time (check out the 2016 draw here). To whet the appetite for the excitement ahead, we continue our look back at each and every team’s efforts in 2015. Next up – Gordon.

Geoff Townsend had begun his Highlanders tenure in 2014 with a focus on setting a platform for future success. With a host of fresh-faced but untested talent, he set about putting the cogs in place across the club to ensure that – even if the immediate dividends may not be apparent – would, in time, help put Gordon firmly back on the map in Sydney club rugby.

2015 then, was about taking the next step forward, blooding more youth to create strength in depth while continuing to nurture the previous season’s crop of novices into genuine Shute Shield material. While the ladder position didn’t end up being quite as high as they had hoped for, there was evidence of a lot of positives bearing fruit at Chatswood Oval, particularly their swollen ranks of colts. Rugby News sat down with Townsend recently to dissect his second season at the helm as he puts the plans in place for further improvements in 2016.

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Give us a brief overview of the season from your perspective?

Geoff Townsend: “We were probably a win or two under where we could have been. We won our first game against Easts quite well and then ran into a tough group of teams but there were at least three of those next five games where we were significantly the better side but through some of our own mistakes, and some uncontrollables, we lost. That hurt us, but we recovered and then again, didn’t quite finish how we probably should have. We lost a couple of games against tough opposition at the back end of the year where we had chances to win so, we were probably a win or two under where we could have been.”

Gordon finished only one place higher on the ladder than in 2014 but you actually achieved three more victories, racked up 93 more points in attack and conceded 126 fewer in defence than the previous season. Positive signs of progress?

“Yeah, and again, we’ve got to find ways to win those close games. I think there was one game where we conceded nine scrum penalties and lost the game to a penalty kick on the bell so, there’s certain things there that you can control and some that you can’t. We obviously need to find a way to rack up two or three more wins in the coming season to be right in the mix and that’s the goal.”

You mention those close games and a look at the ladder shows that you finished 10pts outside the finals places but lost four matches within 9pts. It very well could have been a different end to the season couldn’t it?

“That start to the season cost us, where we lost five or six in a row and were sitting second last. They were all close games bar the Eastwood match in round two, where they smoked us, but the game against Manly could have gone either way with a bit of luck and we were much better than Warringah and Souths and lost those games, so they hurt. We’ve just got to find ways to win those games when we’re in those situations and that’s something we’re working on.”

You won only one of those first five games but then five of the next six, and it was that middle part of the season where you probably played your best rugby and looked like you were in a position to go on and give the finals a push?

“We thought so too but things don’t happen happily sometimes. We obviously knew we were going to lose Tom Matthews after round 12 (he picked up a contract in France) and he was our co-captain, but we weren’t expecting to lose our captain Terry Preston in the same game for the rest of the season through injury. So, going into round 13 we’d lost our halfback, our 12 and our two captains and it took a while to recover there and we probably dropped a game or two that we could have won as well. Terry was having a great season, I think he was leading the Catchpole Medal at the time and his loss ended up being very crucial.”

Before the season started, you told Rugby News that “Last year (2013) we were probably a bit limited in how we could play the game, we created opportunities but we didn’t quite have the potency to finish them off. We’ve got to be more potent up front and we’ve got to try and get some more bonus points.” Are you happy that you made good on that front?

“Yeah, I think so. In my first year here, we concentrated on developing a style of play but we were able to change the way we played a bit in 2015 because the previous year we didn’t have the forward talents available to allow us to do that. This year, we’ll have a great injection of speed coming back into the club so we should be able to play the game in a few different ways. We’ve now got the basis of the plan I’ve been putting in for two years, it’s just a question of refining that and tacking on what you need to it.”

The Highlanders beat Sydney Uni, pushed Manly twice and lost within 3pts to both Souths and Warringah. Did you come away from the season pleased that you’re seemingly not that far away or frustrated that you could be even closer?

“I thought we could have got results in a few of those games against the top sides and if we had, we might have found ourselves playing finals footy. But to be honest, having lost both Tom and Terry, I don’t think we were quite ready to play finals footy last year. It might not have been a pretty story. This year, I think we’ll be ready for it, should we go that far.”

You hardly saw Jack Dempsey in 2014, but had his services for 13 matches last year and he excelled pretty much every week, racking up an amazing 13 tries from loose forward?

“He’s a key player, no doubt and he had a bit of a free licence at times. We’re lucky to have a couple of unassuming forwards in Harry Rorke and Ruairidh Wilson, who just work their tails off, and that enables ‘Demmo’ to get involved elsewhere, and if we get him again for any time this year, we’ll be looking to get him into certain areas where he can attack and expose other teams. We’re not expecting to see a lot of him, I think there’s every chance he’ll be playing in the Waratahs’ 23, but we’ve been able to get a bit of cover there and we’ve got a few players that are developing as well and could feature in that position, which is good. Whilst we’d love to have him every week, we want him playing Super Rugby as well because it’s good for our club to have players doing that again.”

Jack Dempsey racked up an impressive 13 tries in 13 games

You predicted big things for Harry Rorke at the start of the year and he delivered and went on to get plenty of game time with the North Harbour Rays in the NRC too?

“Yeah, he’s come a long way since he joined us. He and Mark Johnson were two of the most physical players in the competition, they just get up the noses of people. They hit hard, they carry hard and they don’t mess around, and it’s good to have those players in your team. To his credit, he doesn’t look for the easy way, he wants to go and do all the hard stuff for you and he could be a smokey for Super Rugby and able to fill a number of roles.”

Looking across the club as a whole, Gordon finished 9th in 1’s, 10th in 2’s, 8th in 3’s and 11th in 4’s but made the finals in all three colts grades. While that indicates pretty healthy signs for the future, was that a slightly disappointing result from a club championship point of view to what you were expecting?

“We’re not pleased with where we were with our lower grades. Second grade went backwards, which can probably be easily explained by the front row crisis we had in the middle of the competition, where we were using colts in 1st and 2nd grade, but I don’t think we’ll have that situation again. For about four or five years, Gordon had no more than five colts come up to grade but this year, we will have about 30. So, for the first time in half a decade, we’ll have an influx of colts and a lot of these guys have played 1st grade colts, and you don’t know how happy that makes me feel. The amount of work we had to do at times to even get a 4th grade team – I had the boots on most weeks, ready to play, as did some of the other coaching staff. We won’t have that problem anymore.”

Player/s of the Year?

“Jack Dempsey on the efforts he produced but obviously, Terry Preston has to get a mention as well. Like I said, he was leading the Ken Catchpole Medal, in fact, he probably would have been a long way in front when he got injured, and still ended up finishing third. He and Jack both got club awards.”

Rookie/s of the Year?

“James Wilkinson. He’s a hooker who came up from colts, was put in to 1st grade when we had those injury problems and ended up staying there for pretty much the rest of the season. He was terrific for us.”

Most Improved Player of the Year?

“Erik Moss did very well at both fullback and centre and played in every game.”

Players recognised at the next level?

Jack Dempsey (NSW Waratahs); Tom Matthews (US Carcassonne, France); Sione Ala (North Harbour Rays, NRC); Nick Fraser (North Harbour Rays, NRC); Mark Johnson (North Harbour Rays, NRC); Harry Rorke (North Harbour Rays, NRC); James Wilkinson (North Harbour Rays, NRC); Ruairidh Wilson (North Harbour Rays, NRC)