By MARK CASHMAN

Lots of intriguing action as Round Two of the Shute Shield played out on Saturday.

Eastern Suburbs got their first win of 2020 when they defeated West Harbour in the TV match of the week at Woollahra Oval, while a little bit across the east at Coogee Randwick came up with one of the great escape acts with a 13-8 win over last year’s grand finalists Warringah.

Elsewhere Eastwood, Sydney Uni, Northern Suburbs and Gordon all got good wins.

Here’s what the coaches had to say about their sides’ efforts on the weekend:

EASTERN SUBURBS V WEST HARBOUR

Eastern Suburbs recorded their first win of the 2020 Shute Shield competition with a solid 36-10 win over West Harbour in the TV match of the round on Saturday.

The Beasties jumped out of the blocks early with tries to Charlie Smith and Richie Woolf and actually led 15-3 at the halftime break.

Like last week backrower Sam Shires, new to Easts this year after having the previous two seasons at Manly, was the pick of the bunch showing the way with good carries and solid, bruising defence.

Centre Henry Paterson was another to do well on the artificial surface at Woollahra which can take time for teams to adjust to early in the season.

Shires had been hampered by a broken foot towards the end of his time at the Marlins missing the last 10 games of 2019.

He made the most of the truncated and Covid-19 affected pre-season and has started this year well.

“The time off helped me in a way to get back to where I wanted be,” Shires, who scored a critical try just after the break to extend Easts lead, told Jon Geddes.

Beasties coach Pauli Taumoepeau was somewhat subdued about his team’s performance.

“I thought we controlled the game well in key moments. Still, wasn’t perfect and I thought we lacked discipline in the last 10 minutes,” Taumoepeau said.

“We need to be better in those championship minutes.

“Wests are a good side with the potential to do some damage. They’ve got a dangerous mix of power and pace – they’ll get better as the season progresses.

Wests coach Mark Gudmunson said his side picked the wrong battles to wage against Easts.

“We are not far off getting it right though and can’t wait to go up against Eastwood. We just need to tinker with a few basics, we are excited for the next few weeks,” Gudmunson said.

“It was 15-3 at half time down, if we were the next to score, it is a different ball game.

“I think they would have been wondering how it was only that score after 40, but that is a credit to how hard we scrambled (in defence) when needed.

“We need to be better at building pressure for periods of time and making the opposition work their way out of trouble and not be gifted it.”

EASTERN SUBURBS 36 (Charlie Smith, Sam Shires, Jordan Jackson-Hope, Henry Paterson, Richie Woolf tries; Nic Holton 2 conversions, pen goal) d WEST HARBOUR 10 (Elliott Turner try; Josh Coward conversion, pen goal)

SYDNEY UNI V MANLY

Sydney Uni continued their unbeaten start to the 2020 Shute Shield competition on Saturday when they defeated Manly 10-6 in a tense encounter on Saturday.

There was only one try scored in this one but that didn’t take away from the tense nature of the contest with James Kane pushing the home side ahead with a second half that made up the final scoreline.

Earlier Henry Clunies-Ross marked his 50th first grade match with a try which when you consider his recent injury travails was an absolute triumph for someone who has hit back against an injury that threatened not only his footy career but his life.

Clunies-Ross sliced open a shin on a corner post at this time last year at Uni but the substantial cut became infected and he had to battle a flesh eating bacteria.

The Students are renown for taking the chances when they come and that’s exactly what they did against Manly.

Uni coach Michael Hodge described the game as a scrap.

“Unforced errors and missed opportunities made it difficult to find any rhythm,” he said.

“And the experienced Manly pack did everything they could to upset our flow.

“I was really happy with our defence from the outset and it was the reason why we were able to hang on.

“I’ve got to give a special mention to Henry Clunies Ross who was one of our best. That’s two tough games for two games – we’ll take that any day of the week.”

“We played with a lot of grit again but didn’t execute well enough to win,” Manly Marlins coach Matt McGoldrick said.

“We did a lot of things right but ultimately to beat them you’ve got to take your chances. They are a good side.

“A lot to like about us though, to hold them to 10 points when the last two years they’ve averaged around 40 – that is a decent effort.

“Our points went to Connor Davidson, Van Stewart and Hutana Coffin.”

SYDNEY UNI 10 (Henry Clunies-Ross try; James Kane conversion, pen goal) d MANLY 6 (Yool Yool 2 pen goals) at University No.2.

GORDON V WESTERN SYDNEY TWO BLUES

Gordon coach Darren Coleman challenged his side to get better after the Highlanders’ 64-0 win over the Western Sydney Two Blues on Saturday.

Gordon scored 10 tries overall to go within a couple of percentage points of topping the Shute Shield ladder after the end of Round Two but as Coleman said on Sunday that the start and end of their matches needed to improve.

“Our first and last 20-minute blocks were quite poor,” Coleman said.

“I can give some leniency to the last 20 minutes as we had all eight reserves on but our accuracy technically and tactically in the first 20 was unacceptable, as was our ability to not score a point in the last 20.

“In the middle 40 minutes we showed that we can be dangerous when we execute and we scored nine of our 10 tries in that period.

“When our backline clicks it’s fun to watch and another positive was that the team showed pride to not concede a point.”

Coleman was happy with his side’s scrummaging and the work of flyhalf Rodney Iona.

“Full credit to Two Blues they never gave up and played with pride till the end. They’ll be better for the run and match fitness.

“Iona was tactically astute with his kicking game which kept Two Blues out of our end where they are dangerous. Tom Silk and Harrison Goddard both performed well too.”

Two Blues coach Joel Rivers was gutted after the game.

“Mate definitely one step forward and two backwards,” he said referring to the performance against Manly in Round One.

“The boys were too comfortable, even right through the week of training. I tried to explain that we need to push harder after Manly but that didn’t work.

“Gordon executed their game plan very well and we literally executed nothing. It was horrendous to watch.

“I knew Gordon were a good side and they showed it. Ran us around the field and then went wide, as I knew they would. Our heads were stuck in last week and never in this game.

“The day was just absolutely gutting. We will have to work how we now take another step forward.
“Our execution of game plan and individual skills in attack and defence was non existent, except for like three of our boys.”

GORDON 64 (Mahe Vailanu, Jordan Goddard, Harrison Goddard 2, Brandon Quinn 2, Tautalatasi Tasi, Ahmu Tuimalealiifano, Reec McDonbald tries; Rodney Iona 7 conversions) d WESTERN SYDNEY TWO BLUES 0 at Chatswood Oval.

NORTHERN SUBURBS V PENRITH

Northern Suburbs coach Earl Va’a says his side needs to get out of the blocks quicker if they are to maintain their momentum after the Shoremen’s 53-3 win over Penrith on Saturday.

It took some time for Norths to get the upper hand on a Penrith side that was making its return to Shute Shield competition after a three year break.

They were solid at scrum time which is probably not surprising given that ‘Bubba’ Ryan is their scrum coach and also put on some good hits in defence, a given in any side mentored by John Muggleton.

The Emus defence forced a few turnovers and it took until late in the first half for Norths to get any sort of gap on the visitors.

“Yeah we were slow out of the blocks and missed a number of scoring opportunities in that first half,” Va’a said.

“Penrith did well to keep the pressure on us and they got some pay from their efforts but the second half reflected what we are trying to build here.”

The score at the halftime break was 13-3 after the home side had made the most of a yellow card to Emus’ tight head prop Maciu Latabua.

From there Norths were able to get into some sort of stride and from there six tries flowed as the home side adapted better to the tight nature of the ground and Penrith fatigued.

Reece Mau’u scored twice and was Va’a’s pick of the team on the day while Harry Burey despite getting yellow carded in the first half was good off all of Norths launch plays.

Skipper Nick Palmer was good too while James Margan had an impressive outing working hard in defence and running the ball well on the edges when required.

“There’s not much of him but he’s one of our best carriers into contact,” Va’a added.

Penrith coach John Muggleton said: “That was pretty solid start for us but discipline and fitness killed us off in the end.

“We will get better as we go along but as I said to the group after the game I couldn’t fault their effort and the things that we need to fix are easy to work on.

“We haven’t had much footy at this stage but one thing that pleased me was our defence in both halves that caused turnovers.

“Norths even opted to take a penalty goal when they were in our 22 – that says something about what we were achieving out there.”

NORTHERN SUBURBS 53 (Nick Palmer, Reece Mau’u 2, Harry Burey, Max Burey, Jesse Muir, Isaac Cave, George Murrin tries; Angus Sinclair 3 conversions, 1 pen goal, Connor Winchester 2 conversions) d PENRITH 3 (Netane Misma pen goal) at Bon Andrews Oval.

RANDWICK V WARRINGAH

Randwick coach Ben McCormack praised his club’s heart and will to win in the wake of the Galloping Greens 13-8 win over last season’s grand finalists Warringah on Saturday.

Anyone not wearing myrtle green on Saturday would have had the Rats odds on to win this by some way but somehow the home managed to come up with ‘W’ against all the odds.

They played the last 28 minutes without of the services of their fullback Locky Miller after he was red carded for an illegal tackle but still managed to grind it out keeping the big Warringah scrum at bay.

If we were talking “rugba league” here one could easily lapse and say that the Wicks put their bodies on the line.

“Yeah I was really proud of my group on Saturday, they showed some real character when seemingly everything was going against us,” McCormack said.

“We lost a number of quality second graders during their game which had an effect on our bench so I was hoping a lot of our guys would go 80.

“The we lost David Horwitz in the first 10 minutes, lost George Hendry (prop), Kyle Harris (backrower) and Henry Hutchison (winger) just after halftime and lost Locky Miller (fullback) to a red card as well.

“It’s just a great reflection of the club and the culture we are building. It was a real gutsy team effort.

“Heap of injuries though so it’s not all rainbows and lollipops – we will regroup this week and probably have a very different looking side going up against Western Sydney.”

The leadership from lock Den Hoedt was top notch, Freddy Dorrough who replaced Horwitz after playing the entire seconds match was another myrtle green highlight.

Jake Turnbull in the front row and Dylan Pietsch had great games as well..

There were other great stories in there too with Dorrough taking over the kicking duties once Horwitz and them Miller were off the field.

His tee got lost somehow on the sidelines so he slotted the pressure penalty goal in the rain straight off the ground.

Marcus Cutler was another playing Fours, Threes and then coming off the bench in Ones.

Warringah coach Mike Ruthven said: “It was a really disappointing result for us on the weekend.

“We gave ourselves plenty of chances and opportunities to win the game. We weren’t clinical enough in the right areas of the field and were forced into error by a very spirited Randwick defence.

“The upside for us is all our work ons are well within our control.”

Elsewhere Andrew Davies was outstanding and really stepped up physically. Rory Suttor worked hard and Harley Atwater provided some spark when he came on

RANDWICK 13 (Thomas Piroddi try; Locky Miller conversion, pen goal, Fred Dorrough pen goal) d WARRINGAH 8 (Rory Suttor try; Tom Halse pen goal) at Coogee Oval.

HUNTER WILDFIRES V EASTWOOD

Eastwood grabbed their first victory of the 2020 Shute Shield season when they skipped away from the Hunter Wildfires in the final 20 minutes of the 46-11 win on Saturday.

It was the Wildfires first home game of the season and they well and truly turned up to play with only match fitness and some set piece foibles coming against late in what was a high standard game of rugby.

The Hunter boys did it well in the first half getting first points on the board through Brendan Holliday with a penalty goal and then being well in the match when Shawn Ingle scored a try.

Halftime came at a good time for Eastwood (they were up 13-6) and they were able to refocus and get their heads around the fact that this game was being played in the rain and they would have to adjust their behaviours.

That little chat resulted in 33 unanswered points in the final 32 minutes – good return for their efforts.

“We knew they would be very physical and committed in the opening exchanges and because we failed to build pressure they grew energy and confidence and it was a real arm wrestle for 60 minutes,” Eastwood coach Ben Batger said.

“Once we worked out we had to hold the ball and play wet weather football we played really well and I thought our support play was really good which lead to a number of long range tries.

“Our captain Pat Sio led from the front, while Daniel Cosgrove on debut was really good and Lachlan Shelly just gets better every week.

“All credit to Hunter though they had a real crack.”

Hunter Wildfires coach Scott Coleman said: “Yes were in the game for 55-60 minutes and then I just think match fitness, continuity and our set piece started to struggle and they got four quick tries in the last 15 minutes.

“We are getting better each game. Last week we were out of the game after 10 minutes, we were too far behind.

“We were a chance of winning it with 30 minutes to go. There was definite improvement. When I do the video review, I will definitely get a lot out of it.”

EASTWOOD 46 (Ed Craig, Michael Icely, Matt Gonzalez, Enoka Muliufi, Devan Stolz, Chris Bell tries; Tane Edmed 5 conversions, 2 pen goals) d HUNTER WILDFIRES 11 (Shawn Ingle try, Brendan Holliday 2 pen goals) at Newcastle No.2 Sportsground.

IMAGE: RICK MCLALLEN /RANDWICK RUGBY