By MARK CASHMAN

Eastwood hooker Ed Craig scored three tries off the back of a dominant rolling maul as the Woodies stormed to a 42-10 win over West Harbour on Saturday.

The Craig hat-trick was one of four meat pies from rolling mauls throughout the game from Eastwood, who looked increasingly like a side that is ever so slowly coming together.

It was one of those scrappy games that sometimes comes from the intensity of the contest between these two traditional rivals.

“Yes our driving maul was successful with Ed Craig scoring three tries and there was another try from maul so we clearly dominated that area,” Woods head coach Ben Batger said.

“I thought we dominated territory and exited from our own half far better than previous weeks.

“Otherwise it was a very scrappy game where we couldn’t get any flow to the game which probably eliminated our backline somewhat .

But there are signs that we are starting to come together which is positive.”

Young flyhalf Tane Edmed continues to get time in the saddle and was perfect from the kicking tee nailing the conversions from all six tries that there Woodies rolled in.

West Harbour coach Mark Gudmunson said the Woods rolling maul absolutely killed their chances.

“You can’t stop if you miss the initial contact otherwise the penalties, yellow cards or penalty tries come,” he said.

“They scored 28 points from their rolling maul and it all happened in a 15 minutes period which killed us.

“Connor Chittenden (centre) and Carlo Tizzano (opensider back from wider Waratahs squad) were great for us.

“We had scrum dominance believe it or not, but did not get rewarded for it and with little ball in the second half it was hard to get back into the contest.”

EASTWOOD 42 (Ed Craig 3, Michael Icely, Matthew Gonzalez, Sione Tau tries: Tane Edmed 6 conversions) d WEST HARBOUR 10 (Amos Viiga try; Patrick Pellegrini conversion, pen goal) at TG Millner Field.

IMAGE: SERGE GONZALEZ / EASTWOOD RUGBY