By MARK CASHMAN

Eastern Suburbs coach Pauli Taumoepeau reckons his side got lucky in their 22-14 win over Sydney Uni on Saturday, but there’s no way that he’s going to hand back the spoils.

The Beasties scored three tries to two and have now forced their way into the Shute Shield top six for the first time in 2020 after a clunky start to the season and now look destined for a spot in the final six and the playoffs.

“I’ve got to admit that we got lucky in that game,” Taumoepeau said.

“Every one of our three tries was scored against the run of play and to be honest with you I would have liked to have got some pay off the opportunities that we actually created.

“But that’s the way things go at times and errors on our part mixed in with Uni’s solid defence in their red zone meant that we weren’t able to convert.

“Our front row got through a heap of work throughout the day. That was a huge challenge for them and I felt they did well.”

Easts had a wealth of Super Rugby talent on their way back from the Waratahs with Tom Staniforth, Lalaki Foketi and Alex Newsome all available for this game.

Taumoepeau said in the lead up to the game that he wanted his regulars to lead the way in this game as they acclimatised to the way of the Shute Shield.

The Beasties jumped out of the blocks well with tries to Richie Woolf and Lalaki Foketi seeing the home side in this ladies day fixture jump out to a 14-0 lead.

But Uni as we know are Uni and they managed to work their way back into the game with tries to first scrum half Banjo Travers and centre Will McDonnell pulling them back into the game.

That was the way that the game sat for much of the two middle quarters until first Dan Donato kicked a crucial penalty goal and then Newsome iced the game with a crucial try.

Uni coach Michael Hodge said late changes to his side had had an effect on their performance.

“We weren’t at our best,” Hodge said.

“A few late changes disrupted our flow, but it was our execution at set piece and first phase launch that let us down.

“Easts will admit they can be better too, but they took their opportunities, scoring all 3 of there tries on the back of our mistakes. They will be there and a threat during finals.

“We’ve only played eight games this season, but will need to be at a finals level of intensity for the next three weeks. We need to be better.”

EASTERN SUBURBS 22 (Alex Newsome, Lalaki Foketi, Richie Woolf tries; Daniel Donato 2 conversions, pen goal) d SYDNEY UNI 14 (Banjo Travers, Will McDonnell tries; Connor O’Shea 2 conversions, pen goal).

IMAGE: AJF PHOTOGRAPHY