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Eastwood flyhalf Tane Edmed came away from Pittwater Rugby Park with even more admirers after he helped to engineer the Woods somewhat unexpected 29-20 win over Eastern Suburbs on Sunday.

On a weekend where the Shute Shield pecking order was given one hell of shake up Eastwood showed that they were not just there to make up the numbers in this year’s finals series.

The Woodies went at the Beasties at their strengths and gave as good as they got at scrum time and also at the advantage line where the likes of skipper Pat Sio, Sione Tau and Ratu Tuisese were magnificent.

Eastwood’s intentions were signalled early and they kicked a penalty goal and notched up a try from Lachlan Anderson.

All the while Edmed was tinkering away at the edges, kicking to space and constantly taking the right option in both attack and defence.

Edmed moved across from the celebrated Randwick colts system at the start of the year to get more game time at Shute Shield level and it has been a wise decision.

He has been able to develop his game at the right pace and the confidence that he has got from coach Ben Batger and others at TG Millner have been significant.

“I thought it was a really good performance from us as a whole and a typical Eastwood rising to the occasion against more fancied rivals,” Woods coach Ben Batger said.

“I thought our forwards really muscled up and I know the boys enjoyed going up against a pack that included three Super Rugby players.

“The battle of Rob Leota v Sione Tau and Patty Sio was worth price of admission alone.

“Then I thought our playmakers really controlled the game in the second half by pinning Easts in their own half.

“While our centres and wings shut down the speed of easts .

“It’s a good performance which we will enjoy for 24 hours and then start to focus on what we need to do against Norths.”

The scores were all locked up at 15-all at the break but the rain and the wind at Rat Park stepped in to play a role in this one and the Woods and Edmed played them to a tee.

Tries to Ed Craig and Mark Nawaqanitawase were followed by a penalty try to stretch the lead out to 29-15 and the Woods increasingly dictating the tempo of the game and where it was played on the field.

An intercept from Richie Woolf made the final minutes a little bit more interesting but in the end the game landed just about where it deserved to land.

“Eastwood were great. In particular Tane Edmed. He was outstanding and controlled the game and territory really well in the second half,” Easts coach Pauli Taumoepeau said.

“We didn’t make life easy on ourselves with errors and we were made to pay for each one of them. That’s finals footy I guess.

“We’ll learn from today and prep for our next challenge.”

EASTWOOD 29 (Ed Craig, Lachlan Anderson, Mark Nawaqanitawase tries, penalty try; Tane Edmed 2 conversions, pen goal) d EASTERN SUBURBS 20 (Henry Paterson, Alex Newsome, Richie Woolf tries; Daniel Donato conversion, pen goal) at Pittwater Rugby Park.

IMAGE: AJF PHOTOGRAPHY