By MARK CASHMAN

It’s been a number of years in the making but things are finally starting to come together for Eastwood lock and backrower Charlie Cale.

The 21-year-old made his Shute Shield debut for the Woodies on Saturday against the Western Sydney Two Blues after a couple of seasons marred by injury and he marked the occasion by being named players’ player.

Cale, at 196cm and well over 100kg, played lock and made a number of line breaks, scored a try, tackled with great venom and topped things off with a couple of line out steals.

“Yeah it was great to see him out there just playing some footy,” Eastwood coach Ben Batger said.

“Charlie’s Eastwood through and through and has a couple of brothers at the club (they are flyhalves and fullback who have been playing twos and threes) but as far as debuts go it was pretty good effort.

“He’s probably a No.6 who can play lock but at the moment we have a pretty good No.6 in Michael Icely in that jumper. We have options there that’s for sure.”

The Woods ending up running away with this one 59-19 but as both camps said in the wake of the game the scoreline probably didn’t reflect the cut and thrust of the battle.

The Woods jumped out to an early 7-0 lead thanks to a try to Iceley but the Two Blues hit back with two tries and a conversion to grab an unlikely 12-7 lead.

There has been major turnover at the Two Blues with many of the big boppers that featured last year under coach Joel Rivers trying their luck at other clubs.

But Rivers has adjusted his team’s style and mindset and it was there for all to see at TG Millner on Saturday.

They certainly aren’t as big as the XV that played last year but there is something about the way that they go about their footy that will entertain and also challenge other teams.

From 12-7 the Woodies got their act together and laid on another eight tries to round out the final scoreline.

Waratahs Tane Edmed and Mark Nawaqanitawase came on at break with Chris Bell moving to inside centre and Nawaqanitawase swapping with Lachlan Shelley.

“It was a good hitout. The Two Blues certainly turned up to play and scoreline didn’t reflect how close it was,” Batger said.

“We were mixed, we scored some amazing tries and in patches looked like world beaters .

“However we also failed to execute the basics and were very poor at our lineout and our one on one tackling out wide was average .

“Both Tane and Mark were very good. They are both class players and had a positive impact on the game.

“Plus they are both just great guys so was good to have them back even if just for a week.”

Two Blues coach Joel Rivers said: “There was certainly positives to take out of the game and we will be better for having played the first game together as a team, but execution of the game plan and better decision making when we are on the front foot will turn results like this around.

“Eastwood were a good team and deserved the win.”

EASTWOOD 59 (Fabian Goodall, Josh Nooonan, Max Stewart, Charlie Cale, Matt Gonzales, Enoka Muliufi, Lachlan Shelley, Michael Icely tries; Chris Bell 6 conversions) d WESTERN SYDNEY TWO BLUES 19 (Isikeli Laqekoro, John Akauola, Saiyasi Ikanidrodro tries; Rory Garrett 2 conversions) at TG Millner Field.

Northern Suburbs openside breakaway Charlie Jeavons-Fellows got the jump on some of his more illustrious team-mates when the Shoremen got their season off to a flyer with a 73-0 win over Penrith.

Jeavons-Fellows scored a hat-trick in the first half against the Emus and is now the leading try scorer in the Shute Shield after Round One, leaving last year’s best James Turner in his wake.

Turner was one of the bigger pick ups in the off-season from West Harbour and he did show some flashes of his pace, scoring an intercept try late and delivering the final pass to Nick Duffy for a length of the field effort.

All up Norths scored 11 tries and the longer the game went the more holes appeared in the Penrith defensive line.

Norths coach Zak Beer was pleased that his side had kept the Emus to zero.

“They have some big guys in there that are hard to defend against at times so to keep them to zero was pleasing,” Beer said.

“It’s the first step of a long season and it gave us the opportunity to get some good running into the legs under game conditions.

“One of our themes of our season is to be as ruthless and not take the foot off the pedal whether it’s minute one or minute 80 and we saw that today.”

NORTHERN SUBURBS 73 (Charlie Jeavons-Fellows 3, Nathan Russell 2, James Margan, Harry Burey, Nick Duffy, James Turner, Max Burey, Tom Bramley tries; Angus Sinclair 6 conversions, Connor Winchester 3 conversions) d PENRITH 0 at Nepean Rugby Park.

IMAGE: SERGE GONZALEZ / EASTWOOD RUGBY