By MARK CASHMAN

The Baxter Mortlock Cup is back in red and black hands after Northern Suburbs played an uncomplicated but ruthless style of rugby to beat Gordon 24-13 in a throbbing Battle of the North on Saturday.

The Cup, named in honour of Wallabies Al Baxter (Norths) and Stirling Mortlock (Gordon), was in the hands of the Highlanders after their 42-34 victory at North Sydney Oval in July of 2019.

So the stage was set for a great local derby and it delivered in spades.

Norths got off to the perfect start with winger Reece Mau’u taking the ball from the Shoremen’s kick off and racing 40 metres to score after only 17 seconds.

With Angus Sinclair’s conversion taking the score to 7-0 and that tightened things up and set the tone for the rest of the afternoon with both sides not allowing the other a centimetre.

Gordon’s Rodney Iona did get the home side on the board with a penalty goal in the eighth minute but from then until the 63rd minute not a point was scored.

Having said that it was far from being a dud game with the healthy and Covid-19 safe crowd at Chatswood Oval enjoying the intensity of the contest.

Norths went to the halftime break with that 7-3 lead and then pushed it out further when hooker James Margan found some space out on the left edge and managed to out pace Gordon’s Robbie Abel to the line.

Gordon did get closer when Jack Dempsey forced his way over but the game got tougher for the home side when Max Burey scored out wide.

Norths then put the game beyond doubt and secured a bonus point when Gary Bautz got himself on the back end of a very well-organised rolling maul to score in front of a bunch of Norths lower graders and colts.

“Always great to get a win over the No.1 team in the Shute Shield and it will be great for our confidence,” Norths coach Earl Va’a said.

“I felt that both teams defence cancelled each other out but we managed to grab the few chances that were on offer out there.

“Everyone chipped in but I though German Haeffeli, Declan Carroll and Hugh Sinclair all aimed up in ‘D’.”

Gordon finished off the scoring for the afternoon when Denzel Burns scored late to give the final 24-13 scoreline.

Gordon coach Darren Coleman it was a classic derby encounter.

“They had a real clear defensive plan on how to negate some of our earlier strengths and presented a well connected, fast moving defensive line that didn’t miss,” Coleman said.

“People say it’s the loss you had to have but I wasn’t feeling that over the weekend –  I’ve become a little more philosophical today.

“There was some uncomfortable situations that we hadn’t encountered before and didn’t handle well that I’m confident if we work through systematically this week, we’ll be better to deal with next time.

“At the end of the day it was disappointing not to deliver for the good Gordon crowd but excited to get back to the drawing board for next week and happily hand off the competition favourites tag over to Norths.”

NORTHERN SUBURBS 24 (James Margan, Reece Mau’u, Max Burey, Gary Bautz tries; Angus Sinclair 2 conversions) d GORDON 13 (Jack Dempsey, Denzel Burns try; Rodney Iona pen goal) at Chatswood Oval.

IMAGE: ANDREW QUINN / GORDON RUGBY