SYDNEY UNI 38 EASTERN SUBURBS 36

Sydney Uni kept themselves treading water in the race for a spot in the playoffs with a pulsating 38-36 victory over Eastern Suburbs at University No.2 Oval on Saturday.

On an afternoon where the Students honoured three of their legends – Gregg Burrow, Roger Davis and Phil Crowe – at a special luncheon at the boutique ground they survived a late surge from the Beasties to grab five vital competition points.

The Students started the game in fine style bouncing out to a 14-3 lead thanks to tries from Simon Kennewell and Tom Horton before Easts showed that they were not going to lay down.

The home side surged in the middle part of the first 40 minutes when Eddie Poolman surged through the Easts defence off a lovely ball from Henry Clunies-Ross, while rookie winger Ronan Leahy also capitalised on the left edge.

That pushed the score out to 28-10 but with Beasties Will Harris and Nick Jooste coming more into the game, the former Waratahs No.8 now head to the Western Force scored just before the break.

Jooste unfortunately missed the gettable conversion attempt, a lapse that would come back to haunt the visitors as the game wore on.

Easts jumped out of the blocks after the break in fine style with prop Vunipola Fifita burrowing over and then skipper Archie Gavin running over after an inside ball from Harris.

Gavin’s try and conversion pushed the visitors to a 29-28 lead but the Students got the ball to the right end and in the end Jack McCalman bumped and ground his way over.

This one though wasn’t over by a long shot and the Beasties got their nose in front thanks to some nice work closer to the line and a great running angle by replacement forward Hugo Hayman.

With Jooste’s conversions that saw the visitors out to a 36-35 lead but a breakdown penalty saw Jac Lloyd stroke the penalty goal over for the 38-36 victory.

On a day for three Sydney Uni legends it was a legendary finish to a cracking game!

NORTHERN SUBURBS 34 EASTWOOD 29

Northern Suburbs scrum half Nick Duffy celebrated his 100th grade game for the Shoremen with an intercept try and a yellow card in a vitally important win against Eastwood at TG Millner Field on Saturday.

Duffy, probably the most consistent No.9 in the Shute Shield over the past month, snaffled the intercept ball off a Michael Icely pass and ran the best part of 65 metres to score under the past after 12 minutes.

Duffy’s try pushed Norths out to a 10-0 lead but as all of these games between Norths and the Woods have been in recent seasons it would cut and thrust for much of the rest of the afternoon.

The Woods hit back with a close range try from Willie Leoso before left winger Lachlan Shelley and the big bopper Fabian Goodall dotted down.

That trio of tries pushed the Woodies out to a 19-10 lead and gathering momentum with every minute that unfolded in the push towards the break.

But Norths are a team that has taken opportunities this season and that is exactly what they did in the 35th minute when a nice backline movement saw Max Burey in space and he offloaded to a returning Reece Mau’u to score down the left edge.

The Woodies though had a bit more to say before the halftime break drawing a penalty right in front and forcing referee Angus Gardner to wave the yellow card at Duffy.

That made the score at the break 22-17 to the Woods and should have given them some momentum after the break but it was Norths who struck first with a nicely taken try to loose head prop George Thornton.

Jude Gibbs converted to give Norths a 24-22 lead and he pushed them even further ahead with another penalty goal shortly after.

The props and tries theme continued when replacement prop Apolosi Kuyitakeivuravura charged through off a short ball from Norths lock Simon Gillies to push lead out to 34-22.

The Woodies weren’t done though and another try to Leoso and conversion to Tane Edmed got them within reach but Norths defensive structure held firm.

MANLY MARLINS 17 WEST HARBOUR 17

The Manly Marlins battle to make the Shute Shield playoff is on the edge of a precipice after battling their way to a 17-17 draw against their bogey team West Harbour at Manly Oval on Saturday.

The Marlins will want to win their two final round games game against the Hunter Wildfires and the Two Blues to make certain of a spot in the top six finals series.

The afternoon at the Village Green started out well when the home team got within a couple of metres of the try line with Aaron Blacklock just caught short before Ivan Fepule’ai muscled his way over the stripe.

English flyhalf Tom Hardwick converted to give the Marlins a 7-0 but West Harbour were quick to get on the front foot with Kali Nacina busting the defence from close range to get the visitors back in the contest.

James Faiva converted from next to the posts and then managed to get the Pirates to a 10-7 lead with a nicely taken penalty goal from the edge of the cricket pitch from 40 metres.

The Marlins then made the most of a period of superiority, forcing play into the West Harbour 22m before rolling in a try from a lineout.

That man Zac Barnabas was the try scorer and with Hardwick’s conversion they headed into the halftime break with a handy 14-10 lead.

Hardwick again came into play at the 55 minute mark when the Manly attack caught West Harbour offside 40 metres out to the right of the posts.

He was deadly accurate. And managed to push the home side’s advantage out to seven points with a tick over 25 minutes left on the clock.

From the West Harbour kick off the ball was caught by Marlins speedster Yool Yool who zigged and zagged his way into the opposition 22m.

Manly recycled the ball after Yool was brought down about 10 metres out and in the attempt to get the ball to the left edge the Pirates right winger Vuate Karawalevu snatched an intercept and raced 75 metres to score under the posts.

Faiva duly converted to tie things up at 17-17 but it must be said that Yool had several opportunities to offload that may have led to a game breaking try but backed himself to get the job done.

The two teams battled it out for much of the last 20 minutes but in the end it remained a draw leaving that old “like kissing your sister” line hanging out there.

RANDWICK 24 TWO BLUES 22

Randwick have stretched their unbeaten run to seven games after their nail-biting 24-22 win over the WS Two Blues at the Eric Tweedale Stadium on Saturday.

The Galloping Greens went into this encounter on top of the Shute Shield ladder but nothing that was displayed at The Eric demonstrated that fact.

Play in the first 40 minutes went from one end of the field to the other with big chucks of time being played out between the two 22m lines.

The Two Blues got on the board first with a penalty goal from Seuseu – that gave the home side a 3-0 but Randwick hit back quickly with Cormac Daly shattering up a loose ball in the Two Blues back field.

Daly carried the ball well being contact and he managed to get over the line for his sixth try of the season.

Wicks flyhalf Andrew Deegan added a conversion to the score and then was in the play soon after when he pushed the visitor out to a 10-3 lead with a penalty goal.

The Two Blues didn’t take that lying down and evened things up thanks to a try to Tailiki Nadrede on the left edge which was duly converted by Reece Seuseu.

That made the score 10-10 at the break but that man Reece Seuseu was soon in the middle of the action after the break.

Good defensive pressure saw hime gather a ball not far from the try line and he scored to make it 15-10 with a kick to come.

The try was duly converted and it was very much game on for the home side at 17-10 but Randwick were a long way being counted out in this heavyweight encounter.

Hooker Ben Sugars made the most of some good work close to the Randwick try line when he got over the line to tie the game up once again.

The tension on the field was apparent when the Two Blues appeared to go in the corner with things tied.

Centre Nikola Vikena got the ball down in the corner through all the pushing and the shoving and the home side had a five point lead 22-17 with less than 10 minutes left on the clock.

The winning play of the game came a couple of minutes later when Randwick worked their way into the Two Blues 22m with Deegan flopping over.

Deegan converted his own try to give the visitors a nail biting victory.

WARRINGAH 42 SOUTHERN DISTRICTS 32

A two try surge just after the halftime break has laid the foundations for Warringah confidence boosting 42-32 win over South Districts at Pittwater Rugby Park on Saturday.

The Rats had led 21-18 at the break but tried to the rats big boppers Sateki Latu and Sam Ward gave them the necessary elbow room to manufacture a winning lead.

The home side had started the match 0-3 down after Bayley Kuenzle has kicked penalty goal but the Rats had much of the field position and the possession and that saw Latu, Charlie McKill and outside centre Oskar Enasio cross the stripe.

There was lots for Rats fans to get excited about in the first 40 minutes but the greatest show of skill came from the visiting team with Kuenzle, George Spencer and Jackson Ropta combining in the shadows of the break.

Kuenzle pushed a flat ball to Spencer near the try line and Spencer flicked it behind his back hitting Ropatra on the chest who shymed and shaked his way to the try line.

After the break Latu and Ward did their stuff but Souths to their credit did hit back and put on a couple of nicely taken tries to Kuenzle and Ezekiel Sopoaga.

Sopoaga’s was a cracker, chip and regather job and then some nice evasion work once into the Warringah back field.

Both teams are well out of the playoff picture but it was an entertaining afternoon that was much appreciated by those who were at the ground.

GORDON 44 HUNTER WILDFIRES 28

Gordon clawed their way into the top four of the Shute Shield competition with an at times impressive 44-28 victory over the Hunter Wildfires at the Newcastle No.2 Sports Ground on Saturday.

The Highlanders scored six tries to four in a display that will have many believing that they are still very much in the race add to the title that they secured in 2020.

There is still a hell of a lot of Rugby to play out over the final two rounds but if a few things go their way they could well finish amongst the top two teams – and that’s vital in a six team finals series.

The day trip to Newcastle started well for the visitors with the Highlanders finding some space down the right edge with Joey Walton releasing his centre partner Kainoa Gudgeon but he was pulled up sort of the line.

The Wildfires were penalised for some offside play earlier in the movement and fullback Jack McGregor got the visitors on the board with a nicely taken penalty goal attempt.

The momentum was with Gordon though and they were soon charging to the line and an side ball to Gudgeon saw him evade the home team defence and score near the posts.

The conversion saw the Highlanders in front 15-0 but the locals were soon on the board thanks to some close to the line action that involved Andrew Tuala and led to Ryan Louwrens diving over when they had exhausted the defence.

Then in the shadows of halftime Gordon No.8 Milan Basson powered on to a nice short ball from Ben Pollack to burst into the Wildfires back field los core what would be a critical try.

The Wildfires were a man down when their winger Isaac Ulberg was sin binned for knocking the ball over the deadfall line.

As the Stan Sport commentators said it looked like Ulberg had been watching too much NRL!

The Highlanders went into the break 20-7 up and they added to their score four minutes into the second half with a sweeping try that featured Walton and Gudgeon before Pollack finished things off nicely. Tries to Harrison Goddard followed as the game opened up while McGregor continued to rack the points up with another penalty.

The home side chipped away with tries to Clayton Frans and Ethan Morgan but it only got the home side within range and no threatening.

The exclamation point on the match came in referee’s time when Gordon replacement Michael Pavlakis took the restart on the fullback and scooted over out wide.

The Highlanders are well and truly back but the Wildfires appear to be teetering as bit as the finals loom.