Waratahs hooker Tatafu Polota-Nau will be making his first Shute Shield appearance since 2010
Photo: www.seiserphotography.com

by Paul Cook –

The big news ahead of Randwick’s match against Parramatta this Saturday, live on the ABC from 3pm, is the return to the Two Blues fold of Wallaby & Waratahs hooker, Tatafu Polota-Nau. A bye for the Tahs in this week’s Super Rugby round gives ‘Taf’ the chance to run out for the first time in almost three years for his beloved Two Blues at Coogee Oval, and the opportunity to go back to his grassroots is one he’s relishing.

“Each week, 15 good mates take the field in a test of mental and physical endurance; it’s one of the aspects I respect so much about the sport and this competition. I am definitely excited to see what Randwick have to offer this year. There has been a lot of talk about them in the trials and it’s good to see them bounce back from a rough period last year.”

The Wicks didn’t make the start they were hoping for last week as they attempt to consign last year’s ‘annus horribilis’ to history. Coughing up a 15pt lead over West Harbour with 25 minutes left to go down 28-26 with a last minute conversion, was a bitter pill to swallow for new coach Wade Kelly. “No disrespect to West Harbour, I thought with the things we were working on and keeping it simple we would have won that game quite easily,” he told Rugby News at the final whistle. “Fair play to them, they kept playing right to the end and we gave them a sniff halfway through the second half but from there we should have won it.”

However, he remains confident that his new side will bear fruit as the season progresses. “When we do what we want to do and play how we want to play, we look good,” he says, “but when we go away from that and start doing individual things and get off track, we let other teams in the game. If we stick to our game plan, we’ll be a good side.”

Despite the loss, there were plenty of encouraging signs for the Galloping Greens at Concord Oval with gun centre, Terrence Hepetema, looking set to continue on from last year’s impressive Shute Shield debut, new scrum-half Harry Boileau one to watch and pivot Toby Browne, again a standout in a losing side, controlling the game well and looking for options off both shoulders from some willing and pacy runners.

Harry Boileau weights up his options in last week’s match against West Harbour
Photo: seiserphotography.com

The new look front row which sees former Penrith stars Richard Aho and Toa Asa packing down either side of the ever reliable Nio Halangahu, looked feisty and fierce and Nio’s battle with Tatafu should be compelling as neither player will take a backward step.

Kelly is wary of a vastly improved Parramatta outfit that went down with a fight (44-21) to a decent Sydney University side last Saturday, but remains optimistic of notching up win number one in 2013. “By all accounts they had a decent game against Uni, it’s gonna be tough but we’ve just gotta keep concentrating on us and if we do that, it’ll come.”

His opposite number this weekend, Glen Christini, was generally pleased with his charges first up effort against the Students but told Rugby News that he still thought they could have had more out of the game. “I think it’s close so I’m kind of happy but kind of gutted at the same time. We scored three tries and made it look easy at times and even at 39-21 down, I felt we were all over them and opening up holes, we just needed a couple of little things to go our way. I thought we were really close to nailing it, it was just our ball security that let us down. We just need to polish a few things up.”

Now in his third season at Merrylands RSL Oval, Christini has turned Parramatta from a disjointed and downtrodden outfit consigned to the lower regions of the Shute Shield ladder to one that is highly competitive, respected by all opponents and in his eyes, a genuine contender. A sign of the progress the team has made is their disappointment at losing to a Uni side that mixed promising youth with the Super Rugby experience of Tom Carter, Tim Davidson and Nathan Trist.

“There’s more expectation now I think,” says Christini. “Even that scoreline, we would have been happy with a year ago – and everyone would have – but now it’s different. That’s part of the disappointment, we’re backing ourselves in to win every game, there’s no-one we can’t beat and that plays with the emotions a little bit, we don’t go into games just for the sake of having a go anymore which is all part of the growing process I guess. We want to put ourselves up there so we have to deal with that mentality.”

Two Blues scrum-half Solomona Silipa showed some promising signs against Sydney University
Photo: seiserphotography.com

Like Randwick, the Two Blues have a few tasty looking additions to their 2013 roster as well and their coach is excited by the extra dimensions they bring to the side – and there’s more to come. “Charlie Leaeno in the second row is a great ball carrier and gives us a bit of physicality,” purrs Christini. “No.8 Josh Kaifa is a Melbourne boy, just a young fella but with lots of potential and Solomona Silipa at half-back played really well and offered a little bit of aggression in that area as well as a bit of control, so the new boys are stepping up and there’s still guys to fit in yet. We’ve got plenty of talent.”

Having come up against the reigning Premiers and title favourites in round one, the trip to Coogee Oval holds no fears and Christini believes that a tough examination against Uni will stand them in good stead for this clash. “In all honesty, they [Uni] had a red hot side and they played really well and you can’t get ready for that through trials, no matter who you play, you can’t get ready for that pace and intensity and that caught us out. We’ll be a lot better for that and we’ll go into this game with a fair bit of confidence.”

Round Two kicks-off tonight at North Sydney Oval when Northern Suburbs face Warringah, a game which sees new Rats fly-half Dave Harvey face-off against his former team mates. Penrith and Gordon will both be looking to open their winner’s account for 2013 when they meet at Nepean Rugby Park tomorrow while Manly and West Harbour have a chance to go two from two in their clash at Manly Oval. Waratahs scrum-half Matt Lucas will be making his debut for the Marlins.

Adding to the Tahs stars on show across the weekend, Forshaw Park has Ben Volavola, Lopeti Timani, Grayson Hart and Jed Holloway in Southern Districts’ colours for their game against Eastern Suburbs and Tom Kingston, Tom Carter, Jeremy Tilse and Ollie Atkins will be suiting up for the Students as they take on Eastwood in a mouthwatering fixture at Uni Oval No.1.

TEAM LISTS:

Northern Suburbs v Warringah @ North Sydney Oval (7.30pm, Friday April 12)

Northern Suburbs: 1 Nic Curtis, 2 Will Weeks, 3 Cruz Ah Nau, 4 Matt White, 5 Michael O’Hea, 6 Ben Matwijow, 7 AJ Gilbert (captain), 8 Hugh Sinclair, 9 Liam Walker, 10 Scott Daruda, 11 Corey Brown, 12 Lachlan Porteous, 13 Bill Meakes, 14 Liam Windon, 15 Cam Crawford

Warringah: 1 Ben Ryan, 2 Robert Kelly, 3 Wayne Borsak, 4 Vincent Wright, 5 Ben Adams, 6 Sam Ward, 7 Mark Porpiglia, 8 Boyd Killingworth, 9 Joshua Holmes (captain), 10 David Harvey, 11 Michael Dalton, 12 Nathan Daly, 13 Dylan Smouha, 14 Conrad Gillingham, 15 David Feltscheer

Referee: Jamie McGregor

Randwick v Parramatta @ Coogee Oval (ABC TV game, kick off 3pm, Saturday April 13)

Randwick: 1 Faitotoa Asa, 2 Nio Halangahu, 3 Richard Aho, 4 Junior Taavili, 5 Bryce Speechley, 6 Tom Bennett, 7 Seilala Lam (captain), 8 Nathan Paila, 9 Harrison Boileau, 10 Toby Browne, 11 Ethan Ford, 12 Terrence Hepetema, 13 Tim Wright, 14 Samiu Latu, 15 Mark Kotezcky

Parramatta: 1 Nick Blacklock, 2 Tatafu Polota-Nau, 3 Chris Seuteni, 4 Charlie Leaeno, 5 Evan Olmstead, 6 Andrew Cox (captain), 7 Rodney Ma’a, 8 Josh Kaifa, 9 Solomona Silipa, 10 Tom Woods, 11 Dan Yakopo, 12 Damien Fakafanua, 13 Iese Leota, 14 Tui Fa’asisila, 15 Moses Tavola

Referee: Edward Martin

Penrith v Gordon @ Nepean Rugby Park (3pm)

Penrith: 1 Peter Niumata (captain), 2 Ethan Robinson-Mate, 3 Sione Matangi, 4 Tyrone Emelio, 5 Willie Tooala, 6 Sione Pusiaki Fifita, 7 Owen Crozier, 8 Leo Burgess, 9 Paula Katoa, 10 Sia’a Taveuveu, 11 Kome Leoliifano, 12 Henry Lilomaiava, 13 Paueli Halafihi, 14 John Maumau, 15 James Umu

Gordon: 1 Tobias Gukibau, 2 Ron Hobden (captain), 3 Willy Maumalanga, 4 Lex Fairley, 5 Seb Murphy, 6 Lex Fairley, 7 Gordon Broome, 8 Luke Rissman, 9 Terry Preston, 10 Mitch Walton, 11 Vesi Tokalaulevu, 12 Tom Matthews, 13 Lucas Simkin, 14 Michael Manners, 15 Will Shirvington

Referee: Nathan Pearce

Southern Districts v Eastern Suburbs @ Forshaw Rugby Park (3pm)

Southern Districts: 1 Duncan Chubb, 2 Andrew Sulter, 3 Tim Metcher, 4 Andrew Leota, 5 Jed Holloway, 6 Mick Kauter, 7 Jono Hayes (captain), 8 Lopeti Timani, 9 Grayson Hart, 10 Rohan Saifoloi, 11 Alex Gibbon, 12 Apo Latunipulu, 13 Denny Godinet, 14 Oleni Ngungutau, 15 Ben Volavola

Eastern Suburbs: 1 Sione Kolo, 2 Alex Walker (captain), 3 Rob McMickan, 4 Keliti Vaingalo, 5 Richard Stanford, 6 James Graham, 7 Ryan Hodson, 8 Andrew Shaw, 9 Luke Irwin, 10 Henry Hudson, 11 Charlie Clifton, 12 Tom Azar, 13 Mark Murray, 14 Anton La Vin, 15 Angus Sinclair

Referee: Anthony Moyes

Sydney University v Eastwood @ University Oval 1. (3pm)

Sydney University: 1 Jeremy Tilse, 2  Matthew Mafi, 3 Sam Talakai, 4  Oliver Atkins, 5 Will Skelton, 6 Liam Winton, 7 Benn Melrose, 8 Tim Davidson (captain), 9 Jake Gordon, 10 Daniel Kelly, 11 Tom Kingston, 12 Tom Carter, 13 Michael Hodge, 14 Fetuli Talanoa, 15 Nathan Trist

Eastwood: 1 Marty Plokstys, 2 Todd Pearce, 3 Dylan Brass, 4 Steve Cummins, 5 Mitch Lees, 6 Sione Tau, 7 Hugh Perrett (captain), 8 Jared Barry, 9 Shanin Proctor, 10 Jimmy Hilgendorf, 11 Nick Batger, 12 Tyler Spitz, 13 Michael McDougall, 14 Nick Reily, 15 Ben Batger

Referee: Matt O’Brien

Manly v West Harbour @ Manly Oval (3pm)

Manly: 1 Eddie Aholelei, 2 Andrew Collins, 3 Tim Fairbrother, 4 Ed Gower (captain), 5 Dylan Sigg, 6 Harry Bergelin, 7 Kotoni Ale, 8 Andrew Davis, 9 Matt Lucas, 10 BJ Hartmann, 11 Richard Hooper, 12 Peter Gilmore, 13 Brian Sefanaia, 14 Will Helu, 15 Jacob Woodhouse

West Harbour: 1 Aisea Namoa, 2 Murray Scoles, 3 Vaughan Lomax, 4 Tom Patterson, 5  Bradford Kapa, 6 Jono Midghall, 7 Cohen Masson, 8 Tom Games (captain), 9 David Osofua, 10 Shaun Treweek, 11 Tito Mua, 12 Winston Wilson, 13 Alofa Alofa, 14 Macquire Tatola, 15 Dylan Taikato-Simpson

Referee: Timothy Wills