By MARK CASHMAN

The haircut says more chartered accountant than tough as teak backrower but Northern Suburbs wouldn’t swap their No.8 Hugh Sinclair for anyone in the competition.

The 28-year-old Waratahs squad member scored the match-winning try against Sydney Uni as the Shoremen came back from a 22-10 deficit midway through the second half to record a 24-22 win over the two-time defending premiers.

The win means Norths will go through to this weekend’s grand final qualifiers on Sunday against Eastwood and Uni’s chance to do a Shute Shield three-peat are over.

Many of Norths’ old and bold who have gathered behind the goal posts for the past couple of weeks at Pittwater Rugby Park believe that this win over the Students was the biggest performance since the grand final victory back in 2016.

Not once, not twice but three times Norths bounced back with crucial scores just when Uni threatened to pull away with a dominant scrum and seemingly all of the field position.

That was at 8-0, 15-7 and also at 22-10 when they had the chance to add three points but opted to go to the sidelines.

The 28-year-old Sinclair was at the heart of a lot of those bounce backs, driving a lot of the work in defence and carrying the ball well through traffic when it was needed.

Norths centre Nathan Russell continued to have the best season of his emerging career, playing a significant role in the middle of the field with the ball in hand and also been a major stopper when the Uni attack threatened.

The Students scored the first through Josh Kemeny and added another three with a penalty goal to make the score 8-0.

Norths Reece Mau’u then showed his speed from a nicely worked set piece move to draw the Shoremen close at 8-5 and then 8-7 with Angus Sinclair’s conversion.

A penalty try pushed Uni out again to a 15-7 lead and then they were ahead 22-10 with the final quarter of the game looming with a nice try from skipper Rohan O’Regan.

Then the never say die attitude of Norths and the driving influence of Sinclair kicked in to turn things around with a try to back rower Heinrich Brendel and then the Johnny on the spot work of the Norths No.8 gave the final scoreline.

Norths coach Earl Va’a was happy with the work of his side to hang in there and make the most of their chances.

“Yeah it’s great to have another week,” Va’a said.

“Hugh was great throughout the game driving our work in defence. He just works and works and works away.

“I think he got a bit of a shock when he took the pass off ‘Duff’ (Nick Duffy) that led to the try and us getting the lead.

“Elsewhere I thought that we got some good impact off our bench with Max Ma’a, Jayden Lynch and Gary Bautz coming on and making a difference.

“The win showed what can happen if you fight your way through tough times in games, get up off the ground and use the possession you do get well you can make a difference.

“Everyone’s a bit sore from the weekend but we will work away on our set piece and get ready to take on Eastwood.”

“We didn’t panic, we were on the back foot for a lot of that game and obviously our set piece was having some issues,” Norths skipper Harry Burey told the Sunday Telegraph’s Jon Geddes.

“I think opposed to a fortnight ago we hung around and hung around and hung around.”

“We only led for eight minutes of the game, but it was an important eight minutes.”

He said the team had taken a big step forward, but was not getting carried away, saying they had only earnt the right to play for one more week.

“So the job is not done,” Burey said.

Just like on Sunday the wind was a significant factor with Uni kicking balls dead twice, one of those leading to the Norths try that tightened the game up at 22-17.

Uni coach Michael Hodge said it was disappointing way to end their season.

“We knew Norths would come out hard in the second half but felt we were in a strong position to close out the game. Not to be unfortunately,” Hodge said.

“Still a massive couple of weeks for the club and it will be all hands on deck to make sure all teams are in a strong position.”

The loss though would have cut deep for Uni with many of the club’s major players in deep conversation at the northern end of the ground throughout the Gordon v Randwick game.

NORTHERN SUBURBS 24 (Heinrich Brendel, Hugh Sinclair, Reece Mau’u tries; Angus Sinclair 3 conversions, pen goal) d SYDNEY UNI 22 (Josh Kemeny, Rohan O’Regan tries, penalty try; Stu Dunbar conversion, pen goal) at Pittwater Rugby Park.

IMAGE: ANDREW QUINN / GORDON RUGBY