WARRINGAH V SYDNEY UNI at Pittwater Rugby Park

Winning is a good habit to have and Sydney Uni started their 2020 Shute Shield campaign with just that after their 36-27 win over Warringah on Saturday.

While the execution and synergy may not have been there at times the Students showed that they know how to negotiate testing times.

Uni opened the scoring and at one stage were up 19-6 only for the Rats, in front of a handy Covid-19 affected crowd, hit back.

Tries to Charlie Tupo and Tom Halse got them back into the encounter and it looked likely to edge the home side’s way when Nic Champion de Crespigny was yellow carded just after the break.

The students were able to minimise the bleeding from de Crespigny’s indiscretion and they nudged ahead from there it was in the end a throbbing grand final replay encounter.

Uni coach Michael Hodge told the SMH: “It certainly wasn’t perfect and in general I walked away from that game pretty happy.

“Coming away from Rat Park at any stage with a win is always good and they have had a recent history of winning these ones.

“We were under pressure at different times, our launch plays were disrupted a bit but we were calm on the field through those times and that was what I liked most about the afternoon up there.

“Our on field leaders managed things well which looking forward is a good thing.

“There is no rest we have a big game against manly at home so we can’t dine out on that win for too long.”

Only skipper Rohan O’Regan and fullback Tim Clements were there from last year’s grand final winning side with much of the packing on shift further up the system at the Waratahs.

Warringah were hamstrung at different times by a misfiring line out and they also struggled to get out of their own half with any fluency.

It was an interesting encounter and these two teams will be there or thereabouts once the Shute Shield gets to the pointy end.

Warringah coach Mike Ruthven said: “I was as happy as you can be coming away from a loss. The boys had a real and there are no questions about their intent or commitment.

“There were just a few critical moments throughout the game that we didn’t manage well.

“At times we found a good rhythm in attack but there is still some work to do in and around our defence and the systems that he were using.

“But overall happy that we have made progress from the trial we had against Gordon.”

SYDNEY UNI 36 (Nic Champion de Crespigny, Connor O’Shea, Will McDonnell, Jack McCalman tries; O’Shea 2 conversions, James Kane 2 conversions, 1 pen goal) d WARRINGAH 27 (Tom Halse, Charlie Tupu, Robert Kelly tries; Halse 3 conversions, 1 pen goal)