By MARK CASHMAN

Round 10 of the Shute Shield competition on Saturday had oodles of spice to it with upsets in the Randwick v Sydney Uni game and a bit of boilover in the Battle of the North between Gordon and Northern Suburbs.

The Galloping Greens beat Sydney Uni 42-24 after racing out to a 28-0 lead early while Norths tackled themselves to a stand still before taking their chances in their 24-13 victory.

Elsewhere Eastern Suburbs continued on their way to the finals with a 22-5 win over Manly.

In other games Southern Districts had a big win over the Hunter Wildfires, Eastwood beat Penrith and Warringah had a 58-15 victory over the Two Blues.

Here’s how all the games panned out:

SYDNEY UNI V RANDWICK

Christian Poidevin is still very much in the early stages of his Shute Shield career but he underlined his worth to his side Randwick at the weekend in their 42-24 win over Sydney Uni on Saturday.

Poidevin has been missing for the past three games – Northern Suburbs, Gordon and Eastwood – all matches they lost with the game against Norths heavier than the other two and one that may be looked upon as a turning point.

Randwick skipped out to a 28-0 lead in the first half hour of the 7TWO TV match of the round with Ben Donaldson, feeling a lot more at home than the week before, and Dave Horwitz doing some good stuff.

“Poido was a big in for us,” Galloping Greens coach Ben McCormack said.

“He’s such a presence at the breakdown and he runs good support lines which has been missing from our game for the past couple of weeks.

“The best part of the Uni game is the way that they start their games and we were able to stay with them and them get away a bit which was good.

“I just had a feeling that Uni weren’t the Uni that we have seen in recent times and there a few more errors than you would expect.

“But I must say that it was good to erase last week (the performance against Norths at Rat Park).”

Randwick did lose Maurice Longbottom early but Tom Molloy, who had played a full game and did well getting over for a try as things loosened up.

The Wicks scrum worked well for the most part with big Melbourne Rebels prop Cabous Eloff providing some welcome bulk with George Hendry out with a head knock.

The Randwick line out was back up to expectation and provided a good platform which helped the play makers.

Uni coach Michael Hodge tipped his hat to the way that Randwick had started the game on what was Back to Uni day at Camperdown.

“Credit to Randwick. They punished our mistakes early in the game which was one of the things that we spoke about before the game and not doing,” Hodge said.

“Our set piece was strong, but I must say that there were some teething and timing issues around the park. 

“We’ve got games against the top two teams over the next two week so we need to be better.”

RANDWICK 42 (Christian Poidevin, Mitch Short, Brooklyn Hardaker, Triston Reilly 2, Tom Molloy tries; Ben Donaldson 6 conversions) d SYDNEY UNI 24 (Declan Moore, Rohan O’Regan, Ben Hughes, Jack McCalman tries; Hughes 2 conversions) at University No.2 Oval.

GORDON V NORTHERN SUBURBS

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.

MANLY V EASTERN SUBURBS

Eastern Suburbs travelled to Manly Oval expecting a bit of a smash up derby and that’s exactly what they got on Saturday.

The Beasties won 22-5 to keep their hopes alive of a spot in the finals but as Easts coach Pauli Taumoepeau said in the wake of the game it was a real arm wrestle.

“Momentum swung both ways and looking at it was only in the first quarter and the last quarter that we got any sort of pay,” Taumoepeau said.

“Absolute credit to Manly and the way they pressured us in that second quarter of the match. Then in the third quarter their defence was water tight in front of their grandstand. 

“We just couldn’t get through despite having a real crack at their line a number of times.

“But I was really happy with the patience that we showed. We threw quite a bit at them for not much return for quite long periods in the game.”

The game saw Rob Leota play his first game for Easts and despite having played limited footy this year impressed many.

Easts will have a Super Rugby standard back row when all things come together and I am sure that Leota will be part of that.

“Rob played the first 50 minutes of the game and we were very happy with what he was able to do with not much time getting his head around our plays and systems,” Taumoepeau said.

“We just told him to position himself in the middle third of the field and if the ball came his way make sure that he got us over the advantage line – he did that and will be better for the run.”

Easts started the game well and were able to push out to a 10-0 lead thanks to tries from prop Archer Holz and Alex Newsome.

A yellow card to their hooker Mooli Sooaemaelagi not long after Newsome’s try gave the home side the numbers and they were able to score through Yool Yool, a player who continues to come to grips well with Shute Shield rugby.

The game then went into something of a scoring lockdown with Easts only pulling away from the Marlins in the final 20 minutes with tries to Daniel Donato and Jeremy Williams. 

“Tom Staniforth and Jack Grant were busy for us all day,” Taumoepeau added. 

“Alex Newsome also controlled our backline well when we were a man down which was great to see.”

Manly coach Matt McGoldrick was happy with his “fatties”.

“Our forwards went really well. Just a few too many errors at times from us,” McGoldrick said.

“We aren’t far away but we are putting ourselves under too much strain by turning the ball over.”

EASTERN SUBURBS 22 (Archer Holz, Alex Newsome, Daniel Donato, Jeremy Williams tries; Donato conversion) d MANLY 5 (Yool Yool try) at Manly Oval.

SOUTHERN DISTRICTS V HUNTER WILDFIRES

The drums have been beating about power of the Southern Districts scrum for some weeks and the evidence was there for all to see in the Rebels’ 49-24 win over the Hunter Wildfires on Saturday.

Souths were awarded two penalty tries on top of the five that they scored in a more conventional manner and the bonus point victory keeps them in touch with the top six.

They sit in seventh spot on 30 points just one point shy of Eastern Suburbs (31 points) who are in sixth position and face Northern Suburbs, Manly and West Harbour in the final three rounds before finals.

Christian Kagiassis was the pick of the home side according to Souths coach Todd Louden, making the most of his move to flyhalf by taking the ball to the line strongly and kicking well out of hand.

Not far behind ‘Kagi’ was Nathan Lawson who continues to come to grips with the channels at 134 while Samu Malola was busy at No.8.

“Yeah those penalty tries on either side of halftime were handy,” Louden said.

“I’ve never watched a Wildfires game where they have lied down and that was certainly the case on Saturday. They compete for everything.

“They tried to slow down the tempo of the game at scrum time and when their guys were down getting attention so I must say it wasn’t really a spectacle of any magnitude.

“But if you look at things through the prism of all the injuries that we have had we came away feeling good about ourselves.”

Louden said they had not discounted playing finals footy this year.

“If I’m being honest our focus has to be on 2021,” Louden said. “But we’re going to fight all the way to the end.

“The injuries have meant we have not been able to play the sort of footy we would have liked but the up side is that we will have a large group of guys who have been blooded at Shute Shield level.”

Before the game Wildfires coach Scott Coleman was looking forward to seeing how centre Chase Hicks managed his Shute Shield debut.but a head knock early saw him come off at halftime.

“If you take out the two penalty tries – they deserved those, their scrum is the best in the comp – they didn’t have to work hard for their tries. They literally beat us on defence,” Coleman told the Newcastle Herald.

“The boys were pretty down on themselves and believe it is one that got away. We can’t keep giving away cheap possession.”

The was some joy for the bus trip on the way home though with the reserve grade side winning 7-0 and the colts breaking through for their first win of the season with a 22-7 victory.

SOUTHERN DISTRICTS 49 (Zak Hickey, Nathan Lawson 2, Deon Evans-Ao, Brandon Finnegan tries, 2 penalty tries; Christian Kagiassis 5 conversions) d HUNTER WILDFIRES 24 (Brendan Holliday, Hamish McKie, Nimilote Qio, Taylor Acheson tries; Holliday 2 conversions) at Forshaw Rugby Park.

WARRINGAH V WESTERN SYDNEY TWO BLUES

The milestone man Josh Holmes attracted the headlines but there were many nuances in Warringah’s 58-15 win over the Western Sydney Two Blues on Saturday.

Holmes played his 200th first grade game and in the process scored a hat-trick of tries but away from all that there was the very pleasing emergence of Ben Marr as a handy flyhalf.

Warringah coach Mike Ruthven and his selection panel had made the call earlier in the week to move Marr to the No.10 jersey and drop Tom Halse to reserve grade to regain some confidence and touch.

The bones of a very good backline were there but they just weren’t gelling for long periods of time and it was showing.

Holmes was another who hadn’t shown out in games this season with rival clubs knowing that pressure on the classy No.9 could shut down many of the good things that the Rats can do.

On Saturday though the Rats got out of the blocks early scoring four tries, including two from Holmes, before the Two Blues were able to make any sort of inroads.

“‘Marsy’ handled the role at 10 really well,” Ruthven said.

“That style of game really suited him as we saw from his three tries. He will keep improving in that role but I was pleased with his contribution. It was a good start.”

The Two Blues made Warringah work hard for their points early and were up for much of the cut and thrust of the early stages of the game.

But the Rats work off turnover ball was impressive and they got pay from that area – something that hadn’t been happening much this season for some reason.

“It was really pleased that we were able to put in a solid performance for Josh 200th and Seb Wileman’s 100th first grade game,” Ruthven said. 

“Josh and Seb both contributed to the 10-try effort and Josh was certainly back to his characteristically best, controlled our tempo well and was ever present in support.”

Skipper Sam Ward was another to have a significant impact, according to Ruthven.

“I thought Wardy had a real impact for us physically and that’s what you need from your leader against a physical opponent,” Ruthven added.

“Some of his defence was excellent and gave us some momentum.” 

Tyson Davis handled his shift back to 15 really well. 

“Tyson was energetic and looking to be a threat as often as he could,” Ruthven said.

“He really worked hard on his kick returns and made life difficult for the Two Blues when we brought the ball back.”

Both clubs cherish the ‘Noddy’ Sawtell Cup that is played for every time that this game is played and the Rats were more than happy that their run of victories from 2015 continued.

WARRINGAH 58 (Josh Holmes 3, Ben Marr 3, Rory Suttor, Seb Wileman, Charlie Tupu, Tyson Davis tries; Davis 4 conversions) d WESTERN SYDNEY TWO BLUES 15 (Nick Blacklock, Kalafi Pongi tries; Rory Garrett conversion, pen goal) at Rat Park.

EASTWOOD V PENRITH

It wasn’t pretty by any means but Eastwood got what they wanted from their 47-14 win over Penrith on Saturday.

The Woods scored six tries, forced a penalty try and conceded one in a game that saw them move to third on the Shute Shield competition table after Round 10.

A bonus point victory was essential for the home team as they chase a top four finish with their bye coming next weekend in Round 11. 

They then finish off their run to the playoffs with games against the Two Blues and then a big final round encounter against Gordon at home.

Woods coach Ben Batger said sevens regular first graders were not available because of injury of some sort but in many ways that was “mission accomplished”.

“It’s a game where we got five points and that’s about it because it was probably the worse game of football I have seen at TG in 20 years,” Batger said.

“Give penrtih credit where credit it due they came to play and played a tough and in your face style of football. 

“We had about seven first graders missing due to some injuries and it was great to give some inexperienced players like big Jack lalafo and Josh Hickey from our first grade colts some time.

“It was also great to reward  players like Josh Noonan and Semisi Kioa who have been killing it in reserve grade.

 “We have the bye now so we will freshen up and look forward to Warringah in two weeks.”

Batger was also able to take some of the load off his young flyhalf Tane Edmed who sat out the second half.

The Woods got out to an early lead with tries to Ed Craig and Sione Tau but the Emus were able to reel them in with a try from Dean Blore and then a penalty try.

Yellow cards for Semisi Kioa and Patrick Sio gave some indication of the combativeness of the game but in the end the Woods ran in the final 26 points of the match without reply.

EASTWOOD 47 (Ed Craig, Sione Tau, Ratu Tuisese, Max Stewart, Alex Pappalardo, Jack Lafolafo-Chricton tries, penalty try; Tane Edmed 2 conversions, Chris Bell 3 conversions) d PENRITH 14 (Dean Blore try, penalty try; Blore conversion) at TG Millner Field.

IMAGE: AJF PHOTOGRAPHY