Eastwood captain Hugh Perrett. Photo: Ric McLellan

by Brendan Bradford –

Eastwood maintained their third spot on the ladder with a 30-12 win over Randwick in tough conditions at Coogee Oval on Saturday afternoon.

Gale-force winds blustered throughout the match and dictated the style of play on show for the hardy club rugby faithful as Eastwood scored three tries to two and had a better day with the kicking tee in an 18-point win.

Eastwood coach John Manenti had been hoping to use the match as an opportunity to narrow the gap on second placed Warringah, but the Rats managed a bonus-point win at Nepean to hold onto their top-two position by a point.

“A 30-12 win at Coogee is a good win, especially with the second half, it looked like Armageddon so it was a funny old game,” said Manenti.

“It doesn’t help us on the table with Warringah getting a bonus point and Uni getting one in their win, so it’s tightening up around us. But we’ve got both those two sides to play so the focus needs to move onto those guys pretty quickly over the last few weeks of the competition.”

Newly minted Randwick captain Toa Asa. Photo: Ric McLellan

Last year’s grand finalists didn’t see much of the ball in the second 40, but Manenti was happy with the defensive effort the side showed to keep their line intact for a 20-minute stretch.

“We just didn’t get any ball and for about 25-30 minutes it was played in our 22 and whenever we’d start getting out, they’d come back at us,”  he said.

“I was pleased with the defensive effort considering the amount of ball they had and in terms of attack, it wasn’t the day to be playing expansive and certainly in the first half I think we were dominating comfortably, but left a few points out there. I don’t think we played as smart as we could have today, but don’t take anything away from Randwick because they defended well when they needed to.”

Despite camping inside the Eastwood 22 for most of the second half, the Galloping Greens were unable to narrow the gap or conjure a try to narrow the gap to less than seven and earn a bonus point. As it stands, they take nothing out of the match except experience.

“We just didn’t take good options and it was so scrappy at the breakdown, especially with some of the rulings from the ref, it’s hard to get going when we’re trying to actually play,” said coach, Wade Kelly.

“We had a bunch of kids out there today and they fronted up to it. We had a couple of chances and were held up over the line, two five metre scrums that were turned over on their line cost us. Little things like that.”

For a backline that must average around 19 years of age, the Wicks didn’t take a backwards step, and Kelly says it’s the making of the future of the club.

“They’re talented. They’re only going to get better and it puts the club in a good position,” he said.

“The good ones will hopefully get cherry-picked to Super Rugby and have done so already, but from where we were a couple of years ago with men who couldn’t compete with men, now we’ve got boys who can actually compete against men. How good are they going to be in two years?”

Eastwood fullback Ben Batger kicked 12 points. Photo: Ric McLellan.

Randwick put the opening kick-off out on the full but once they adapted to the massive wind blowing at their backs, a penalty nudged deep into Eastwood territory allowed Tristan Goodbody to drive over for the opening try of the match and a 7-0 lead.

Eastwood kept the ball in hand over the next ten minutes and landed a penalty to Ben Batger the first opportunity they received. The Woods have a knack for scoring in bunches this season and when Batger made a break from the kick-off, John Grant was on hand to finish off for a 10-3 lead.

Their opening try was as close as the Galloping Greens got for the rest of the half as Eastwood’s ball in hand game-plan negated the wind factor despite some well-placed David Horwitz clearances. Only poor execution and handling errors kept the Woods from adding more than a second penalty for a 13-7 lead as halftime approached.

Try-scorer Grant was sent to the sin-bin for a swinging arm after the bell but Wicks fullback Andrew Deegan – who had kicked 18 from 18 leading into the match – couldn’t convert from long range.

Some ominous looking clouds swept over the Eastern Suburbs at halftime and Randwick stormed out of the blocks with a well-constructed try, this time to Australian U-20s scoring machine Andrew Kellaway who beat a couple of would-be tacklers close to the line. Deegan couldn’t convert, but the home-side was back in it at 13-12.

The resurgence was halted as the Woods again responded quickly with Nick Batger putting on a classy finish to a sweeping move to score under the posts. Ben Batger converted and Tom Hill quickly added a 40-metre penalty to push the lead to 23-12 with half an hour on the clock.

As the wind kicked up a notch and the skies darkened, the Coogee Oval faithful looked for cover as the Wicks were held up in goal and hammered the Eastwood line mercilessly but couldn’t make a breakthrough.

As it turned out, Eastwood repelled wave after wave of willing Randwick attack but nabbed an intercept on the stroke of fulltime and Hill ran untouched under the posts for the 30-12 score-line.

The task doesn’t get any easier for Randwick who travel to Manly Oval to face a Marlins side coming off their first loss of the season after going down to a last minute drop-goal to Easts at Woollahra. It’s a similarly tough one for Eastwood who are away to Sydney Uni.

Eastwood 30 (Grant, N Batger, Hill tries; B Batger 2 pen, 3 con) bt Randwick 12 (Goodbody, Kellaway tries; Deegan con)