by Paul Cook –

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THE WARM-UP:
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With a Minor Premiership under their belts and the best defensive record in the 2nd grade competition to their name, Eastern Suburbs had every right to feel like they were the team to beat going into the title decider. If it wasn’t for the fact that the side they faced on the big day was local rivals Randwick.

With one win each from their regular season clashes – interestingly both achieved on each other’s home ground – all bets were off. But while Easts were in search of a trophy to rubber stamp their marked improvements as a club in 2016, the Wicks were keen to bury the demons of last year’s one point loss to Sydney University at the same stage.

One thing was for certain. It would be fiercely contested.

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THE BREAKDOWN:
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The opening exchanges were fairly even as both sides probed for territory off the boot, only an early lineout steal and scrum penalty for the Wicks any cause for celebration. But the stalemate was broken in fine style seven minutes in, Seamus Frost scooping up a loose ball to streak through some static Easts jerseys and head for the corner, before offloading superbly around his man for Lachie Anderson to dive over in support.

A wayward lineout throw and another scrum penalty confirmed the Beasties scratchy start, as their arch-rivals ramped up the pace of the game. But it was some old school grunt that earned them a second try, the buoyant forwards driving a lineout maul from just inside the 22 to within a metre, where hooker Tevita Vea pounced.

Harrison Goddard’s second successful conversion gave the Galloping Greens a 14-0 lead with just over quarter of an hour played, and even at that early stage, Easts really needed to muster something in reply – and soon. It took until the 20th minute for them to put together a sustainable attack inside Randwick’s red zone, and when that earned a kickable penalty in front, you wondered if the 3pts wouldn’t have been a bad option just to get on the scoreboard and settle things down.

But they didn’t win the Minor Premiership off the back of conservative thinking, and duly backed themselves in for greater reward by kicking for touch. When they found themselves back in their own half some ten phases later however, having been repelled by an impenetrable wall of myrtle green jerseys, some revisionist thinking may have been on the cards.

Especially when they found themselves further behind just a few minutes later. No.8 Liam Moylan was pinged for holding on inside his 22, and the Wicks duly kicked to touch. A clever lineout play opened a giant gap for giant prop Dashville Kuate to exploit, and skipper Dave Parsons was on hand to finish off the good work, powering his way over the chalk from a couple of metres.

Somewhat shell-shocked, Easts rallied again in the hope of constructing something tangible before the half-time break. But Randwick’s scrum was causing them some serious problems in terms of set-piece ball, their aggression at the breakdown was costing them turnovers, and when they ran it, the Galloping Greens’ linespeed choked them down a blind alley, or into an error.

Lachie Anderson slides home for Randwick’s opener – Photo: DC Photos

21-0 up and with a scrum feed after the siren, the fact that Randwick chose to run it in search of another score, instead of kicking out and heading straight to the sheds, gave some indication of the confidence coursing through their veins. And they didn’t let up after the restart.

A clever kick in behind from Goddard and a forceful chase from Kuate, pinned Easts in their in-goal to earn a five-metre scrum barely five minutes into the second stanza. Having then won a penalty from the first engagement, the Wicks kept their foot on the throat and called for another scrum, from which they marched the Beasties pack back over their own line for Alex Harrod to dab down try number four.

Now chasing the seemingly impossible, the men from Woollahra went for broke and set up camp in the Randwick 22. But some terrific scramble defence and last-ditch tackles, a number of which came from openside Jack Johnson and centre Kuki Ma’afu, continued to frustrate their efforts and leave a donut next to their name on the North Sydney Oval scoreboard.

A serious-looking injury to Tevita Vea in the 54th minute required a lengthy delay, the Wicks rake in some distress when he was stretchered from the field. The six-minute halt in proceedings appeared to impact Randwick’s momentum, while fuelling the fire for their underperforming neighbours, who continued to build pressure after the resumption of hostilities.

And Easts thought they were over just before the hour mark, halfback Jack Grant touching down a loose ball after his forwards had reversed the trend at scrum time. But replacement tighthead Cam Betham was called out for tackling a Wicks defender without the ball to create the space, and their grand final nightmare continued.

When the same thing happened again two minutes later, Moylan guilty of illegally impeding an opponent to allow Grant through to the line this time, you may just have been able to hear the screams from the Eastern Suburbs coaching box over the burgeoning crowd.

Beasties captain Cohan Guerra gets wrapped up – Photo: DC Photos

Whether frustrated with themselves, their opponents or the referee, passions were now running visibly high through the Beasties, stirred even more by the host of verbal barbs thrown their way by a Randwick side keen to rub their enemies noses in the dirt and then some.

So it was perhaps no surprise when tensions finally erupted with less than 10 minutes to go. A scuffle on the floor at the edge of a ruck was the precursor to an all-in that splintered into several confrontations involving punches, leaving referee Richard Goswell and his assistants with the difficult task of applying the correct punishment to the correct players. In showing a red to Wicks skipper Dave Parsons, and two yellows to Easts’ Dan Elsom and Rowland Kotabalavu however, they appeared to have got their men.

Perversely, it was only when they were a man down that the Beasties finally broke the Galloping Greens’ resistance. A messy scrum 10 metres from the Wicks posts sheared sideways, the ball popping out right at the feet of replacement flanker Luke Cullinane, who found the base of an upright.

Incoming halfback Andrew Ferris drop-kicked the extras, but with only four minutes left, they required a sporting miracle to change the outcome. When they subsequently ran in a second shortly after the restart – winger Suaesi Iosua profiting from a nice dummy from skipper Cohan Guerra to slide over in the corner and make it 28-12 – there may have been a few nervous glances at the clock from the Coogee faithful.

But it was very much a case of too little, too late for the Minor Premiers. This particular derby had long been won, their impressive season had fallen short at the final hurdle, and bragging rights would belong to the green side of town. At least until next season…

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THE WASH-UP:
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Randwick head coach Hadley Jackson:

“The boys have prepared well and we came out and did what we needed to do in that first half. Easts have been an incredibly good side all year, so we knew what we were up against but the boys came out focused, had their minds on the job, and it paid off.

“The injury to Tevita did halt the momentum a little bit and Easts came out firing after that, but we pulled the guys together a bit and they’d done enough beforehand to make the game ours. That’s our best performance of the year. We were good last week and we were good the week before, so we’ve been building for this one. But to come out and do it under pressure like that and go bang, bang, bang, was very pleasing.

“I was with the team last year when we went down to Uni, and there were still a few boys around from that game so it did get brought up during the week. But we did what we needed to do to avoid a repeat performance this time round. We got the business done.”

Eastern Suburbs captain Cohan Guerra:

“Training doesn’t mean anything during the week. You can have a terrible training session and rock up on the day and win, or you can have an outstanding training session – as we did this week – and not turn up on the day. It’s whoever rocks up ready to play and wants it the most.

“They turned up in the first 20 and we obviously didn’t, and that hurt us. They were dominant in the scrums and you can’t really win a rugby game without a good scrum, and it just folded from there really. They were on fire, they put it all over us everywhere.

“Last time we played them we were actually 28-nil down at the break at Woollahra, so we knew we could come back from that. But as much as we tried they were just on it. They were on it for 60 minutes, we were on it for 20, and it was already too late to get 28 points back.

“This year was massive for the club, leaps and bounds from last year when 1’s and 2’s bailed out without a chance of the finals. 1’s just missed out this year, we got Minor Premiers and 3’s and 4’s were both in the finals, so there’s only one way to go from here and that’s keep moving forward.”

Randwick captain Dave Parsons:

“Last year’s disappointment wasn’t a main focus for us but it definitely played some part in the build-up. We certainly wanted to go one step further. We knew they were going to come out firing in that first 20 so we were intent on stopping that, and in both games that we played against them during the year we were up at half-time and fell off at the back end, so we needed to stay focused.

“Long stoppages to do hurt you because it’s hard to get back into the game and there was a bit of niggle after that. That’s to be expected, we’re local rivals, we all go to separate schools so there’s the school rivalry, and you either go to Easts or you go to Randwick. There is a number of guys on both sides that have played for their club for years so we’ve been playing against each other for a long time now.

“It’s some sort of hat-trick to get a try, a red card and a trophy I guess. But I’ve been waiting 30 years for this – it’s the best day ever!”

RANDWICK 28 (Lachie Anderson, Tevita Vea, Dave Parsons, Alex Harrod tries; Harrison Goddard 4 cons) defeated EASTERN SUBURBS 12 (Luke Cullinane, Suaesi Iosua tries; Andrew Ferris con) HT 21-0

Eastern Suburbs: 1. Liam Berry; 2. Chris Pusi; 3. Jack Payne; 4. Michael Ross; 5. Lachie Pigot; 6. Angus Brotherton; 7. Dan Elsom; 8. Liam Moylan; 9. Jack Grant; 10. Cohan Guerra (capt); 11. Rowland Kotabalavu; 12. Will Raynor; 13. Nick Hedley; 14. Suaesi Iosua; 15. Will Paterson
Reserves: 18. Cam Betham; 19. Luke Cullinane; 21. Andrew Ferris; 22. Scott Ferris; TBC. Coaches: Craig Morrison & Matt Evard

Randwick: 1. Dashville Kuate; 2. Tevita Vea; 3. Michael Celona; 4. Ed Kennedy; 5. Will Lafolafo; 6. Dave Parsons (capt); 7. Jack Johnson; 8. Alex Harrod; 9. Harrison Goddard; 10. Lachie Anderson; 11. Seamus Frost; 12. Ben Starkey; 13. Kuki Ma’afu; 14. Charlie McKay; 15. Nic Andrews
Reserves; Harry Boileau; TBC. Coaches: Hadley Jackson, Richard Stanford & Phil Green