by Paul Cook –

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THE WARM-UP:

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There was no more dominant side in Sydney grade rugby this year than Eastwood’s 3rd Grade outfit. 17 wins from their 18 regular season matches, at an average of over 44pts per match, took them to the Minor Premiership with plenty to spare, and a further 67pts took care of Warringah (32-15) and Northern Suburbs (33-18) en route to the Grand Final. However, that solitary defeat came at the hands of their final opponents, Eastern Suburbs, back in round seven. And given that the Beasties had also disposed of runners-up Sydney University, in last week’s semi-final, this game shaped up as anything but a lay down misere for the favourites.

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THE BREAKDOWN:

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However, when the opening whistle blew, it didn’t take long for the Woodies to set out their stall, and it was one of dominance. Blessed with a well-drilled and boisterous pack, decision makers in the halves and no little amount of talent in the backline, they were going to take some stopping if they got up a head of steam.

Having been bossed in the early possession stakes, you sensed that Easts would be up against it if they didn’t manage to score first. But after holding out for the opening 15 minutes, their resistance was finally broken when second-rower Jack Warfield went over from in close, Jack Tourish adding the extras.

Eastwood continued the onslaught, their pace and movement causing persistent problems for the Beasties defence, and it was little surprise when they went in again on 22 minutes. Probing the left flank, they sucked in a host of tricolour jerseys before switching the point of attack to find an overlap. But powerful inside centre Sione Fangia still had plenty to do as he span and bounced his way past two tacklers to find the line.

Tourish again complemented the five-pointer with a successful conversion but missed the chance to extend the Woodies’ lead in the 26th minute, his kick rebounding off the post as Easts breathed a sigh of relief.

Woodies no.8 Lachlan Cannell on the charge – Photo: J.B Photography

The Beasties were seeing precious little ball, Eastwood’s linespeed choking them back in their own half and offering scant opportunities with which to try and establish a foothold in the match. But they were given another let-off after the half-time bell as Tourish failed to add three more from the boot.

The young fullback rediscovered his radar after the restart to help Eastwood open up a 17-0 lead that already appeared to be unassailable given the nature of the contest. But to their credit, the Beasties dug deep and with a touch under 20 minutes to go, finally got some reward when a period of sustained pressure resulted in a numbers game that was finished off by halfback, Andrew Ferris.

Winger Daniel Watson-Woods’ conversion reduced the arrears to 10pts, and, with Eastwood having seemingly switched off with perhaps one eye already on the prize, another score for the Beasts at that point would have been made for an intriguing denouement. But as it was, it proved to merely prick the Woodies’ attentions and when Ben Coady duly went over out wide, the status quo returned.

A second Easts try from Watson-Wood in the closing stages certainly kept Eastwood honest but in truth, the champions elect always looked like they had another gear to go to if necessary. It finished a respectable 24-12 but on the day, even the most ardent of Easts’ supporters would find it hard to deny that their boys had been beaten by a side containing an array of talent that should find itself on a bigger stage in the years to come.

Easts’ lock Lachlan Pigott splits the Woodies’ defence – Photo: J.B Photography

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THE WASH-UP:

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Eastwood skipper Nick Johnson:

“It was a really good win. Throughout the year we’ve won every game bar one, which was against Easts, and we were one win each against each other coming into today so, to get the victory over them was probably the right result against the right opposition for us, which makes it a bit more special.

“They’re always strong and we’ve watched how they play which is a lot of counter-attacking so they were never done in the game for the whole 70 minutes. It’s really tense against a team like that where they can attack from anywhere and possibly score tries from anywhere and we’re very lucky to have two quick wingers that shut down a lot of their play today. They got just in front of that last pass on a few occasions and if we didn’t have them, the result could have gone a lot differently.

“They like to offload a lot, especially through that 13 channel, so we spoke about the fact that if we stopped their forwards rumbling it up, that would stifle their progress and allow our outside backs to get up a bit quicker. That was the game plan coming in and we executed it for 90 percent of the time but in the 10 percent that we didn’t, they got two tries.

“As captain, you’ve always got half an eye on the clock, no matter whether you’re up or down. You’ve always got to know where the position of the game is otherwise you can let things slip away and that always influences your decisions on whether to kick for touch or for goal.

“There’s a couple of 1st graders retiring and I really think that you could see a couple of these boys jump straight from 3’s into 1’s. If it’s not next year, it will be within a couple of years for sure.”

Ben Coady dives home for Eastwood’s third – Photo: J.B Photography

Eastern Suburbs skipper Luke Cullinane:

“The first half really let us down and we were just chasing our tails the whole game but credit to the Eastwood boys, they’ve been the benchmark all year and they deserve it. We had a good win against them earlier in the year, which was one of the highlights of our season, but they’re a great team and we just couldn’t match them today.

“We were very happy to have got that win over Uni last week, that was a big result for us but we just fell one short in the end. We didn’t get the result we wanted but we’re very happy to have been here, I’ve never played in a Grand Final before and it was a first for many of the boys so it was a great occasion.

“It’s disappointing but we’ve got next year to look forward to and we’ve got plenty more games of footy together. We had a lot of depth and a lot of youth on our side this year with the input of coaching director Darren Coleman and there are definitely positive signs there. We had a better season than last year so we’ve just got to keep building.”

EASTWOOD 24 (Jack Warfield, Sione Fangia, Ben Coady tries; Jack Tourish 3 cons, pen) defeated EASTERN SUBURBS 12 (Andrew Ferris, Dan Watson-Wood tries; Daniel Gallagher con)

Eastwood: 1. Joel Whitlock; 2. Luke Ferris; 3. Dean Doumbos; 4. Nick Johnson (capt); 5. Jack Warfield; 7. Rhys Allen; 7. Tom Murphy; 8. Lachlan Cannell; 9. Gerard McTaggart; 10. Wesley Sefuiva; 11. Michael Tamone; 12. Sione Fangia, Sion; 13. Taufatoutai Luani; 14. Ben Coady; 15. Jack Tourish – Reserves: Daniel Minto; Matthew Prestipino

Eastern Suburbs: 1. Jake Turnbull; 2. Liam Berry; 3. Rhys Brodie; 4. Lachlan Pigott; 5. Matt Mackay; 6. Nicholas Lumley; 7. Luke Cullinane (capt); 8. Samuel Jackson; 9. Andrew Ferris; 10. Oliver Saunders; 11. William Rayner; 12. James Devlin; 13. Matthew Armour; 14. Daniel Watson-Wood; 15. Daniel Gallagher – Reserves: Will Maddocks; Marcos Insau; Alec Serowatka