by Paul Cook – (see match highlights here)

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THE WARM-UP:

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A twist of fixtures fate meant that this Qualifying Final – between the sides that finished 2nd and 5th respectively – was a repeat of the match played out on the same pitch only seven days previously. That game had ended in a manner, which suggested that this clash would be anything but a formality for Eastwood, Warringah pushing the reigning Premiers all the way before going down 31-24. And with Waratah, Hugh Roach, a late withdrawal and the Woodies not exactly firing on all cylinders over the past month, there was more than a hint of upset in the air…

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THE BREAKDOWN:

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Those judges may have felt the building pangs of justification as the first quarter played out. Warringah, clearly buoyed by their efforts in defeat the previous week, came out in a confident manner and had the better of the territory and possession stakes, a Hamish Angus penalty levelling an early three-pointer from Ben Batger to preserve a stalemate after 20 minutes.

But then came the turning point. Three scrums were wheeled only 10 metres from the Rats tryline before the Woodies were held up over the line and from the next engagement, Rats prop Wayne Borsack saw yellow. As if that wasn’t punishment enough, on came his replacement, Manusseh Alaga, to be present at a similar outcome, only this time the result was a penalty try.

10-3 at the break then and with the knowledge that they were at long odds to turn things around at set-piece time, the visitors set fair to utilise their greatest weapons – pace, counter attack and the ability to score from anywhere. So it was when they went through the hands inside their own 22 for Tyson Davis to set off downfield. The young centre carried over halfway before feeding inside where two more passes and an offload off the floor from Dave Feltscheer put the prolific Josh Holmes away for his 21st try of the season. Game on.

Or it may have been had the Rats not switched off only four minutes later to allow a determined Ben Batger to leg drive his way over and help to restore the seven point advantage. The rest of the contest perhaps highlighted the difference between Eastwood’s annual finals footy experience compared to Warringah’s recent ascension, as the home side’s long term generals, Batger and Hugh Perrett, in tandem with an increasingly influential Ayoub, stepped up to the task to guide their team to a sixth semi-final since 2009.

Batger added another penalty on the hour to make it 20-10 before departing with injury, Tom Hill filling his kicking shoes after the siren to cement the win with a long range effort straight over the black dot.

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THE WASH-UP:

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By their own admission, Eastwood haven’t been at the peak of their powers in recent weeks and head coach John Manenti felt that the performance was a positive sign that the team were getting back on track.

“We’ve been a bit flat and a bit off for various reasons but the beauty of finals football is that it’s a clean slate and you can start again,” he told Rugby News. “We still left points out there at times with our execution and a few poor options but it was about the grind and being prepared to do the hard stuff. Finals football is about minimising your errors as much as great defence and obviously, if you can eliminate that from your game, it helps against teams like the Rats who have plenty of speed and are good on the counter.”

Naturally, the previous week’s encounter between the two sides fed the approach to this clash and Manenti felt that they’d learned a few lessons from which to put a plan of action in place against a team he rates highly.

“They’re a vastly improved side,” he said. “From when we played them in round three to now, the difference is unbelievable. We knew they were going to be good, we knew they were going to attack from everywhere and there were a couple of things we worked pretty hard on at training as a result.

“They scored all their tries last week off our turnovers so we knew that if we minimised penalties and minimised turnovers it would take a bit away from them. But we also knew they had nothing to lose and could play with a bit of spirit and would keep throwing the ball around. We had to find another gear and it was a really good step in the right direction.”

“We knew exactly how they wanted to play,” concurred fullback Ben Batger. “They were going to try to play up-tempo, quick-taps, counter attack and run it from everywhere so all we wanted to do was try to avoid those things. It was do or die for them and I think they came out with that attitude and we probably waited for things to happen a little bit and to get into our groove. But tactically, we thought we knew how to combat them and keeping them to only one try suggests we got it right.”

Eastwood lock James Neale carries the fight to the Rats – Photo: Serge Gonzalez

As a fullback, Batger was clearly the wrong person to ask about the battle at scrum time. But he did agree that the yellow card and penalty try were turning points, and, despite Warringah’s second half fightback, did set the tone for the rest of the game.

“You’re just so happy for the boys when things like that happen,” he said. “They must have put in about ten scrums in a row and some of them were coming up after each one bright red in the face with all the effort and to get eventually get the penalty try was crucial for the game and crucial for our confidence as well. I did say to the ref as I lined up the conversion ‘There’s 10 minutes we’ll never get back!’ and he had a good laugh about it!”

For his coach, an old front-rower himself of course, it was a hugely gratifying outcome to an area of the game he and his team had specifically targeted in the build-up.

“The front row were very significant today in the game dominance and the way they worked,” said Manenti. “We had a plan to grind Warringah at the scrum. Last week we had a similar situation near their line where we took the ball off early, turned it over and they went the length of the field and scored, so the plan was to keep the ball in, keep them under pressure and grind them into the dirt basically, and we got a lot of pay out of that in the first half in particular.”

Even from his position on the other side of the ledger, Rats head coach Greg Marr found it hard to disagree with that assessment.

“The scrum was a tussle,” he sighed. “I thought we held parity with them last week but they got on top today. We fought our way back but once your scrum is under pressure I think it’s a psychological thing for everybody in the team. It was a real arm wrestle, a good finals game and the pressure came on a lot more because of it and they probably handled it a lot better than we did but they’ve had a little bit more experience at it.

“We weren’t scared of them at all, we actually felt good as long as we capitalised on our chances but we didn’t do that well enough today,” he continued. “They came away at the end and I think we got tired but that continual pressure builds on you and some of the things we did were the wrong decisions.”

Josh Holmes finished off a superb length of the field move with his 21st try of the season

Clearly the right decision however, was the one to run it from their own 22 in the 46th minute, a thrilling play that sits up there with some of the finest produced by this exciting Rats backline in recent seasons. Just don’t tell that to Ben Batger.

“It was really irritating because we’d actually called the play, we said that this was what they would do as they were packing the scrum and sure enough, they ran it perfectly and got the biccies,” Batger revealed. “That was really disappointing, to know what was coming and still not defend it better. That’s what they’re really good at and they hit it perfect that time.”

The problem was, Warringah didn’t go on with it from there. At 10-all, and with the home crowd shifting uncomfortably in their seats, another score in quick succession or, at least, the prevention of any instant reply from the Woodies, would have set the platform for an intriguing final quarter. But four minutes later, Ayoub broke them apart, Nick Batger carried within range and brother Ben effectively finished them off.

“When he (Batger) scored it was massive because we’d just scored that great try, we had our foot on their throat for the first time in the game and we let them off the hook,” bemoaned Hamish Angus. “They scored that try and then a few minutes later they got a penalty and instead of chasing seven points, you’re chasing 10, which is a big difference. Then, we went to what we do really well but the issue with that is it leaves you vulnerable and the whole game was then played out of our 22 because we weren’t kicking.

“I noticed last week that playing the Woods is very much a momentum game,” he continued. “They’re front-runners, they’re not necessarily used to having to chase a game from behind whereas for us, it’s our bread and butter. The last ten weeks we haven’t played any first half football, it’s all been second half football, and even today, with eight minutes to go we’re thinking ‘This is fine, we can score twice’. I’m not sure that Eastwood are as comfortable in that position and if we’d scored again at that point and built a lead, who knows? But we didn’t and it’s just frustrating.”

Flyhalf Jai Ayoub steps clear to help set up the Woodies’ second try – Photo: Serge Gonzalez

A second top five finish in a row for the Rats is proof that this group have arrived as genuine contenders in the Shute Shield, and the achievement of finals footy by their lower grades too – although they all suffered a similar fate on the day – suggests that the well may not run dry for a few years yet. But ultimately, defeat means they exit the competition at the same point as last year, in week one of the finals. Angus feels they are not far away from taking the next step.

“The season promised a lot and at times, when we’re firing, I think I can pretty comfortably say we’re a Grand Final team,” he opined. “It’s just disappointing – and it’s been the case all year – that we struggle to put in an 80 minute performance against the good teams. You can’t play less than 80 minutes because they’ll find a way to beat you and today was another example of that, we played well in patches and we gave it a crack but we came up short against a good team.”

“It’s a sad day for the club getting three teams in the finals and coming away with three losses but if you look at it another way, we did well to get three teams into the finals in the first place,” offered Greg Marr. “We’ve got a lot of young players coming through that will learn from that sort of stuff and I’m just gutted for them. You can say whatever you like but it’s not going to offer much comfort, they’re going to hurt for a little while. Hopefully it drives the hunger for next year.

“Eastwood are a good side and whoever beats them probably deserves to win the competition. I thought we had a chance but we weren’t quite good enough on the day. They were a bit nervous playing us again a week later and I think that’s a sign of respect of our players and they deserve it, they’ve had a good season.”

While the Rats were left to plan ‘Mad Monday’, Eastwood were able to look forward to a home semi-final against either Southern Districts or Sydney University, depending on the following day’s result. John Manenti wasn’t fussed as to which of the two opponents he faced but he agreed that a meeting with the Rebels – as turned out to be the case – would be the first of two giant hurdles if his side are to go back-to-back.

“Souths have been a good team all year, we always battle with them but to win the Grand Final from here we’ve got to beat two of the best four teams in the comp,” he reasoned. “It’s been a really good comp, it’s been the closest it’s been for a long time and we live to fight another day. It’s great to be playing at home again but we’ve got to continue to improve, manage a few injuries and hopefully, kick-on from this game.”

“We kept on saying at training last week that we really want to enjoy finals football and I think that’s been a big focus,” said Ben Batger. “I think we got caught a little bit in the monotony of training on Tuesdays and Thursdays and playing on Saturday in recent weeks but now the boys are refocused and really want to repeat what we did last year.

“It’s a bit of a rivalry that’s developed between us and Souths now and the last few games have been tit-for-tat – win one, lose one. They got us in the Qualifying Final last year and then we obviously got them in the Grand Final and they’re always entertaining games. I think there’ll only be a few points in it.”

EASTWOOD 23 (Penalty try, Ben Batger tries; Ben Batger 2 cons, 2 pens, Tom Hill pen) defeated WARRINGAH 10 (Josh Holmes try; Hamish Angus con, pen)