by Paul Cook – (see match highlights here)

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THE WARM-UP:

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Home advantage against a team they beat 34-3 at Coogee Oval earlier in the season, appeared to put the Marlins in pole position to confirm a second successive Minor Premiership with victory. But Randwick’s win over Premiers Eastwood the week before, meant the table-toppers were mindful of a vastly improved visiting side, high on confidence and keen to make their own impression on the pointy end of the season, particularly with the fact that a Manly win would ensure a repeat fixture at the Village Green in week one of the finals.

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THE BREAKDOWN:

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It was a fired-up Randwick that struck first, ill discipline from the hosts piggy-backing their opponents up the park before prop Tristan Goodbody powered over from in close. A Reece Hodge penalty got the Marlins on the board a few minutes later but as they regrouped to take control of possession, they were forced to work hard to find an opening against a defensive line that had earned its spurs and then some against Eastwood seven days previously.

However, the Wicks’ impressive scramble defence and lightning line speed were let down in the second quarter by some unnecessary errors. A charge-down from a clearing kick and a soft one-on-one effort gifted a brace to the impressive Hodge, before his dynamic centre partner, Dennis Pili-Gaitau, got in on the act, punishing some more below average tackling to jink home in front of a jubilant Manly hill.

By half-time, it was only Hodge’s unusually errant boot – passing up all three conversions – that kept Randwick in touch at 18-7, but another well executed attack saw Richard Hooper strike a decisive blow seven minutes into the second stanza. When Mitch Daniel ran in a fifth on the hour to make it 33-7, all that remained of interest was how each team would approach the remaining quarter in the knowledge they would have to do it all again in seven days time.

As it was, Manly coach Damien Cummins emptied his bench pretty early, a move which may or may not have helped the Galloping Greens show a bit more of their usual selves in the last 15 minutes. Tries from Mitch Short and replacement Chris Taripo put some respectability on the scoreboard, reminded the Marlins that they are still a team to take very seriously this weekend, and gave themselves a much needed shot of confidence in the arm in the process.

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THE WASH-UP:

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For coach Cummins, the game was won in one key area.

“We beat them at the breakdown, and that was a real focus for us because we haven’t been great in that area in recent weeks,” he told Rugby News. “In the game against the Rats our breakdown work was very costly and even against Gordon last week, we didn’t have much detail there so, we spent a bit of time on it during the week. We looked at the vision from the Gordon game on Monday night and then got stuck into each other on Tuesday night and had a really good session and it set the platform for today.”

Despite the ill-disciplined start, he was pretty content with what he saw from his troops across the park.

“We gave away three penalties in the first three minutes, and it doesn’t matter what time in the game it happens, if you piggy-back the opposition down to your try-line, they’re going to potentially score points. But I don’t think we gave away another penalty until the 39th or 40th minute, which was really good so our discipline after that was excellent.

“To be honest, I thought it was a pretty polished effort. The last 15 minutes were a little bit disappointing again, we made a few changes, which is always tough, but overall, I thought we played pretty well.”

“The first two penalties were my fault,” conceded loose forward Harry Bergelin. “I was a bit too eager at the breakdown and if we give away penalties back-to-back, that generally leads to points for the opposition and it did for them. They started strong but then, once we found our rhythm, I thought we got on top.

“We went through a phase in the second half where we lost a lot of possession, which is something that we did against Warringah and also Gordon,” he continued. “We were struggling to build consecutive phases but I think for the first time since that loss to Warringah, we held onto the ball for longer, which I think is an important factor for us.”

He was also happy to sing the praises of inside centre, Reece Hodge, who, not only bagged two tries, but also played a pivotal role in nullifying arguably Randwick’s greatest attacking threat, gun fullback, Andrew Kellaway.

“I think Hodgey did really well covering Kellaway. He made a few half breaks but Hodgey cut him down a couple of times and stopped his momentum. Obviously, they’ve got a few threats so you’ve just got to do what you can and get up in their faces and restrict their time with the ball as much as you can.”

Reece Hodge was in great form for the Marlins – Photo: Adam MacDonald

It was an approach that clearly paid dividends, Kellaway and fellow excitement machines David Horwitz and Andrew Deegan, kept largely to the peripheries of the action by a stout rearguard offensive from the home side. As a result, a game that had started with a bang for the visitors with that early try, didn’t exactly fade into a whimper but did illustrate a gap between the two teams that will need some bridging over the next few days if Randwick are to come away on the right side of the ledger this Saturday.

“We don’t hide behind the fact that we weren’t good enough today,” said head coach Shannon Fraser. “There were certainly no tricks or no set-up in the knowledge that we most likely would be back here next week – we just weren’t good enough. We underperformed in a couple of key areas that Manly exposed us in and there are certainly going to be things that we’ll have to address this week.

“There were some fundamental defensive mishaps and I don’t think it was an issue of effort or attitude, it was a technical problem, and we need to address that, no doubt. As a result of those errors, the scoreboard ticks over a bit and it does change your mindset and you start to change the way you play – you don’t play catch up football – but you change your approach to the situations you face after that.

“We’re blessed in a way because often, when you come off the field disappointed in your performance you think to yourself ‘I wish I had another crack at that’. Well, we’re in the situation now where we get that opportunity. We’ve got some learning to do and the guys are still confident, which is a positive.”

Given the disparity in the scoreline between the two sides back in round 8, Fraser was able to content himself with the visible signs of progress he’s witnessed from his young squad since. But how they come through this week will be perhaps their biggest challenge.

“There’s definitely been some improvements since that game and that’s been one of our mandates of the year, to get better every week,” he said. “With a young and inexperienced squad, inconsistency goes with the territory, it’s a bit of a balancing act between enthusiasm and inconsistency, but we are improving every week. That doesn’t mean that we’re going to get the result every week but the group is improving in the on-field areas, the technical areas and also, in relation to how we manage ourselves with wins.

“The old cliché is that you learn more from a loss than a win and we’re already well on our way – and that started straight after the game – to making those learnings a reality. The guys are already talking about the little fixes, putting things right that happened out there today and that to me is the measure of where we’ve come from and where we’re at, at the moment. We’ve got guys that want to fix things and want to improve and we’ve got seven days to turn it around.”

The Randwick line thwarts another Marlins attack – Photo: Ric McLallen

But while Fraser was talking of improvement and the fine tuning of Randwick’s game plan and execution as they prepare for a second bite at the Manly cherry, his opposite number was expecting to face a potentially different team next time out. If the game of tactical chess was about to begin, Cummins was happy to manoeuvre his pawns into position early.

“I reckon they’ll play a completely different way next Saturday, probably more like the way they did against Eastwood,” he offered. “I know that was different conditions, it was quite wet and it probably wasn’t conducive to running footy but they kicked a fair bit and backed their defence and I think they bashed Eastwood a little bit on the day.

“They asked a few questions of us today, they threw a lot at us but I thought we defended really well. Whether they try and do that again or whether they do try another approach to the game – more kicking or a balance of attacking in the high percentage zones and kicking in other areas – we’ll have to wait and see.

“They’ll probably look at their breakdown and I’m sure they’ll contest a lot harder there next weekend. They might even take two opensides into the game and try to win the battle there but then their lineout suffers so – who knows?”

“Manly are going to improve as well, we’re not going to get the same performance from them next week and we can’t be that naïve,” countered Fraser. “But from our perspective, the areas that we can control are the things we’ll be concentrating on this week.

“There was no magic potion in that last few minutes when we scored a couple of tries, we just started to back ourselves a little bit. We started to get our composure back, we started to make more calculated decisions and in that tiring part of the game we stuck together a little bit.

“We need to be able to play for 80 minutes so it was a positive that we finished the game in the way that we certainly want to start next week. We know that if we put anything less than our best on the field – and we had some glimpses of it today – that we’ll be licking our wounds again.”

Mitch Daniel strides away for try no.5 – Photo: Adam MacDonald

While Manly will quite rightly go into the semi-final as favourites, this is the time of year that has proven to be their undoing in recent years, and Randwick’s biggest asset may just be the pressure on their opponents of falling short in the finals once again, a burden that hangs around the Marlins’ necks like kryptonite.

Having finished as Minor Premiers last year and earned the reward of two home finals on the way to a potential Grand Final that that achievement brings, they went out in the final four, yet again, at the hands of Eastwood. The question is, what is this Marlins outfit going to do differently in order to succeed where their predecessors failed?

“I think we’re all a bit calmer this year,” said Harry Bergelin. “Last year it was all a bit intense and that’s been taken away a bit by ‘Turtle’ (Cummins). At the end of the day, it’s just footy, obviously, you want to win but if you’re too stressed out about it, you’re not going to perform at your best.

“Your nerves build up a bit more on game day the closer you get to finals, the stakes are obviously higher, but we definitely love playing at Manly. Randwick haven’t beaten us there for a while – haven’t beaten us in general for a while – so, they’re going to come out firing, their lives are on the line and we’ll take all the support we can get.”

“It wasn’t so much a plan of attack, more a case of don’t change anything dramatically because that’s what we did last year and it really affected the players,” reveals Cummins.

“We still want to have banter with the boys about how they are and how everything is going and not show any outward signs of stress or get uptight about anything with them. We’re off to our annual ball tonight and we’ll celebrate the season and winning the Minor Premiership but then it’s back to training on Monday and business as usual. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

MANLY 36 (Reece Hodge 2, Dennis Pili-Gaitau, Richard Hooper, Mitch Daniel tries; Sam Lane con, Reece Hodge 2 pens, Shaun Treweek pen) RANDWICK 17 (Tristan Goodbody, Mitch Short, Chris Taripo tries, Andrew Deegan con)