by Paul Cook –

*********************************************
Randwick 32 (Lachie Anderson, Harry Boileau, Jack Pennington, Mark Baldwin tries; Andrew Deegan 2 cons, 2 pens, Chris Taripo con) defeated Eastwood 24 (Cohen Masson 2, Ben James, George Kent tries; Brad Curtis 2 cons)
*********************************************

An unbeaten Randwick side faced their biggest test of the season so far against the reigning Premiers last Saturday but they faced an Eastwood side in transition and shorn of many of last season’s victorious grand final squad. But the Wicks were in no mood for sympathy, putting together an opening half of vim, vigour and precision to lead 22-0 at the break. The Woodies regrouped in the second stanza and fought back to get within 8pts and pick up a four-try bonus point. But it was too little, too late to upset the Galloping Greens early-season charge. (read the full match report here) Rugby News got the post-match reaction from the sheds…

Randwick head coach Shannon Fraser:

“We had a key point to get up in their faces, with and without the ball, and I thought we did that really well early on. As the game went on, momentum shifted a little bit and we did that a bit less. We started to pre-empt some of the things we were doing without actually working hard to get them done and we lost some ascendancy and control as a result. But we’re pretty happy with how we started. It’s exactly what we wanted to do, we wanted to confront Eastwood and beat them physically, beat them to the gain line and apply enough pressure to get some reward, and we did.

“The message at half-time was a positive one to reinforce what we had been doing. There was also a bit of a warning shot there that we didn’t want to fade, and that was a bit unavoidable with the amount of changes we had to make in the second half, some forced through injury, some tactical. We lost our 9, our 10 and our lineout caller so there was some significant movement and it’s hard to get a sustainability and a rhythm when that happens but I thought we did really well to actually work through that. That’s another learning process for us, we haven’t had to do that and make that many changes in the second halves before that this year so we’ll be better for it. But because we’d put ourselves in a good position in the game early on, we were able to come through it unscathed.

“We spoke to the group afterwards and you saw in some of the body language of the guys walking off the field that there is a little bit of disappointment with how we finished. To concede back-to-back scores when we had held them out so well earlier on when they were a lot better, a lot fitter and a lot more robust, is disappointing, and we also opened up a bonus point for them and you don’t know how that’s going to play out later in the year. But you can’t dwell on that too much, we did enough at this early stage of the year to get the result and we just have to celebrate that success and enjoy it.”

Cohen Masson lies in wait at the back of an Eastwood maul. The openside crossed twice late on to earn his side a four-try bonus point – Photo: Serge Gonzalez

Eastwood head coach Stu Woodhouse:

“I think the first half was more about our discipline. I’ll have to have a look at the video because I thought there were some advantages there that we didn’t get but we just turned too much ball over. We knew with Randwick we really had to up our linespeed and be aggressive but we were probably a bit too enthusiastic – we had the enthusiasm but we weren’t very smart. We had to play high tempo but high tempo doesn’t mean we’re reckless and we dropped the ball a lot because we were over-enthusiastic. We had to take the game to them but losing the ball in contact or losing it because of an unforced error, you just can’t do that. But there’s a lot of young boys out there and it’s a learning experience for them.

“The second half was much better. We could have gone two ways, we could have shut up and blown out the score but we chose to fight, and don’t forget, this is not an Eastwood from last year, this is a completely different team and a different group and it’s about giving young guys opportunities to get in there and make mistakes and learn from them. The half-time talk was about getting that extra bonus point, and we got ourselves in a position to get two if those last kicks had gone over – and I’m not blaming the kicker because he kicks well – but to be that far behind and almost get two bonus points, you’d be pretty happy with that. So I’m disappointed by the result but not by the effort.

“We’re battling with very limited first grade experience at the moment and still hanging in there and we’ve had a tough opening few rounds with Uni and Randwick and an improving Easts and Norths. But we’ve got what we perceive to be a pretty favourable draw coming home and if we’re anywhere around that top six near the semis then I’m pretty confident in this group and we’ve still got a lot of boys to come back too. We knew where Randwick’s focus was two years ago, they obviously weren’t functioning well as a club in terms of results and they wanted to make changes and they’ve now got good recruitment and good coaching staff. But maybe the second round at home against them might be a different outcome for us.”

Flying High: Wicks winger Jack Pennington dives home for his third try of the season – Photo: Ric McLallen

Randwick captain Mark Baldwin:

“It’s a huge win, it was our biggest game so far this year and the pressure was on. We knew people were going to watch this game and this result, so we had to come out and perform against the reigning Premiers for the last two years. We learned a lot from the game here last year, where we beat Eastwood in the rain by fronting up physically and taking them head on. Because of that, we knew we could do it again and that definitely helped our belief going into this game.

“The ball definitely fell our way in the first half, we had a few things go our way but it was a pretty polished performance from the guys too. Five weeks of footy and building our game and having back-to-back success has helped us as a team and I think that opening half was off the back of what we’d put out in those first four games. That changed in the second half and we just managed to hold on. But it can be a bit nerve-wracking at half-time, being up by that much against the Premiers and knowing they are an 80 minute team, as they showed again today, and wondering if you can see it through.

“The defensive effort in that 15 minute spell after the break was crucial and it was really impressive. It was a bit of a marker in the sand and something we need to replicate week-in, week-out and if we can do that, we’ll be a contender. We fatigued a bit towards the end and the last 10 minutes were a bit worrying but luckily, we managed to get that converted try to keep them at bay. I was definitely smiling as I went under the posts but it was more relief to get that extra score because they were coming home strong.”