By MARK CASHMAN

Mention Randwick and Coogee Oval in the one sentence to Eastern Suburbs coach Pauli Taumoepeau in the ‘Battle of the East’ week and you can feel the tension and the anticipation coming down the line.

You see it’s been pretty slim picking for the Beasties in Taumoepeau’s time in the chair at Woollahra Oval, despite the fact that the last time these two side came together it was an absolute carve up in Easts’ favour.

That was Round 13 last year and with the finals beckoning the very next week Easts ran in a whole heap of tries in an 81-24 win at Woollahra.

A win wasn’t really the best way to describe that game, the Beasties absolutely toyed with the Wicks, a bit like a fat kid plucking the wings off a fly while eating a chocolate eclair.

But that all changes with Randwick a completely different beast at their spiritual home at Coogee.

“I reckon they just rise to the occasion there,” Taumoepeau, who has a zero and two win-loss record at Coogee as a head coach, told Rugby News.

“It hasn’t been from the lack of talent that we have run out there, but the last couple of times there I just reckon that their emotional energy has outlasted ours.

“It (emotional energy) is always there in these game at the front end but they just seem to save some of it and win those big moments, the critical ones.

“That might be at a crucial breakdown or diving on a loose ball that stops a promising attacking movement.

“We sometimes go into these sort of games with so much detail about how to play and that comes from my end but in the end we just lack that emotional energy.

“Both teams are in a similar spots having one one and lost one without really playing that well in either round but we don’t want to give them tike to think as they have too many good footy players for us to allow them that luxury.”

Randwick coach Ben McCormack’s primary message to his side will be to make the Beasties make some tackles in the middle of the field.

The Wicks were right off their game against Warringah last weekend at Rat Park and were strangely static with a lot of their attack which is generally quite crisp and vibrant.

“We just couldn’t get any sort of momentum out there,” McCormack said after the loss to the Rats.

“The flow in our game just wasn’t there. We are a side that thrives on quality first phase and the speed of our ruck ball and that just wasn’t there.

“Unless you force people to tackle you in the middle of the field you are not going to find any pay on the edges.”

Randwick had a new No.10 Ben Starkey at flyhalf and he will be better for that run against the Rats last weekend.

There was also a new 12 and 13 as well and as McCormack points out these things take some time to come together.

“Yeah it was always going to take some time to come together and that is the case particularly at this time of the season,” he said.

“Later in the year it’s probably a little bit easier but when things don’t go our way we’ve got to be able to come up with a formula or a recipe to get through games.”

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Randwick’s big off-season recruit Chris Eves couldn’t make his mark in the game at Rat Park and will be looking for a better overall game against the Beasties.

His running game will be needed to get some of that momentum that McCormack that his coach craves.

Commitments at the Waratahs have taken Jack Grant away from the Beasties this weekend but his replacement Angus Fowler continues to show good signs.

Fowler came down from Brothers in Brisbane a couple of years ago and so is not unfamiliar with his No.10 Rohan Saifoloi.

Their combination and kicking game will be critical to the flow and how this game pans but at the end off the day the big moments and that emotional energy that Taumoepeau talked about will decide bargain rights.

Randwick v Eastern Suburbs at Coogee Oval will be streamed live on Stan Sport from 3.05pm on Saturday.

IMAGE: KAREN WATSON