Shute Shield Round 6 Preview

After six weeks of competition, Round 6 of the 2013 Shute Shield features a long-awaited Northern Beaches clash that sees evenly ranked Manly Marlins taking on local rivals Warringah at Manly Oval on Saturday, in the ABC TV match of the round.

With Manly and Warringah having both won three and lost two in their last five games, the teams sit equally with 15 points on the Shute Shield ladder. As a result, it is becoming the talk of the Northern Beaches as to which team will break into the top four after Round 6.

Coming off the back of two very narrow victories, Warringah have held their composure in the last two rounds to hold on against some tough opposition. Last week the Rats made the most of the right boot of returning Western Force player Dave Harvey, who slotted a huge 50 metre drop goal in the 82^nd minute to seal a victory over Randwick.

In the forwards, young lock Michael Kovacic hopes to return to the field for the Rats after spending last week’s game watching from the bench. “Manly are one of those teams who punish you if you make a mistake,” Kovacic says.  “If we hold on to the ball and execute our patterns and starters, we can minimise the damage their turnover skills can do.”

The Marlins, however, will have a point to prove at home. Having suffered a 25-point drumming in Round 3 when they ran out against Eastwood, they will no doubt be looking to put the loss behind them by taking out Warringah amidst the rolling waves of their beachside home field.

“Manly have been neck and neck with us for the last few rounds and this is our chance to break away from them and assert Warringah’s dominance on the competition as one of the rugby power houses.

“We have worked well under pressure the last few weeks and this week won’t be any different because playing at Manly although it may be the closest it is also the hardest field to win at for us,” Kovacic adds.

The game is set to be a thrilling match up and one expected to be crawling with Northern Beaches rugby fans all eager to see their team claim dominance in a highly-anticipated local derby.  Rugby fans across NSW can watch the match live on ABC TV, kicking off at 3pm this Saturday.

Elsewhere in Round 6, Sydney University welcome back HSBC Waratahs’ flyer Tom Kingston for their match against third-placed Northern Suburbs in a Friday night game on Uni Oval 1 at 7.30pm. The weekend’s fixtures will also see Randwick playing home to Penrith at 3pm on Saturday, the undefeated Southern Districts, featuring fellow HSBC Waratah Ben Volavola, taking on Gordon at Forshaw, West Harbour hosting Eastern Suburbs at Concord and Parramatta playing second-placed Eastwood at Merrylands.

As always, the 2013 competition will be broadcast live on ABC1 throughout NSW and the ACT on Saturdays from 3pm. Interstate viewers can watch a full replay of each week’s Shute Shield game at 3.30am on Tuesday mornings on ABC1 nationally and rugby fans everywhere can catch all the action online at anytime on ABC iView.

Alternatively, rugby fans across NSW can tune in to ABC Local Radio’s new rugby show Settling the Score with Niav Owens between 2pm and 5pm every Saturday, for all of your country rugby and Shute Shield news. You can also catch highlights of every round on the ShuteShieldTV channel on YouTube.

Shute Shield Round 6 matches –

Sydney University v Northern Suburbs @ University Oval 1. (Friday May 10, 7.30pm)

Sydney University: 1 Alisdair King, 2 Tolu Latu, 3 Jeremy Tilse, 4 Sam Jeffries, 5 Liam Winton, 6 Tom Boidin, 7 David Hickey, 8 Tim Davidson (C), 9 Jock Merriman, 10 Stefano Hunt, 11 Greg Jeloudev, 12 Tom Carter, 13 Michael Hodge, 14 Tom Kingston, 15 Nathan Trist.

Northern Suburbs: 1 Nick Lah, 2 Will Weeks, 3 Karl Truijens, 4 Matt White, 5 Chris Thomson, 6 Ben Matwijow, 7 AJ Gilbert (C), 8 Pat Sio, 9 Liam Walker, 10 Scott Daruda, 11 Corey Brown, 12 Lachlan Porteous, 13 Bill Meakes, 14 Blake Murray, 15 Liam Windon.

Referee: James  Leckie

Manly v Warringah @ Manly Oval (Saturday May 11, 3pm live on ABC TV)

Manly: 1 Eddie Aholelei, 2 Pat Leofa, 3 Tim Fairbrother ©, 4 Ryan Melrose, 5 Daniel Alley, 6 Harry Bergelin, 7 Kotoni Ale, 8 Dylan Sigg, 9 Adam Crerar, 10 BJ Hartman, 11 Richard Hooper, 12 Brian Sefanaia, 13 Will Helu, 14 Damien Reti, 15 Marshall Milroy.

Warringah: 1 Ben Ryan, 2 Luke Holmes (C), 3 Wayne Borsak, 4 Ben Adams, 5 James King, 6 Sam Ward, 7 Mark Porpigilia, 8 Boyd Killingworth, 9 Joshua Holmes, 10 David Harvey, 11 Brad Dixon, 12 Michael Adams, 13 Dylan Smouha, 14 Conrad Gillingham, 15 David Feltscheer

Referee: Ian Smith

Randwick v Penrith @ Coogee Oval (3pm)

Randwick: 1 Faitotoa Asa, 2 Nio Halangahu, 3 Richard Aho, 4 Bryce Speechley, 5 Lai Vatadroka, 6 Seilala Lam (C), 7 Tom Conor, 8 Peter Samu, 9 Harrison Boileau, 10 Cayden Matehaere, 11 Timothy Wright, 12 David Horwitz, 13 Terrence Hepetema, 14 Rennie Lautolo, 15 Ethan Ford.

Penrith: 1 Peter Niumata , 2 Kerren Straker, 3 Sione Matangi, 4 Willie Tooala, 5 David Reopoama, 6 Vai Sosaite, 7 Adam Barrington, 8 Leo Burgess, 9 Goege Magalogo, 10 Siaa Taveuveu ©, 11 Paula Katoa, 12 Keori Okati, 13 Fokolulu Taumalolo, 14 Jesse Leota, 15 Wilson Silipa.

Referee: Michael Hogan

Southern Districts v Gordon @ Forshaw Rugby Park (3pm)

Southern Districts: 1 Duncan Chubb, 2 Stephen Fualau 3 Tim Metcher, 4 Andrew Leota, 5 Jed Holloway, 6 Luke Smart, 7 Jono Hayes (C), 8 Lopeti Timani, 9 Grayson Hart, 10 Rohan Saifoloi, 11 Alex Gibbon, 12 Apo Latunipulu, 13 Denny Godinet, 14 Oleni Ngungutau, 15 Ben Volavola.

Gordon: 1 Tobias Gukibau (C), 2 Jim Handlin, 3 Willy Maumalanga, 4 Mark Johnson, 5 Seb Murphy, 6 Andrew Turner, 7 Gordon Broome, 8 Jono Broome, 9 Terry Preston, 10 Mitch Walton, 11 Vesi Tokalaulevu, 12 Tom Mathews, 13 Mark Preston, 14 Richie Williams, 15 Will Shirvington.

Referee: William Houston

West Harbour v Eastern Suburbs @ Concord Oval (3pm)

West Harbour: 1 David Lolohea, 2 Reg De Jager, 3 Vaughan Lomax, 4 Alfred Pinomi, 5 Chris Simons, 6 Tom Games (C), 7 Cohen Masson, 8 Matt Coles, 9 David Osofua, 10 Jack Debreczeni, 11 Tito Mua, 12 Winston Wilson, 13 Alofa Alofa, 14 Macquaire Tatola, 15 Dylan Taikato-Simpson.

Eastern Suburbs: 1 Sione Kolo, 2 Alex Walker, 3 Rob McMicken, 4 Keliti Vaingalo 5 Richard Stanford, 6 Andrew Shaw, 7 Ryan Hodson, 8 Pauli Taumoepeau (C), 9 Luke Irwin, 10 Henry Hudson, 11 Charlie Clifton, 12 Angus Sinclair, 13 Apakuki Ma’afu, 14 Anton Lavin, 15 Will Fay.

Referee: Richard Goswell

Parramatta v Eastwood @ Merrylands RSL Rugby Park (3pm)

Parramatta: 1 Nick Blacklock, 2 Myles Hunkin, 3 Chris Seuteni, 4 Charlie Leaeno, 5 Adam Coleman, 6 Evan Olmstead, 7 Rodney Ma’a, 8 Josh Kaifa, 9 Troy Lobendahn, 10 Dan Rawaqa, 11 Damien Fakafanua, 12 Tukia Muli, 13 Dan Yakopo, 14 Moses Tavola, 15 Sosene Anesi (C).

Eastwood: 1 Jedd Gillespie, 2 Hugh Roach, 3 Marty Plotstys, 4 Steve Cummins, 5 Mitch Lees, 6 Locky McCaffrey, 7 Hugh Perrett (C), 8 Jared Barry, 9 Mick Snowden, 10 Jimmy Hilgendorf, 11 Nick Batger, 12 Michael McDougall, 13 Tom Hill, 14 Nick Reilly, 15 Ben Batger.

Referee: Edward Martin

Ladder