With Super Rugby taking a break for DHL Australia 2013 Lions tour, this weekend’s Shute Shield teams will again be laden with HSBC Waratahs, with eight lining up in Sunday’s final Round 12 clash between Eastern Suburbs and Sydney University.
Vying to cement their places in the top eight, fifth-placed Eastern Suburbs will be relying on the presence of Brendan McKibbin and John Ulugia when they attempt to claim back-to-back wins over second-placed Sydney University, to add to their surprise upset over leaders Eastwood in round eight.
According to Beasties’ coach Mark Bakewell, confidence is high on the back of a five-match winning streak.
“If I said that we’re going up there to lose, I’d be telling a lie,” said Bakewell of the team’s trip to Oval No. 1.
“We don’t enter into any game to lose. If your mindset is good and your headspace is good then you’ve got a really good chance of winning the game. It’s just a patch of grass It’s just how we turn up on the day.”
The Beasties defeated the Students by just three points when the teams first met in round three, the side will be hoping to build upon this win and claim a second.
“It was interesting because I think we defended for about 75 per cent of that game and we were a little bit taken aback by the style that they play,” Bakewell admitted. “We probably took out of it that they can be a little bit more unpredictable than they have been in the past.
“We can always expect Uni to be strong up front and provide a good platform irrespective of the style they play. They’ve always got very, very good players on board, it doesn’t really matter who they field it’s going to be a good competition.”
Seven successive wins have seen the Students rise to second up the Shute Shield ladder, just five points behind leaders Eastwood. With six returning HSBC Waratahs to call upon, Students’ coach Chris Malone has named a very strong side and says he too learned a lot from the two teams’ round three meeting. “We learnt that they’re not going to give up, they defended very well that day – we threw quite a lot at them.
“They’ve named quite a big forward pack with the inclusion of John Ulugia in their lineup, it’s going to be a good test for us this week.”
The theme at Oval No. 1 on Sunday is Family Day, with all four grades playing and plenty of fun activities for families and the children. The event kicks off early with fourth grade and ends with the first grade clash at 3pm.
With only six rounds left in the competition and three teams currently sitting on 35 points, every side will be fighting for a place in the top eight and a chance to play in the finals.
Elsewhere in round 12, Saturday will see Gordon will be taking on West Harbour at Concord Oval, Randwick play Eastwood (who welcome hooker Damien Fitzpatrick back to the starting lineup) in this week’s ABC TV match at Coogee Oval, Southern Districts are at home to Warringah, Manly hosts Parramatta and Penrith travels to North Sydney to take on Northern Suburbs.
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 TEXT the program with score updates from whichever game you’re at on 0467 920 222 every Saturday afternoon. Make sure your team gets a mention each week and keep Niav up to date with the latest scores from your competition.
A full fixtures list, together with weekly previews and all the results can be found at www.nswrugby.com.au. Rugby fans can also follow the Shute Shield on Facebook via www.facebook.com/shuteshield or www.facebook.com/abcshuteshield where you can catch game highlights and a preview of the upcoming ABC TV match, and on Twitter via @shuteshield or @abcshuteshield where you can send your thoughts through the week and receive live updates during selected games. You can also catch highlights of every round on the ShuteShieldTV channel on YouTube.
Words by Brittany Mitchell
Saturday June 29
West Harbour v Gordon @ Concord Oval (3pm)
West Harbour: 1 David Lolohea, 2 Reg De Jager (c), 3 Vaughan Lomax, 4 Alfred Pinomi, 5 Chris Simons, 6 Aisea Namoa, 7 Cohen Masson, 8 Matt Coles, 9 David Osofua, 10 Jack Debreczeni, 11 Tito Mua, 12 Winston Wilson, 13 Henry Seavula, 14 Macquire Tatola, 15 Shaun Treweek
Gordon: 1 Tobias Gukibau (c), 2 Ronald Hobden, 3 Salesi Maumalanga, 4 Roni Scarano, 5 Mark Johnson, 6 Mark Williams, 7 Gordon Broome, 8 Luke Rissman, 9 Terry Preston (VC), 10 Erik Moss, 11 Vesi Tokalaulevu, 12 Tom Matthews, 13 Lucas Simkin, 14 Matthew Mcdougal, 15 Mark Preston
Referee: Richard Goswell
Randwick v Eastwood @ Coogee Oval (3pm) (ABCTV GAME)
Randwick: 1 Faitotoa Asa, 2 Patrick Hodgetts, 3 Richard Aho, 4 Geoff Ingram, 5 William Munro, 6 Seilala Lam (c), 7 Tom Connor, 8 Nathan Paila, 9 Harrison Boileau, 10 David Horwitz, 11 Ethan Ford, 12 Pete Samu, 13 Terrence Hepetema, 14 Timothy Wright, 15 Rennie Lautolo
Eastwood: 1 Jed Gillespie, 2 Damien Fitzpatrick, 3 Marty Plokstys, 4 Jared Barry, 5 Mitch Lees, 6 Hugh Perrett (c), 7 Hugh Roach, 8 Locky McCaffrey, 9 Shanin Proctor, 10 Jimmy Hilgendorf, 11 Nick Batger, 12 Michael McDougall, 13 Cam Mitchell, 14 Nick Reily, 15 Ben Batger
Referee: Rohan Hoffman
Southern Districts v Warringah @ Forshaw Rugby Park (3pm)
Southern Districts: 1 Duncan Chubb, 2 Steve Fualau, 3 Tim Metcher, 4 Jake Douglas, 5 Luke Smart, 6 Lopeti Timani, 7 Jono Hayes (c), 8 Jed Holloway, 9 Grayson Hart, 10 Rohan Saifoloi, 11 Alex Gibbon, 12 Rayhan Laulala, 13 Faleula Finau, 14 Ollie Ngungutau, 15 Ben Volavola
Warringah: 1 Ben Ryan, 2 Luke Holmes (c), 3 Luke Preston, 4 Ben Adams, 5 Vincent Wright, 6 Sam Ward, 7 Mark Porpiglia, 8 Boyd Killingworth, 9 Joshua Holmes, 10 David Harvey, 11 Brad Dixon, 12 Hamish Angus, 13 Michael Adams, 14 Edward Doyle, 15 David Feltscheer
Referee: Damien Mitchelmore
Manly v Parramatta @ Manly Oval (3pm)
Manly: 1 Jimmy Gentle, 2 Dave Porecki, 3 Tim Fairbrother (c), 4 Ryan Melrose, 5 Dylan Sigg, 6 Harry Bergelin, 7 Kotoni Ale, 8 Daniel Alley, 9 Fabian Natoli, 10 Marshall Milroy, 11 Richard Hooper, 12 Peter Gilmore, 13 Malietoa Hingano, 14 Jacob Woodhouse, 15 Tom Chesters
Parramatta: 1 Nick Blacklock, 2 Myles Hunkin, 3 Mika Polota Nau, 4 Charlie Leaeno, 5 Adam Coleman, 6 Josh Kaifa, 7 Rodney Ma’a, 8 Andrew Cox (c). 9 Kaleb Rech, 10 Tom Woods, 11 Lani Tiatia, 12 Tukia Muli, 13 Damien Fakafanua, 14 Iese Leota, 15 Dan Rawaqa
Referee: Michael Hogan
Northern Suburbs v Penrith @ North Sydney Oval
Northern Suburbs: 1 Daniel Murray, 2 Will Weeks, 3 Karl Truijens, 4 Michael O’Hea, 5 Ben Matwijow, 6 Hugh Sinclair, 7 Sam Figg, 8 AJ Gilbert (c), 9 Michael Dowsett, 10 Scott Daruda, 11 Corey Brown, 12 Elih Baillie, 13 Bill Meakes, 14 Peter Schuster, 15 Liam Windon
Penrith: 1 Peter Niumata, 2 Kerren Straker, 3 Nigel Vaifale, 4 David Reopoama, 5 Iosua Tonga, 6 Leo Burgess, 7 Pita Tupou, 8 Willie Tooala, 9 Solomona Silipa, 10 Siaa`Taveuveu (c), 11 Paula Katoa, 12 Henry Lilomaiava, 13 Kampo Sione, 14 Fokolulu Taumalolo, 15 Campbell Hislop
Referee: William Houston
Sunday June 30 June
Sydney University v Eastern Suburbs @ Sydney University Oval No. 1 (3pm)
Sydney University: 1 Jeremy Tilse, 2 James Willan, 3 Paddy Ryan, 4 Will Skelton, 5 Ollie Atkins, 6 Liam Winton, 7 David Hickey, 8 Tom Boidin (c) 9 Jake Gordon, 10 Stuart Dunbar, 11 Greg Jeloudev, 12 Tom Carter, 13 Jim Stewart, 14 James Dargaville, 15 Tom Kingston
Eastern Suburbs: 1 Sione Kolo, 2 John Ulugia , 3 Rob McMickan, 4 Richard Stanford, 5 Phil Mathers, 6 Pauliasi Taumoepeau (c), 7 Ryan Hodson, 8 Andrew Shaw, 9 Brendan McKibbin, 10 Henry Hudson, 11 Elijah Niko, 12 Angus Sinclair, 13 Apakuki Ma’afu, 14 Anton Lavin, 15 Damon Anderson
Referee: James Leckie
