McKibbin backs young guns to avenge Wests’ defeat
Brendan McKibbin has backed his young Eastern Suburbs team-mates to avenge the club’s one-point loss to the Pirates in this weekend’s return fixture.
The 27-year-old HSBC Waratahs halfback wasn’t involved in the team’s 22-23 defeat back in mid-May and will make his first start for his club in this weekend’s Round 15 clash with West Harbour, the Shute Shield’s ABC TV match of the round.
After playing 50 mins against Sydney University at the end of last month, then coming off bench for the final 20 minutes of last week’s 22-26 loss to Manly, McKibbin believes stellar performances from some of the club’s talented youngsters can lift the side to victory and keep them in the race for a finals place.
“Ryan Hodson kept us in the game last week with the amount of turnovers he won,” said McKibbin of the impressive 23-year-old flanker’s efforts in last week’s tussle with fourth-placed Manly. “It’s his first year at club and he’s proven a fantastic addition to the squad. Likewise, fullback Will Fay is only 21 and stepped up from Colts this season, he has really impressed for his attacking ability and physical presence in the close contests.”
Although just one table position separates sixth-placed Easts from fifth-placed Wests, the Pirates’ two additional wins give them a comfortable 10-point buffer and leave them virtually assured of finals qualification.
By contrast, just four points separate Easts from eighth-placed Norths, who currently occupy the last remaining finals position. And with just four matches remaining before the top eight progress to the final series, McKibbin knows a loss could spell danger.
“We were really disappointed last year not to make finals,” admitted McKibbin. “With the current group we’ve got, we feel we can match most of the sides above us – we’ve shown that by beating Uni and Eastwood. With four rounds to go, it would be nice to win this one and get bit momentum going into the finals.”
As the only side in the top eight with a negative points difference, West Harbour’s defence ranks amongst the leakiest but their prowess with the ball in hand has made them the only team in the competition, other than leaders Eastwood, to have earned 10 four-try bonus points in 15 rounds.
“We know Wests are pretty strong, they beat us earlier in the season,” said McKibbin. “We need to come out attacking and, especially on our turnovers, we need to be alert as they have some strong ball carriers, like Alofa Alofa, and plenty of finishers who can score tries from broken play. Ball retention will be really important for us on Saturday.” The match will be shown live on ABC TV from 3pm.
Elsewhere, wins for the Warringah Rats, who host fourth-placed Manly, and the Two Blues who travel to first-placed Eastwood in a game that will be shown online thanks to Club Rugby TV (clubrugbytv.com.au) from 7pm on Saturday, will be crucial in both teams’ quests for a finals place this season.
Completing the round, second-bottom side Gordon hosts third-placed Souths, Penrith will look for its first win when it welcomes Randwick and second-placed Sydney Uni travels to mid-table Norths.
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.
Shute Shield Round 15 matches – Saturday July 27
Gordon v Southern Districts @ Chatswood Oval 3pm
Gordon: 1 Tobias Gukibau (C), 2 Ronald Hobden, 3 Salesi Maumalanga, 4 Roni Scarano, 5 Andrew Chapman, 6 Jack Dempsey, 7 Gordon Broome, 8 Luke Rissman, 9 Terry Preston, 10 Henry Carmichael, 11 Nick Walker, 12 Tom Matthews, 13 Lucas Simkin, 14 Mathew Mcdougal, 15 Will Shirvington.
Southern Districts: 1 Duncan Chubb, 2 Steve Fualau (C), 3 Tim Metcher, 4 Sitaleki Timani, 5 Kane Douglas, 6 Lopeti Timani, 7 Jono Hayes, 8 Jed Holloway, 9 Dewet Roos, 10 Rohan Saifoloi, 11 Alex Gibbon, 12 Rob Horne, 13 Apo Latunipulu, 14 Oleni Ngungutau, 15. Ben Volavola.
Referee: Ian Smith
Penrith v Randwick @Nepean Rugby Park 3pm
Penrith: 1 Sione Matangi, 2 Kerren Straker (C), 3 Nigel Vaifale, 4 Iosua Tonga, 5 Sione Pusiaki Fifita, 6 Willie Tooala, 7 Leo Burgess, 8 Pita Tupou, 9 Solomona Silipa, 10 Simeona Moelasi, 11 John Maumau, 12 Paueli Halafihi, 13 Wilson Silipa, 14 Keori Okati, 15 Kampo Sione.
Randwick: 1 Faitotoa Asa, 2 Nio Halangahu, 3 Tristan Goodbody, 4 Geoff Ingram, 5 William Munro, 6 Seilala Lam (C), 7 Tom Connor, 8 Nathan Paila, 9 Harrison Boileau, 10 Cayden Matehaere, 11 Ethan Ford, 12 David Horwitz, 13 Terrence Hepetema, 14 Timothy Wright, 15 Rennie Lautolo.
Referee: Richard Goswell
Northern Suburbs v Sydney University @North Sydney Oval 3pm
Northern Suburbs: 1 Nick Lah (C), 2 Will Weeks, 3 Cruze Ah-Nau, 4 Ben Matwijow, 5 Chris Thomson, 6 Michael Wells, 7 AJ Gilbert, 8 Pat Sio, 9 Michael Dowsett, 10 Scott Daruda, 11 Peter Schuster, 12 Chris Tuatara-Morrison, 13 Bill Meakes, 14 Cameron Crawford, 15 Liam Windon.
Sydney University: 1 Jeremy Tilse, 2 Tolu Latu, 3 Sam Talakai, 4 Liam Winton, 5 William Skelton, 6 David Dennis, 7 David Hickey, 8 Tim Davidson (C), 9 Nick Phipps, 10 Bernard Foley, 11 Greg Jeloudev, 12 Tom Carter, 13 Tom English, 14 Peter Betham, 15 Tom Kingston.
Referee: Kane McBride
Warringah v Manly @Pittwater Rugby Park 3pm
Warringah: 1 Richard Southan, 2 Luke Holmes (C), 3 Wayne Borsak, 4 Vincent Wright, 5 Ben Adams, 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.
Manly: 1 Eddie Aholelei, 2 Dave Porecki, 3 Tim Fairbrother, 4 Ed Gower (C), 5 Cadeyrn Neville, 6 Jordy Reid, 7 Kotoni Ale, 8 Daniel Alley, 9 Matt Lucas, 10 Marshall Milroy, 11 Jacob Woodhouse, 12 Brian Sefanaia, 13 Malietoa Hingano, 14 Richard Hooper, 15 Adam D’Arcy.
Referee: Angus Gardner
Eastwood v Parramatta @ T G Millner Field 3pm
Eastwood: 1 Jed Gillespie, 2 Todd Pearce, 3 Marty Plokstys, 4 Jared Barry, 5 Andrew Clyne, 6 Hugh Perrett (C), 7 Hugh Roach, 8 Locky McCaffrey, 9 Mick Snowden, 10 Jimmy Hilgendorf, 11 Nick Batger, 12 Michael McDougall, 13 Cam Mitchell, 14 Tom Hill, 15 Ben Batger.
Parramatta: 1 Nick Blacklock, 2 Myles Hunkin, 3 Luke Troy, 4 Charlie Leaeno, 5 Adam Coleman, 6 Josh Kaifa, 7 Rodney Ma’a, 8 Andrew Cox (C), 9 Kaleb Rech, 10 Tom Woods, 11 Damien Fakafanua, 12 Tukia Muli, 13 Iese Leota, 14 Lani Tiatia, 15 Moses Tavola.
Referee: Andrew Lees
Eastern Suburbs v West Harbour @ Woollahra Oval 3.10pm
Eastern Suburbs: 1 Sione Kolo, 2 Alex Walker, 3 John Ulugia, 4 Richard Stanford, 5 Phil Mathers, 6 Pauli Taumoepeau (C), 7 Ryan Hodson, 8 Andrew Shaw, 9 Brendan McKibbin, 10 Henry Hudson, 11 Damon Anderson, 12 Apakukki Ma’afu, 13 Mark Murray, 14 Anton Lavin, 15 Will Fay.
West Harbour: 1 Leon Latu, 2 Reg De Jager (C), 3 David Lolohea, 4 Alfred Pinomi, 5 Chris Simons, 6 Aisea Namoa, 7 Cohen Masson, 8 Vaka Manu 9 David Osofua, 10 Jack Debreczeni, 11 Tito Mua, 12 Henry Seavula, 13 Rory Sidey, 14 Macquire Tatola, 15 Alofa Alofa.
Referee: James Leckie
