Eastern Suburbs coach Mark Bakewell has urged his team to focus on the performance not the result as they take on competition leaders Eastwood on Saturday.
The Woodies haven’t lost a match since doing down to Easts 25-28 at T.G Millner when the teams last met in Round 8. And with Easts eager to repeat that success in this weekend’s ABC TV match of the round, Bakewell today drove home the message. “Process will win you the game; the result is just what you get at the end. Our focus is on playing good rugby, the rest will come.”
But after last week’s five-point defeat to Parramatta, an “unbelievably unlucky” game that saw them lose six of their starting backs in the first half, eighth-placed Eastern Suburbs will have their work cut out.
“Eastwood are a well drilled outfit, a solid team with no rock-stars. They don’t make mistakes,” admitted Bakewell. “With every mistake, they will hurt us. We can’t individually problem solve, it’s how we move as a team that will decide if we beat these guys. If we re-establish our style of play, we will have a shot at the match the fans will be happy and so will we.”
With centres Mark Murray and Apakukki Ma’afu now on the casualty list, Bakewell will field a new midfield pair, with the highly experienced wing Anton Levin moving to outside centre and last week’s third grade wing James Field making his first grade debut. Flyhalf Will Fay moves to fullback in place of the injured James Devlin and Henry Hudson takes over at 10.
By contrast Eastwood make just two changes, both in the pack, with prop Dylan Brass taking over from Jed Gillespie and Locky McCaffrey back in at No. 8. They will travel to Woollahra full of confidence as they look to the likes of experienced forwards Jared Barry and Hugh Perrett to tighten their grip on the competition.
In other Round 17 matches, the seventh-placed Galloping Greens travel to third-placed Southern Districts, second-placed Sydney University hosts Gordon, ninth-placed Warringah travels to tenth-placed Parramatta, fifth-placed West Harbour travels further west to bottom of the table Penrith and sixth-placed Norths host fourth-placed Manly at North Sydney Oval.
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 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.
Words by Nathan Roye
Shute Shield Round 17 Matches – Saturday August 10
Warringah v Parramatta @ Pittwater Rugby Park (3pm)
Warringah: 1 Richard Southan, 2 Rob Kelly 3 Wayne Borsak, 4 Vincent Wright, 5 Ben Adams, 6 Mark Porpiglia, 7 Boyd Killingworth, 8 Sam Ward, 9 Joshua Holmes, 10 David Harvey, 11 Brad Dixon, 12 Hamish Angus, 13 Michael Adams, 14 Edward Doyle, 15 David Feltscheer (c).
Parramatta: 1 Nick Blacklock, 2 Myles Hunkin, 3 Lui Sakaria, 4 Charlie Leaeno, 5 Adam Coleman, 6 Josh Kaifa, 7 Daniel Tamone, 8 Andrew Cox (c), 9 Kaleb Rech, 10 Tom Woods, 11 Damien Fakafanua, 12 Tukia Muli, 13 Lese Leota, 14 Lani Tiatia, 15 Moses Tavola.
Referee: Ian Smith
Penrith v West Harbour @ Nepean Rugby Park (3pm)
Penrith: 1 Sione Matangi, 2 Ethan Robinson-Mate, 3 Nigel Vaifale, 4Willie Tooala, 5 Sione Pusiaki Fifita, 6 Vai Sosiate, 7 Leo Burgess, 8 Pita Tupou, 9 Solomona Silipa (c), 10 Simione Moelasi, 11 Lance Pritchard, 12 Paueli Halafihi, 13 Wilson Silipa, 14 Keori Okati, 15 Kampo Sione.
West Harbour: 1 Leon Latu, 2 Murray Scoles 3 Adam Nixon, 4 Alfred Pinomi, 5 Chris Simons, 6 Tom Games (c), 7 Cohen Masson, 8 Aisea Namoa 9 David Osofua, 10 Jack Debreczeni, 11 Tito Mua, 12 Winston Wilson, 13 Nua Alone, 14 Macquire Tatola, 15 Shaun Treweek.
Referee: Andrew Lees
Northern Suburbs v Manly @ North Sydney Oval (3pm)
Northern Suburbs: 1 Nick Lah (c), 2 Will Weeks, 3 Cruze Ah-Nau, 4 Ben Matwijow, 5 Michael O’Hea, 6 Michael Wells, 7 Will Miller, 8 AJ Gilbert, 9 Michael Dowsett, 10 Scott Daruda, 11 Jac Cameron, 12 Chris Tuatara-Morrison, 13 Bill Meakes, 14 Elih Baillie, 15 Liam Windon.
Manly: 1 Eddie Aholelei, 2 Dave Porecki, 3 Tim Fairbrother, 4 Ed Gower (c), 5 Cadeyrn Neville, 6 Dylan Sigg, 7 Jordy Reid, 8 Daniel Alley, 9 Fabian Natoli, 10 Marshall Milroy, 11 Jacob Woodhouse, 12 Brian Sefanaia, 13 Malietoa Hingano, 14 Richard Hooper, 15 Adam D’Arcy.
Referee: Matt O’Brien
Southern Districts v Randwick @ Forshaw Rugby Park (3pm)
Southern Districts: 1 Duncan Chubb, 2 Steve Fualau (c), 3 Tim Metcher, 4 Sitaleki Timani, 5 Dan Faleafa, 6 Luke Smart , 7 Jono Hayes, 8 Lopeti Timani, 9 Dewet Roos, 10 Rohan Saifoloi, 11Faleula Finau, 12 Apo Latunipulu, 13 Paul Asquith, 14 Ben Connoly 15 Oleni Ngungutau
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 Marc Koteczky, 11 Ethan Ford, 12 Pete Samu, 13 Timothy Wright, 14 Charlie Wakim 15 Rennie Lautolo.
Referee: Angus Gardner
Sydney University v Gordon @ Sydney University Oval 1 (3pm)
Sydney University: 1 Alasdair King, 2 James Willan, 3 Laurie Weeks, 4 Sam Jeffries, 5 Byron Hodge, 6 Tom Boidin (c), 7 Trent Dyer, 8 Hugo Dessens, 9 Jake Gordon, 10 Stefano Hunt, 11 Greg Jeloudev, 12 Tom Carter, 13 Tom English, 14 Lachlan Mitchell, 15 Tom Kingston.
Gordon: 1 Tobias Gukibau (c), 2 Ronald Hobden, 3 Villie Maumalanga, 4 Roni Scarano, 5 Lex Fairly, 6 Andrew Turner, 7 Gordon Broome, 8 Luke Rissman, 9 Mitch Hyde, 10 Henry Carmichael, 11 Thomas Couland, 12 Tom Matthews, 13 Lucas Simkin, 14 Mathew Mcdougal, 15 Mitch Walton.
Referee: William Houston
Eastern Suburbs v Eastwood @ Woollahra Oval (3pm) ABC TV Game
Eastern Suburbs: 1 Sione Kolo, 2 Alex Walker, 3 Rob McMicken, 4 Richard Stanford, 5 Phil Mathers, 6 Pauli Taumoepeau (c), 7 Ryan Hodson, 8 Andrew Shaw, 9 Luke Irwin, 10 Henry Hudson, 11 Damon Anderson, 12 James Field, 13 Anton Levin, 14 Charlie Clifton, 15 Will Fay.
Eastwood: 1 Marty Plokstys, 2 Todd Pearce, 3 Dylan Brass, 4 Jared Barry, 5 Andrew Clyne, 6 Hugh Perrett (c), 7 Hugh Roach, 8 Locky McCaffrey, 9 James Stannard, 10 Jimmy Hilgendorf, 11 Nick Batger, 12 Pierre Hola, 13 Cam Mitchell, 14 Tom Hill, 15 Ben Batger.
Referee: James Leckie
