Eastwood and Sydney University have underlined their positions as the dominant club rugby forces in Sydney, with both sides sweeping the board this weekend to reach the Grand Finals in all four grades.
The clubs’ fourth grades will open the action on next Saturday’s Grand Finals day at Concord Oval at 9.05am, with third then second grade following, before the Shute Shield Grand Final kicks off at 3.10pm.
Shute Shield Finals Week 3 Review by Brittany Mitchell photos by Seiser Photography
Eastwood v Manly
After seeing last year’s premiers the Students book their place in another Shute Shield Grand Final, Eastwood today went on to join them, posting a dominant 55-24 victory over Manly in the second preliminary final. The Woodies were just too good for the Marlins, running in eight tries to three at TG Millner Field.
Both sides brought intensity to the opening 10 minutes, with the crowd enjoying plenty of hard tackles and a great physical contest at every breakdown.
After building up pressure, the Woodies were rewarded with a penalty in front, which Ben Batger easily converted to earn the first points of the game. A Manly mistake at the lineout soon after gifted Eastwood possession and a quick counter-attack resulted in Ben Batger crossing in the corner to extend his side’s lead to 10-0.
Moments later, Eastwood captain Hugh Perrett handed out more misery when he pounced on a loose ball at the back of a ruck near the Manly line and found a gap to run over and stretch the lead to 15-0.
There was more one-way traffic to come after when the home side quickly returned to the Marlins’ 22 and Ben Batger crossed for his second after some scrappy play, promptly converting to take the score to 22-0 after just 20 minutes.
The Marlins got on the board soon after with a Marshall Milroy penalty. Moments later, they added to their tally with a Luke Jones try after the Melbourne Rebels No. 8 pushed his way over following tireless work from the pack, bringing the scores to 22-10.
A try from Hugh Roach restored the Woodies’ lead, as they went into the sheds leading 29-10.
Only minutes after the restart, Manly looked to have bagged a certain try until Woodies winger Tom Hill snatched the intercept and ran 80 metres for the score. With Eastwood going a man down when flanker Hugh Roach was shown a yellow card for repeated infringements at the ruck, Manly worked their way into the attacking zone and created an overlap that saw No. 8 Luke Jones make a break and set up wing Jacob Woodhouse to dive over and bring the score to 36-17.
Another intercept try, this time from Locky McCaffrey, put the home side further ahead before intercept number three, scored by James Stannard, took the lead to 48-17 with less than 20 minutes left to play.
The Woodies passed the half century when Jimmy Hilgendorf crashed over to extend the scoreline to 55-17. With only minutes left in the match, Marlin Jacob Woodhouse found the line for his second but the match ended with a comfortable 55-24 win for the Woods.
Eastwood 55 (Ben Batger 2, Jimmy Hilgendorf, Tom Hill, Locky McCaffrey, Hugh Perrett, Hugh Roach, James Stannard tries; Ben Batger 5cons, pen; Pierre Hola con) d Manly 24 (Luke Jones, Jacob Woodhouse 2 tries; Marshall Milroy 3 cons, pen)
Sydney University v Southern Districts
Sydney University yesterday booked the first spot in the 2013 Shute Shield Grand Final with the Students running in seven tries to three to record a 47-19 victory over Southern Districts.
Said Students’ flanker David Hickey, “Souths have a big physical pack, we thought they’d come out all guns blazing in the first 20 and we figured if we could hold them or go at them just as hard, we could open them up at the back end of each of the halves.”
The Students knew they would have to wait until the following day to find out who they will face, with Eastwood taking on Manly in the second preliminary final at TG Millner 24 hours later.
“They’re both very good teams,” added Hickey. “Manly almost knocked us off in the first semi and Eastwood are the best team in the comp at the moment. It’s a big ask next week, but it’s grand final footy so we’re looking forward to it.”
Although Souths were first to get on the board with a try from Rohan Saifoloi, they were unable to keep the momentum going and Sydney Uni hit back with four tries from Waratahs-bound halfback Nick Phipps, winger Tom Kingston, centre Tom English and prop Paddy Ryan all before the half-time bell to make the score 26-5 at the break.
Ready to fight for their place in a second successive Grand Final, the Rebels came out hard and soon crossed through wing Alex Gibbon on the 50-minute mark.
But tries to replacement winger Peter Betham, Dave Dennis and a second from Tom Kingston pushed the lead to 47-12. Although Rohan Saifoloi managed a second in the last 10 minutes, it was too little too late and the Students sailed through with a convincing 47 to 19 win.
Said a disappointed Souths’ halfback Dewet Roos afterwards, “It’s always tough coming to play Sydney Uni at Uni, they’re pretty much a Super 15 side and they were just perfect in their attack in defence. At the end of the day, we were just outclassed.
“If we’d minimised our mistakes and made our one up tackles we would have definitely been a better chance.”
Sydney University 47 (Peter Betham, Dave Dennis, Tom English, Tom Kingston 2, Nick Phipps, Paddy Ryan tries; Bernard Foley 5 cons, Nick Phipps con) d Southern Districts 19 (Alex Gibbon, Rohan Saifoloi 2 tries; Rohan Saifoloi con)
