Finals hopes on line for Galloping Greens Round 18 Preview by Nathan Roye
Randwick will this Saturday take on reigning Premiers Sydney University knowing that 80 minutes of rugby will make or break their finals campaign.
Currently sitting seventh, a loss for the Galloping Greens could see them overtaken by Warringah and Northern Suburbs and rule them out of this year’s finals series. By contrast, a win would guarantee them a place in the top eight.
The match kicks off at 3pm at Coogee Oval and will be streamed online via Club Rugby TV from 7pm. With the Students’ boosted by the return of international trio Paddy Ryan, Dave Dennis and Nick Phipps, as well as NSW Waratahs’ outside backs Tom Carter, Tom Kingston and Peter Betham, the Wicks will have their work cut out.
With the stakes high, Wicks’ fullback Rennie Lautolo admitted, “It’s important that we give these guys a run for their money or that will be it for us,” but added that the team was confident after a solid preparation. “A good week of training and good execution on the day will mean that it’s any ones ball game out there.”
The teams last met in Round 9 when Randwick (featuring Kurtley Beale and Drew Mitchell) went down by 38 to 25. Although the Wicks have proved their ability to exploit defences with a damaging attacking style, the Students are clinical and boast the biggest points’ differential in the tournament and the best defensive record.
With the return of some of their key backs, boosted by their recent experience of playing against the Pumas as part of the NSW Barbarians’ Argentina tour, Randwick will be back to full strength for this crucial encounter. Fresh from his try-scoring debut in a NSW jumper, talented young playmaker David Horwitz returns at flyhalf, where he will line up alongside powerful outside centre Terrence Hepetema, also back from NSW duty.
One of those charged with taking on the formidable Uni pack is young Randwick lock Will Munro, who made his first grade debut in that Round 9 encounter.
“Sure they have some big names and the odds are against us but they all started where we are now. It’s about keeping at them the whole game and not letting them have a sniff.
“It’s do or die. We know what to expect from Uni now and everyone here knows what they have to do to get the job done.
“We have had a less than impressive last few games and have put ourselves in this position. It’s now our job to get out of it,” he finished.
Elsewhere, the race for the remaining finals places will also see eighth-placed Warringah travel to first-placed Eastwood and ninth-placed Northern Suburbs take on fifth-placed West Harbour at Concord Oval.
The final pool round of the 2013 Shute Shield competition will also see Parramatta battle it out with Penrith, Manly welcome Southern Districts in the ABC TV match of the round and Gordon play host to Eastern Suburbs.
Following the completion of this Saturday’s matches, the top eight teams will progress to the first (qualifying) round of the finals series, which takes place over the weekend of August 24-25, across four venues.
The top two-ranked winning teams will then progress straight to round three (preliminary finals), whilst the two lowest-placed losers will be eliminated. The remaining four teams will then contest the two remaining prelim finals spots when they battle it out at Coogee Oval on August 31-September 1.
The preliminary finals will take place on September 7 and 8, with the two winning teams playing in the Shute Shield Grand Final at Concord Oval on Saturday September 14.
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.
Shute Shield Round 18 Matches – Saturday August 17
Eastwood v Warringah @ T.G Millner Field (3pm)
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 Michael McDougall, 13 Cam Mitchell, 14 Tom Hill, 15 Ben Batger
Warringah: 1 Richard Southan, 2 Luke Holmes (c), 3 Wayne Borsak, 4 Ben Adams, 5 Vincent Wright, 6 Mark Porpiglia, 7 Boyd Killingworth, 8 Sam Reid, 9 Josh Holmes, 10 David Harvey, 11 Brad Dixon, 12 Hamish Angus, 13 Michael Adams, 14 Conrad Gillingham, 15 David Feltscheer
Referee: Edward Martin
Parramatta v Penrith @ Merrylands RSL Rugby Park (3pm)
Parramatta: 1 Nick Blacklock, 2 Myles Hunkin, 3 Mika Polota Nau, 4 Charlie Leaeno, 5 Adam Coleman, 6 Josh Kaifa, 7 Andrew Cox (c), 8 Matthew White, 9 Kaleb Rech, 10 Tom Woods, 11 Damien Fakafanua, 12 Tukia Muli, 13 Lese Leota, 14 Lani Tiatia, 15 Moses Tavola
Penrith: 1 Sione Matangi, 2 Ethan Robinson-Mate, 3 Nigel Vaifale, 4 Sione Pusiaki Fifita, 5 Iosua Tonga, 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
Referee: Richard Goswell
West Harbour v Northern Suburbs @ Concord Oval (3pm)
West Harbour: 1 Leon Latu, 2 Reg De Jager 3 David Lolohea, 4 Alfred Pinomi, 5 Chris Simons, 6 Tom Games (c), 7 Cohen Masson, 8 Vaka Manu 9 David Osofua, 10 Jack Debreczeni, 11 Tito Mua, 12 Rory Sidey 13 Alofa Alofa, 14 Macquire Tatola, 15 Shaun Treweek
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
Referee: James Leckie
Manly v Southern Districts @ Manly Oval (3pm)
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 Matt Lucas, 10 Marshall Milroy, 11 Jacob Woodhouse, 12 Joe Christie, 13 Brian Sefanaia, 14 Richard Hooper, 15 Adam D’Arcy
Southern Districts: 1 Duncan Chubb, 2 Steve Fualau (c), 3 Tim Metcher, 4 Sitaleki Timani, 5 Dan Faleafa, 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 Ben Connoly 15 Oleni Ngungutau
Referee: Rohan Hoffman
Randwick v Sydney University @ Coogee Oval (3pm)
Randwick: 1 Faitotoa Asa, 2 Nio Halangahu, 3 Tristan Goodbody, 4 Geoff Ingram, 5 William Munro, 6 Seilala Lam (c), 7 Tom Connor, 8 Mark Baldwin, 9 Harrison Boileau, 10 David Horwitz, 11 Ethan Ford, 12 Pete Samu, 13 Terrence Hepetema, 14 Timothy Wright, 15 Rennie Lautolo.
Sydney University: 1 Laurie Weeks, 2 Tolu Latu, 3, Paddy Ryan, 4 Tom Boidin, 5. Liam Winton, 6 Dave Dennis, 7 Trent Dyer, 8 Tim Davidson (c), 9 Nick Phipps, 10 Stefano Hunt, 11 Greg Jeloudev, 12 Tom Carter, 13 Tom English, 14 Peter Betham, 15 Tom Kingston.
Referee: Andrew Lees
Gordon v Eastern Suburbs @ Chatswood Oval (3pm)
Gordon: 1 Tobias Gukibau (c), 2 Ronald Hobden, 3 Jack Parffit, 4 Roni Scarano, 5 Matt Hopkins, 6 Jack Dempsey, 7 Gordon Broome, 8 Luke Rissman, 9 Hamish McGilvray, 10 Henry Carmichael, 11 Nick Walker, 12 Tom Matthews, 13 Lucas Simkin, 14 Brandon Quinn, 15 Tom Coupland
Eastern Suburbs: 1 Sione Kolo, 2 Alex Walker, 3 Rob McMicken, 4 Mitchell Chapman, 5 Phil Mathers, 6 Pauli Taumoepeau (c), 7 Ryan Hodson, 8 Andrew Shaw, 9 Brendan McKibbin, 10 Henry Hudson, 11 Damon Anderson, 12 James Field, 13 Anton Lavin, 14 Charlie Clifton, 15 Will Fay.
Referee: Ian Smith
