Five Try Beasts See Off Penrith To Stay In the Hunt

Round 11 Match Report: By Paul Cook

Eastern Suburbs have cemented their top three position on the Shute Shield ladder by overcoming a resolute Penrith side 31-20 at Nepean Rugby Park. Trailing 10-7 at the break and 13-12 just before the hour, the Beasts had the extra class of Brendan McKibbin and Matt To’omua to thank in the last quarter as they seized the initiative to wrest control of the game from their hosts.

19pts in the last 20 minutes was too much for the Emus to contain as another hugely impressive performance against one of the competition’s bigger guns unfortunately fell away in the 2nd half as To’omua’s kicking game put them on the backfoot and McKibbin’s will to win and sheer enthusiasm around the park lifted his team mates to another level.

Having scared the living daylights out of table toppers Eastwood two weeks ago, Penrith came into the match knowing that they had a game plan to unsettle any team and set about carrying on where they left off at TG Millner, hurling their giant frames at the Easts line and rumbling forward with fine handling and eager ball runners.

Although tied at 7-7 after the first quarter, the Emus held the upper hand. Captain Peter Nuimata adding another try to his impressive front rowers tally while the Beasts Anton LaVin added to his burgeoning reputation with his sixth try of the season.

On a heavy, slippery pitch, the mighty Emu pack managed to keep their footing well enough to consistently pressure the Easts line while also making them gun shy in attack with a succession of ringing hits that had their opposition runners paying more attention to the incoming man rather than the ball.

With half an hour gone and no further breakthrough to show for their dominant platform, Nuimata pointed at the posts at the next opportunity and Tawhiri Walsh’s successful penalty proved to be the difference at the break. With a forceful wind behind their backs in the 2nd half, the visitors were certainly staring down the barrel and despite having done their homework, head coach Lachie Fear admitted that preparation and reality are two very different things:

“They are very aggressive and it’s just very, very hard to stop that drive from their big boys. We defended pretty well, particularly when we got on our line but it was three or four punches and they’re over and you just go – ‘Wow’. We’ve been able to stop that all year but you can’t, they’re just physically more dominant than most.”

One of the keys to the Beasts eventual win was their strike immediately after half-time. Barely a minute from the kick-off, an attack earned them a penalty and with Penrith still arguing the decision, some quick thinking by McKibbin sent a long pass wide to hooker Sam Zlatevski who ran into the corner with not an Emu in sight.

It didn’t end the game as a contest – the Emus actually retook the lead soon afterwards – but it was a visible body blow for the home side in both it’s timing and manner. Head coach Matt Briggs admitted it was a costly blow to bear:

“It was a kick in the guts. You come out from essentially a calm yet very poignant half-time chat as a group with very clear intentions and all of a sudden, you’re on the backfoot. Then you’ve got to calm down and go again, rebuild and it sort of just took the wind out of our sails and I think we were a bit shocked.”

McKibbin’s missed conversion meant that a penalty 10 minutes later from Walsh pushed Penrith back in front at 13-12 but it was to be their last foray into enemy territory for a while as Easts stepped up the ante and McKibbin and To’omua truly came to the party.

Just before the hour, the Waratahs scrum-half ran directly at the line on a kamikaze mission, bouncing, spinning and doggedly forcing himself past three huge hits before being caught with a high shot. But while everyone waited for him to call for the kicking tee, he tapped and went himself, barraging past two more behemoths before offloading NFL style over the remaining Penrith heads to the alert Ed Stubbs who found the corner.

It was a classic example of last years Ken Catchpole Medal winner chancing his arm and coming up trumps and he agreed that it was a statement of intent:

“Momentum’s a funny thing and whether it comes from a good run or a big tackle, you certainly want to feed off it and I felt it was time to try and do something and took it upon myself to have a bit of a run. I got knocked about a bit and copped a few big hits but it was good that the boys fed off it and rallied towards the end.”

With Penrith suddenly looking unsure of themselves, Easts went in for the kill. With the Emus reluctant to kick, they were forced into running the ball back from deep as To’omua’s place kicks constantly turned them around. Repeated rumbles forward from their own half took their toll and aggressive defence from the Beasts enabled them to disrupt ball and stem any fluidity before it started.

Their fortunes took another setback when influential skipper Nuimata went off injured in the 67th minute and Easts struck again. Great work by Jordan Brown and Tala Gray sucked in the defence and when McKibbin switched the point of attack to To’omua, LaVin had enough time and space to ignore the obvious overlap and grab his second.

When a rampaging Pauliasi Taumoepeau crashed over after more good work from Brown in the 72nd minute, the nightmare 2nd half for the Emus was complete although a consolation on the bell from Winney Paulo left a fairer reflection of the overall game on the scoreboard.

Eastern Suburbs 31 (Anton Lavin 2, Ed Stubbs, Sam Zlatevski, Pauliasi Taumoepeau tries; Brendan McKibbin 3 cons) d Penrith 20 (Peter Nuimata, Winney Paulo tries; Tawhiri Walsh 2 cons, 2 pens) at Nepean Rugby Park. HT: Penrith 10-7. Referee: Steve Hardy

Final Thoughts…

Eastern Suburbs scrum-half Brendan McKibbin:

“You give Penrith a sniff at the start and their big boys just come in wave after wave after wave. We had a low tackle focus and we were going a little bit too high and trying to rip the ball out of their hands and they just kept making easy metres. We turned that around in the 2nd half and concentrated on that low tackle focus and I think it paid off.

“We kicked a lot better in the 2nd half and at good times and that put pressure on them. They had a focus on running it today and when we kicked well, we got a good kick chase line and made our tackles which really pressured them and got us over the line with a couple of late tries.”

Penrith head coach Matt Briggs:

“I don’t think the week off did us any favours at all. I think we were building nicely and the game against Eastwood probably typified that but after a week off, we probably took a step or two back. They’re disappointed, they’re quite gutted to be up 10-7 with the breeze behind us but we were just poor tactically and missed too many tackles.

“Full credit to Easts, they were very good in the 2nd half, they played smarter, upped the tempo a little bit and we didn’t react and that cost us today. I know if we’d held the ball and played with the tempo we can play with, we’d have been a major threat today.”

Eastern Suburbs head coach Lachie Fear:

“That was a really great victory by our boys. Penrith had their tails up but we won the game through our defence bashing their big guys and that was impressive. I don’t think Penrith will face that much this year and that’s the first time we’ve actually done that ourselves and we had to today to win, that’s for sure.

“I don’t think there’ll be many other teams that will come out here and win to be honest. If that’s the team that they pump out and they play like that then the rest of the competition that have to play them here are in for a massive battle. That’s an impressive Penrith team and I’ll be surprised if, at the very least, they don’t win more than they lose at home at from now on.”