Randwick Pushed To The End By Fighting Rats

Round 12 Match Report: By Paul Cook

Randwick have held off a vastly improved and fast finishing Warringah side to move up to 4th on the Shute Shield ladder and make it three wins in a row for the first time this season. Leading 15-8 at half-time, the Wicks appeared to have the game under control when they kicked away after the break to lead 29-15 with only 20 minutes remaining but the Rats fought back with two late tries to fall only 2pts short at the final whistle.

Ethan Ford completed a hat-trick of tries for the home side but two from Rats winger Dave Feltscheer in response and a gutsy performance that has been sorely missing of late, almost earned them a rare double over the Wicks, having already beaten them in Round One earlier in the year.

The Galloping Greens lived up to their name as they came roaring out of the gate from the opening whistle and two tries – Ford’s first as he finished off of a rapier like backline move and another from Henry Vanderglas, was perhaps scant reward for their early endeavour.

Toby Browne’s unusually errant boot and a predatory reply from Feltscheer conspired to keep the Rats well in touch. It was Feltscheer’s second of the season and he made it look easy, carving a run inside a prematurely advancing defensive line to dot down.

A Hamish Angus penalty made it 10-8 and having been under the pump for the first quarter, Warringah came through it relatively unscathed and started to play their way into the match, forcing Randwick onto the backfoot. A period of sustained pressure on the 5 metre line should have yielded some success but poor handling became a bit of a disease for the Rats as their hard fought field position failed to be taken advantage of through too many knock-ons and some muddled decision making.

It came back to bite them on the half hour when a kick return down the throat of the Randwick back three proved to be perhaps not the best option. Shaun Foley released Clinton Sills through the line at pace before the ball found Vanderglas on the flank and he drew the last man before putting Ford away for his second.

Browne again failed to convert and when Angus had the chance to nab 3pts back a few minutes later after some concerted Warringah pressure, it seemed the damage may have been minimal. Unfortunately for Angus, not only did he push it just wide of the uprights, he went on to repeat the miss from another penalty on the half-time siren to leave a 15-8 deficit at the break.

Both sides would have gone to the sheds feeling they’d left some points out on the park and as Randwick head coach Craig Morrison noted afterwards, the Wicks just needed to keep ball in hand, back themselves and keep it out of their 22:

“I liked the way we started, there were some pleasing things in our attack and we scored some good tries from counter attack. I don’t think we knocked off but we didn’t take ownership of those areas around the ruck after that and defensively, we’ve got some woes.”

While Sam Harris was extremely pleased with the effort being put in by the Rats, he bemoaned the error rate that was cruelling their chances of greater success:

“Across the board, our compounding of errors was bad. We had a couple of balls go behind us and on the ground and we decided to go across field and pass another one to ground or behind us again and we just marched them up the field a couple of times and they scored. We just can’t afford to do that.”

It was the home side that heeded their coaches words first, well, almost. They tried their best to run the ball but when that didn’t bear fruit, they went back to the forward power that has proven to be a successful option this year and earned themselves another penalty try to add to their 2011 collection.

Browne finally succeeded with a conversion but the Rats showed they were up for the fight when a line break from Brock McGarity, eventually led to Mark Porpiglia feeding off a short ball to cross by the posts. McGarity was handed the goalkickers baton after Angus’ profligacy and he vindicated the decision to make it a 7pt ball game.

Going toe-to-toe, the Wicks struck again in the 53rd minute with a nice piece of subterfuge. Setting themselves up for the line out, they looked for all money to be shaping for another catch and drive but instead spread the play infield at pace and a lovely pop pass put Ford – running a great angle – through for his hat-trick. A simple but terrifically executed try.

On previous form, the smart money was on Warringah fading to the finish and Randwick running away with the game but killing off an opponent has been the Galloping Greens achilles heel this year and the Rats, on this occasion, were very much in the mood to test that theory.

Just after the hour, concerted pressure from the visitors led to one infringement too many and Wicks captain Tim McGann was sent to the bin. The Rats profited immediately with a powerful scrum earning space for Jason Peseta to manoeuvre and find a diving Feltscheer who stretched for the corner, McGarity adding the extras.

With 6 minutes remaining, the Wicks had gone into their shell and Warringah struck again. A terrific counter attack started by Feltscheer found Maurice Kennedy who left Michael Dalton the task of brushing off an ineffectual tackle from Sills to leave them 29-27 behind with a kick to follow.

It was left to McGarity to decide the final outcome, a plucky draw would have been well deserved but with the odds stacked heavily against him angle wise, they had to settle for what was a gallant loss but a vastly improved performance.

Randwick 29 (Ethan Ford 3, penalty, Henry Vanderglas tries; Toby Browne 2 cons) d Warringah 27 (Dave Feltscheer 2, Mark Porpiglia, Michael Dalton tries; Brock McGarity 2 cons, Hamish Angus pen) at Coogee Oval. Referee: Justin Pritchard

Final Thoughts…

Randwick captain Tim McGann:

“Our forwards are starting to gel quite well together and our scrum’s really coming along well, we just probably need to work on our line out a little bit more. Our backs are producing some good points but at the same time, we’re dropping balls as well so we need to pick up the consistency.

“We know we’ve got a lot more to improve on across the board and we know we’ve got to work hard at that. We’re not in a bad position, we’re not exactly where we want to be but at the same time, if we can keep building, we certainly know we’ve got the potential, we just need to work at it.”

Warringah head coach Sam Harris:

“From what happened last week, that was a complete turnaround and we’ve turned a corner hopefully. It’s not worth anything if we don’t turn up next week but that was a really spirited effort and we played and had the attitude something resembling what I’d like to achieve. Our execution wasn’t what I’d like but we made up for it and we didn’t put our heads down which is good.

“We shouldn’t be down there but we’ve let ourselves down at some stages during the year and we put it together today which was good and hopefully showed that if everyone turns up for it, we’ve got half a chance. We put ourselves in a position to win today and that’s all I can ask, especially against Randwick at Coogee, who’ve been travelling really well.”

Randwick head coach Craig Morrison:

“We struggled today, we struggled for enthusiasm, to react, to think, to make good decisions and it’s got to be a mental thing when the week before you’ve had a pretty solid work out. It’s not attitude, our attitude is good, it’s how we approach the game generally after we score. We can’t put a team to the sword, we have not closed a game out this season. It’s like we want to keep the crowd on their toes, we’ve just got to shut teams out better.

“Our option taking wasn’t good, we didn’t play direct enough at times and we weren’t urgent enough. I don’t think we do the kick game naturally well, we’re far better off using the ball and we would have been better keeping the ball in hand a lot more today.”