Unbeaten Eastwood Put Marlins to the Sword

Round 15 Match Report: By Paul Cook

Eastwood have served notice to the rest of the competition that they’re not about to take their foot off the pedal in the quest for this season’s Minor Premiership, downing their nearest rivals on the ladder Manly, 39-24 at an excited TG Millner Field. Pierre Hola was a standout, kicking 24pts for the Woodies as they extended their unbeaten record to fifteen games.

A tight 1st half battle for control rested with the boots of Hola and counterpart Willie Ripia, leaving the home side with only a 4pt gap at the break but some scintillating attacking play after half-time, coupled with defensive lapses and ill discipline from the Marlins, conspired to put Eastwood out to a 27pt lead on the hour. Manly rallied with two late tries but the damage had already been done.

In what you would expect from a top two battle, the opening exchanges were fiercely contested with both sides trying to assert their dominance. Manly had most of the ball but were facing an impenetrable Eastwood defence that wasn’t offering up much in terms of progress.

What little was on offer, both captains took with both Hola and Ripia slotting over twice for a 6-6 stalemate before the home side struck the first blow after quarter of an hour. A line out on the 22 was spread wide by Hola and onto Tim Bennetts who put John Grant over for his 10th try of the season although Manly winger Lui Siale will be disappointed not to have done better with his one on one tackle.

Hola converted but a third penalty for Ripia 3 minutes later left a 4pt ball game and no tangible dominance on the scoreboard for either side. Manly were still pressing and stretching the Woodies rearguard but captain Hugh Perrett felt they were always one step ahead:

“They’re a very big and intimidating side and they take it to teams in the front row with their pick and go’s but they’re tending to play a little bit more laterally at the moment. We were aware of that, held our width in defence and we’ve got some good players who can read and drift and jockey so that what appears to be an overlap can be shut down pretty quickly and we got a few turnovers because they were thin through their attack.”

The Manly cause was not helped by a significant injury to winger Chris Yarrington who remained prostrate at the bottom of an attacking ruck and was taken to hospital with a suspected broken leg. However, when concerted pressure on the half hour saw Eastwood second row Tom Alexander go to the bin, Ripia slotted the penalty and the Marlins appeared to have a foothold at 13-12 down.

However, they failed to take advantage of their advantage and further indiscretion at the breakdown saw Hola dissect the posts once more and the teams go into the break with Eastwood up 16-12.

With hooker Elvis Taione failing to reappear for the 2nd half due to a suspected dislocated elbow, Manly’s task became that much harder. They needed to strike first and not let Eastwood settle but the league leaders were in no mood to be trifled with and unleashed 18mins of brilliance – admittedly helped by a porous Marlins defence – that took the game away from the visitors and laid down the gauntlet to any would-be challengers. This is what you’re going to have to beat.

Bennetts was the instigator, marauding down the right flank in the 42nd minute, bouncing off tackles and finding Barry Fa’amuasili in support. The big prop had three tacklers in close attention but was allowed to somehow spin out of their grasp and hotfoot it to the line much to the delight of his team mates.

The Woodies were on a roll now, starting to find holes and preying on indecision in the Manly ranks. Too many passes went astray for the Marlins to alleviate the pressure and their resistance was broken by their own poor discipline.

Hola slotted over penalties in the 50th, 54th and 56th minutes to effectively consign Manly to what would have been a slow death, only accelerated by Eastwood’s third try just before the hour. A messy breakdown saw Manly ball skew out of their possession into the arms of Sione Piukala who popped it up for Bennetts to race clear and outpace a chasing Ed Gower to the line.

The metronomic Hola converted and at 39-12 with 20 minutes remaining, the chances of the Marlins being on the end of a shellacking looked highly likely. However, if Eastwood were guilty of anything on the day, it was taking their foot off the pedal, a luxury they won’t be afforded in finals football.

While a joy to watch for the TG Millner faithful, a selection of reverse passes, flick passes and even an overhead kick from John Grant merely acted as a red rag to Manly’s bull but it was only from the jaws of potential disaster that they roused themselves to life.

Another dazzling exhibition of handling skills from the home side almost saw them over for the bonus point try but a turnover executed 5 metres from their own line saw Andrew Smith instigate a break that went the length of the field, through the hands of Ripia and was eventually finished off by the pace of Siale, despite the attentions of Grant.

Buoyed by their success, they began to chance their arm and with 6 minutes remaining, they struck again when a great break by Ripia led to an exchange of passes with Ben Seymour and an inside ball to Smith who ran a great line to the posts.

Ripia’s conversion made it 39-24 and Eastwood took the hint with skipper Hugh Perrett instructing his playmakers to keep the ball down the other end of the field and see out the game. In truth and despite Manly’s late flurry, this game had been over for quite some time.

Eastwood 39 (John Grant, Barry Fa’amuasili, Tim Bennetts tries; Pierre Hola 3 cons, 6 pens) d Manly 24 (Lui Siale, Andrew Smith tries; Willie Ripia 1 cons, 4 pens) at TG Millner Field. Referee: Stuart Dickinson

Final Thoughts…

 

Eastwood captain Hugh Perrett:

“It wasn’t a perfect defensive effort but we still defended really strongly. We’ve got trust in each other in what we can do defensively which I guess has been the key in stopping teams from scoring a lot of tries against us in the last couple of weeks.

“We’re still working on our attack and we’ve got some great players that are individually doing things on their own but as a team, I think we can still come together a bit more and provide those players with opportunities.”

Manly head coach Tim Lane:

“They were very good, we actually thought we could take them on out wide but when we did get wide, we were going too lateral. I think you can get them wide but it’s pretty hard to get through the middle of them, that’s where they’re strong but anyway, that gives us food for thought for the next time we meet them. Hopefully, that’ll be the last game of the year so we’ll wait and see.

“I’d say that with their defence like that, they’re going to be hard to beat, they’re a good solid team. Uni will get better with all their players coming back but Eastwood are out in front with everyone else chasing.”

Eastwood head coach John Manenti:

“There were a lot of good performances today, Tim Bennetts was really good and put in perhaps the best game he’s had all year and Sam Wykes and Kieran Longbottom contributed, which is not easy to do when you come in to a team that’s traveling alright.

“They asked questions of our defence and it was good in a way because it was a totally different defensive effort than against Uni where they just kept trying to bash us around the fringes. This was side to side and to be able to go forwards in this competition, you need to be able to play different teams in different ways.

“Anyone who tells you losing is good for you is dreaming. At some stage, we’ll lose one [game] and we might lose two or three but it’s not in the plan to lose any and if you win each week then next week is the only game that matters.”

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