Starting Team:

James Smith, Sam Foletefano Tom Lamont, Josh Spreag, Matt White, Alex Howard, Tim Fitzgerald, Terito Marekura, Liam Walker, Jack Freeman, Isaiah Mosese, Trent Lake, Elih Baillie, Sam Myers, Ben Borg

On a very gusty Saturday afternoon at TG Milner, Norths second grade team were playing the form team of the Colin Caird Shield Competition. The Norths team had been disrupted by injury and players needing to move up to the first grade team. Will Miller was also out due to representative requirements as he is trying out for the Australian Sevens team.

The forward pack was particularly impacted with a reshuffled front row and back row taking the field. This disruption did not show up in the early play with Norths running into the wind. Some enterprising play saw Norths spread the ball wide and beat Eastwood on the edges of the defence.

This lead to the first try of the match to left winger Isaiah Mosese after 5 minutes when the right winger Sam Myers came into the line as the extra man and gave the ball to Isaiah for an unopposed run to the line. Sam Myers was unable to convert the try but Norths were up early 5-0.

The reshuffled Norths scrum was having difficulty with the large Eastwood pack in the set plays and from a reset scrum, Eastwood worked a clever backline move to send their blindside winger in for their first try. They converted for a 7-5 lead.

Eastwood were putting pressure on the Norths defence and the referee was picking up Norths infringements at the breakdown. Eastwood capitalised on these penalties with easy metres gained with the wind and then two goals in quick succession. This took Eastwood out to 13-5 after 17 minutes.

A further disrupted scrum from Norths saw Eastwood gain possession and score down the blind side to push the score to 18-5 and then a further try at the 30th minute saw Eastwood at 23-5. Norths settled for the final 10 minutes of the half as their set pieces began to work and they stopped leaking possession in critical places on the field.

At half time the score remained at 23-5. There was a feeling if Norths could get the set pieces working in the second half, they could be competitive with the wind at their backs.

Unfortunately a messed up lineout early in the second half gave Eastwood the ball deep in Norths half and some soft defence saw Eastwood capitalise with a try to lead 28-5. Norths needed to step up their intensity against this tough team and this they did.

Eastwood felt the pressure and infringed at the breakdown. A series of penalties saw Norths deep in the Eastwood quarter. Norths took advantage of a further penalty from a lineout close to the Eastwood line taking a quick tap for hooker Sam Foletefano to go over for Norths second try. With the conversion Eastwood’s lead was cut back to 28-12.
Unfortunately Eastwood quickly hit back with a try to stretch the lead to 35-12. To their credit, Norths then put together a period of good play and this prolonged effort was rewarded with a further try being credited to openside flanker Tim Fitzgerald to bring the score to 35-17.

Eastwood scored two more tries in the final part of the game but Norths were more competitive in this stanza with some keen play by a number of the substitutes a highlight.

The final score of 49-17 was not what the boys or the coaches would have wanted going into the final series but there were extenuating circumstances on Saturday and they were up against a very good team who put up a similar margin against the competition front-runners, Sydney Uni, in the previous round.

There were some good signs in the performance and hopefully, with the addition of some returning players, the team will fire for the qualifying final next Sunday against West Harbour.

Coach’s comment: "A frustrating game as we didn’t achieve what we set out to. Forgetting that we are in the finals now and need to focus on what we need to do to progress each week".

Scorers:

I Mosese, S Foletefano, T FitzGerald tries, S Myers one conversion

Best and Fairest:

3: Jack Freeman
2: Tim Fitzgerald
1: Liam Walker