ONLINE VERSION 6 ROUND 8 - 2014 Rugby Lui Siale powers away NEWS against West Harbour Photo: JYASP ROUND EIGHT M A N LY V GORDON * MATCH PREVIEWS * TEAM SHEETS * LADDER * POINT SCORERS LISTS PHOTO GALLERY Matt Carraro runs onto an Andrew Kellaway pass for Randwick - Photo: Ric McLallen Norths’ Matt White takes a hit against Manly Photo: NSWRU Harry Jones in full flight for Warringah Photo: Karen Watson Uni’s Chris Ingate tries to round Gordon’s Tom Matthews Photo: AJF Photography Parramatta’s Taqele Naiyaravoro runs riot Photo: Debbie O’Connor ROUND 8 MATCH PREVIEWS by Brendan Bradford PARRAMATTA V RANDWICK weekend but admitted the switch from league will take some adjusting. Both sides are coming off losses last weekend “My first hit-up I almost stood up to play the ball, with the Two Blues fading in the second half and but then I felt all the boys hitting the ruck,” he going down 35-24 to Eastwood while a slow start laughed. and some interesting refereeing decisions saw the Galloping Greens lose 30-22 to Southern Districts. “I’m still getting used to the positional play and technique but the boys were really helpful.” Parramatta coach Gerrard Fasavalu said it’s the little things that are still letting his team down. Fasavalu said the former Wests Tigers player had a huge impact but believes he needs more game “There’s always things to work on really, but time before reaching Super Rugby level. from the weekend it was key decisions and poor options,” he said. “He went OK for his first game in a couple of years,” he said. “He scored two tries and did a few good things but there are still things to do in certain aspects of the game and that comes with more game-time. We moved him to 12 to get him active and get the pill in his hands as much as possible but no doubt the more he plays, the better he’ll get.” Randwick coach Wade Kelly wishes he’d get that learning experience against another side. “My mate Cheik could do us a favour and take him away for the Tahs, but I don’t think he’ll do that, he’ll take Matt Carraro instead,” he joked. Eastwood’s Ben Batger keeps Parra guessing Photo:Pat Dunne “Kuki (Ma’afu) will have a testing day at the office against the big bloke.” “We weren’t looking at space or seeing what Kelly will field a different side for the third week was in front of us, we were playing to the in a row with David Horwitz (Australian U-20s), blueprint and weren’t clinical enough. Eastwood, Matt Carraro (Waratahs) and Dan Falefa (Tonga) the good team that they are, looked at how we were all unavailable. Toa Asa is back in the front-row, attacking, nullified it and got the better of us.” Jesse Harris joins Josh Eden-Whitari in the second row while Ethan Ford will play his first game of Fasavalu was pleased that the team managed to senior rugby at flyhalf. Eli Bailey starts at 13, put a good score on a top placed side, but wasn’t Nathan Roye on the wing and Liam Windon at content with just competing for a loss. fullback. “Pretty pleased with that but tries win you games Kelly was left nearly speechless after the side lost while defence wins you championships and that’s last weekend without a bonus point. what we need to work on,” he said. “We were down 18-0 then we were up 22-18 and “Attacking comes naturally to us with the they scored to make it 23-22,” said Kelly. players we’ve got but it’s squeezing teams out and making sure they’re not scoring more than us that “We were having a good go at the end but some we need to improve.” of the most bizarre refereeing decisions you’ll ever see went against us and they scored to deny With a bumper crowd expected for ‘Back to Parra us a bonus point. But even some of the decisions Day’ and the ABC Crew in attendance, Parramatta that went for us were ridiculous.” will once again unleash the ‘Wrecking Ball’, Taqele Naiyaravoro, who scored a double on debut last Randwick have lost four games by seven points or less with Kelly saying crucial refereeing us,” said Barr. “There are a few adjustments we decisions went against them in each game but need to make but having that same routine with there are things his side still needs to work on the same players certainly makes it easier. West against Parramatta. Harbour were all over Warringah for most of the “Parramatta are unpredictable, but they’re game last week and they look really structured playing a bit more conservative this year exit- with Dave Harvey, so I think they’ll be keen to ing their own half and trying to play it down the make amends for last weekend.” other end, but they could try anything, especially The result the Pirates will be making amends for with the TV game,” he said. is an action-packed 34-32 loss to Warringah at “We just need to worry about our performance, Concord Oval. The close score tells only half the especially with the changes for the weekend.” story. West Harbour had the game in the bag at 32-15 with under ten minutes to play but the Rats conjured a miracle three try finale to steal the *STOP PRESS* game at the death. Taqele Naiyaravoro was selected for the Waratahs bench on Thursday evening “For 70 odd minutes we were the dominant side but we’re just moving on from it and trying to improve week after week,” said coach Matt SOUTHERN DISTRICTS V WEST HARBOUR Briggs who said the Pirates’ focus will be solely on themselves this weekend. The Rebels rolled on to their fourth win on the “We’re going to be super disciplined, we’re trot last weekend with a tense 30-22 victory over going to hold the ball and control our side of Randwick at Coogee Oval. The result lifted them things because we know what we can do when we to fifth place on the table while West Harbour, hold the ball. Souths have hit their straps, they’ve with two wins are eighth. got a dominant forward pack and a solid scrum so it’ll be a very tough challenge down there.” Briggs has named the same side that was listed last week with Tito Mua starting on the wing, Joel Brooks at fullback and Henry Seavula at inside centre. MANLY V GORDON After the high of winning the Northern Beaches derby, Manly had an off day last Sunday but were West Harbour captain Tom Games lines up a Rat still good enough to defeat Norths 26-5 at North Photo:Karen Watson Sydney Oval. “On the back of a big defensive effort in the first “The most pleasing thing was that we didn’t play half we got the win,” said Rebels coach Matt Barr. our best but still came away with the points,” said coach Phil Blake. “The last couple of weeks we’ve had a big focus on defence and that’s been going really well for “Our defence was also pleasing and we’ll be us. We still allowed them to score a few tries so speaking about that on Saturday. On the back of there’s still things to work on.” that I’m hoping we have a lot better ball control.” Rohan Saifoloi has been steering them around On the wrong side of an 80-20 first half possession well while taking on the line a bit more in Ben stat, the Marlins’ defence was spot on in keeping Volavola’s absence and Barr will be able to name the Shoremen out until the last couple of minutes. the same side for the second week in a row. “We gave away too many penalties and didn’t “The combinations and way we want to play has respect the ball, so if we didn’t have the application been quite settled, so that’s been really good for in defence it could’ve been a bit ugly,” said Blake. “We couldn’t get ourselves from around halfway them. Every little line break you grab should be down to their end, but when we did, we took produced into points which is what Manly did advantage of our opportunities which was very well.” pleasing.” The solution will be found away from the pitch as Blake will wait on the availability of Greg Peterson much as it is on it. (neck) while Brian Sefanaia is being given time for “It’s accountability for being tougher on yourself a minor rib injury to heal. Impressive winger Dane when you make an error,” said Fava. Chisolm gets another start while Alex Northam is back from injury on the other wing. “You make one error or even two and think that it’s fine, but everyone if in the team is doing For the first time this season, Gordon came that it gets out of control. At the moment we’re away from a match without sustaining any new sitting third on the error count. That’s not a good injuries. The understrength Highlanders kept a stat and the boys need to start getting tougher on Super Rugby laden Uni side at bay for most of the themselves.” first half before the pressure of defending took its toll and they fell to a 46-7 loss.