The resplendent golf surrounds of Eastern Suburbs' home ground at Woollahra Oval can have an adverse effect on visiting teams, by giving the impression it will be anything but a confrontational arena of battle. Although their side find themselves in the unlikely position of being near the bottom of the ladder, they have the ability to put on a rugby clinic if given the opportunity, and our objective is to ensure it doesn't come at our expense.

The all-too-familiar slow start came back to haunt us as we were virtually resigned to being spectators to a rampant opening onslaught by our hosts. They registered 28 unanswered points before we got on the score sheet in what can only be described as a poor 30 minute spell of rugby on our part. Our inability to control possession and make tackles once again proved our undoing. They've become such a staple of our play that it's becoming an unwelcome burden to our make-up that we need to eliminate immediately. Our only solace in the half came via a try to impressive fullback, Tomu Mataika, off a gem of a pass from ever-present number 8, Matt White, which sent him on an unimpeded 70 metre run to the try line. Second five-eighth, Tawhiri Walsh's subsequent conversion made it 7 - 28 nearing half time.

For the first time this season we took a backward step on our development pathway yesterday. We lost a game that not only were we capable of winning, but compounded it by letting slip a hard earned lead late in the game by inviting Easts into a position to score a try. Had we used our wind advantage and backed our defence to deny Easts try scoring opportunities from inside their own half with a sense of desperation then the result may have gone another direction.

There are any number of excuses that could be trotted out to hide behind and deflect from the poor performance against Easts yesterday, but the real reasons lay in our insistence on negatively engaging with the referee, not executing the structures that have brought us recent success, a lack of mental determination, lack of physicality and an ineffective defensive display.

So here we were again facing another tough match against Easts who were sitting 2nd on the table. We went into the game with this coach harping on about not letting our standards slip after last week's great effort against Eastwood.

We started the game with real intent and were dominating at each breakdown despite the opposition's attempts to pick and drive. The boys again were really hitting hard in defence and the efforts again of Seaton Kenna and Hayden John were really catching the eye. We had a few chances and then a backline move on halftime saw the ball in the hands of Ofa Siale as he again beat several defenders to score to take the lead 5-0. The awesome work at breakdown time of Jake "son of a gun' Richardson and the hard hitting of Chris Tolson saw many turnovers.

Okey dokey. Eastern Suburbs came out to play us at Merrylands RSL Club Rugby Park. The training sessions leading up to this game have been less than effective with people in crucial positions not showing up through injuries.  As a club we are starting off and have not reached a level yet where we put making sure we don't let down our team mates above personal self preservation. There are definitely good signs throughout the grades to prove this is changing and people are starting to believe. But it is really hard to put old heads on young shoulders and that is something that we are suffering from in 2nd grade Colts.  Until you let your individual thoughts and intentions go and start thinking and believing in the group effort, which is the team, we won't achieve our potential. As a coach I have to look at the overview of what is best for our team as a whole and what sort of play and game plans gets the best out of every individual FOR THE BETTERMENT OF THE TEAM.
 

Some photos from today's Colts' matches against Eastern Suburbs can be found here.

Some photos from today's Grade matches against Eastern Suburbs can be found here.

Name: Myles Hunkin

Favourite Movie: The Notebook

Team supported or Played for as a kid: Manu Samoa

First Position played in Rugby and Position now: Hooker

Pre-Game Ritual: Shower, music

Hardest Thing About Playing Rugby Union: Sunday recovery

Favourite Rugby Ground: Apia Park

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