Endeavour Hills on slippery slope

By Stuart Teather
ENDEAVOUR Hills scraped a win in the penultimate round of the Victorian Rugby Union’s second division competition, overcoming middle-of-the-table Monash University 18-13 on the road on Saturday.
The Hills claimed the win but were far from impressive, giving cause from concern just one week out from finals.
The side headed into the game after an average week on the training track with a number of players missing, and was less than full strength on game day.
The likes of Junior Salesulu, Jeremy Nelson and fullback Keelan Poi were all absent, with Nelson and Poi set to miss the rest of the season because of army duties.
But perhaps the most worrying sign for coach Jeff Lemalu was his side’s sluggish start to the game, a problem that has plagued the outfit all year.
“We had a very slow start and we‘ve been talking the last half of the year about it,” he said. “This team, if we start early, it gives us a good platform for the rest of the game.
“I think we didn’t do that and you can see that from the scoreline.”
The A team heads into the final clash of the regular season against Powerhouse this Saturday desperate to get some momentum for its finals campaign, with a semi-final match-up against Maroondah awaiting the week after.Maroondah has had Endeavour Hills’ measure recently, knocking the side off 17-0 the last time the sides met, two rounds ago.
Meanwhile the B team forfeited again, the fourth time this year the side has missed a game.
Lemalu was disheartened by the effort of the players.“It’s kind of disappointing but what can you do, you can’t force them to play rugby,” he said.