Eastern holds off Barbarian rush

By Marc McGowan
ON FIRST inspection, Eastern Suburbs’ 59-27 win over the Melbourne Barbarians seems emphatic, but the local outfit was challenged at Sparks Reserve, Box Hill, on Saturday.
Eastern, which is easily the highest-scoring team in the Rugby Union Victoria Pillar Cup, made an amazing start to rattle off the fixture’s opening four tries and blow out to a 23-0 lead.
It all came too easy for Eastern, however, and a lack of discipline led to a yellow card for one of its players and a 10-minute spell in the sin bin.
Almost instantly after he returned, another Eastern player was sent off for another 10 minutes and suddenly all the momentum was with the Barbarians.
The bottom-ranked side, which picked up its first victory last round against ladder leader Westgate Power, took advantage of the 14-player Eastern line-up to whittle the margin back to one point with a five-try-to-one burst.
But once Eastern returned to its full complement of players, it turned on the afterburners and careered away to its third consecutive triumph.
Red-hot Lewis Leaumoana ran in another two tries to take his season tally to nine, while Michael Thompson and Michael Breen also managed two apiece, with the latter drilling seven goals.
Most importantly for Eastern, it blooded five youngsters, with Robbie Lavery and Adam Lewis from Box Hill and Endeavour Hills teenager Eru Apa the best of the debutants.
Eastern coach Stephen Tia was delighted to move into second spot on the ladder and his relaxed nature was on show again when asked about his squad’s premiership hopes.
“We’re a one-in-six chance,” he quipped, in reference to the six-team competition before stating: “Obviously, everybody is looking over their shoulder now and it will be hard to play other teams because everyone is out to put us in our place.”
Eastern will look to rack up its fourth success in a row when it faces Harlequin Souths at Riviera Park, Seaford, on Saturday at 3.15pm.