Endeavour Hills full-back Timothy Finau fires off a lightning quick pass under pressure in Premier One action at Frog Hollow Reserve on Saturday. By Marc McGowan
ENDEAVOUR Hills Rugby Union Club started its debut Premier One season in disappointing fashion with a 37-10 defeat to Boroondara at Frog Hollow Reserve on Saturday.
It was always going to be a tough first-up match for Endeavour Hills against last year’s A-grade premiers, but it would never have expected the lacklustre display it put in the first half.
Despite playing pre-season matches, Endeavour Hills did not look ready to go and a lack of defensive discipline allowed Boroondara to run in four tries to nil.
Emerging from the break with a 27-0 deficit, Endeavour Hills finally kicked into gear after receiving a roast from coach Mark Thompson.
He urged his side to attack at every opportunity and tighten up in defence and his players responded.
The scoreboard did not reflect the improvement in the Endeavour Hills’ performance, but will give it hope in the coming weeks.
Full-back Timothy Finau scored the first points for the home team through a penalty before second-half substitute Eddie Tonga finally delivered a well-deserved try late in the game for Endeavour Hills with a withering burst that finished in the left corner.
Finau converted the try and it was to be the final points of the match.
Thompson was impressed with the games of Matthew Paramore, Presley Naea and Seyla Khat and is hoping to sharpen up the rest of the squad at training this week.
“I’ll ask my men what they thought were the positives and negatives and I’ll see what they come up with,” he said.
“That’s exactly how I run my teams. I like to hear from them and if we are in the same ballpark, I try to come up with skills to rectify the problem for the week after.”
Thompson pointed to the success of this method on the weekend in Endeavour Hills’ improved performance in the scrums.
“Take for instance the week before (in the pre-season) where we were pushed around in the scrums,” he said.
“On Saturday, we were very good in the scrums and were pushed back only twice in the game and that came from a meeting we had last week.”
Endeavour Hills will hope to pick up its first victory of the year when it hosts Moorabbin at Frog Hollow Reserve on Saturday.
