Suburbs ‘hot’

By Stuart Teather
A FEW ‘Paris Hilton’ moments were not enough to stop the Eastern Suburbs from recording their second win in a row against the Harlequin Souths in round two of the Pillar Cup on Saturday.
Eastern coach Stephen Tia said his players had a few Hiltonesque lapses of concentration that cost them on the scoreboard, but was pleased with the 32-24 win.
“They scored a couple of tries off silly little mistakes – but that’s what happens under pressure,” he said. “To their credit they fought back.
“I think the boys had a Paris Hilton moment – they just went ‘oh, whatever’.”
Taking a 19-12 lead into half-time, Eastern was in control of the game but lost it early in the second half, allowing the Souths a couple of easy tries to move ahead 24-19.
“As soon as they recognised (they were behind), they seemed to kick into gear,” Tia said.
“Junior (Salesulu) and Tim (Finau) from Endeavour Hills were again stand-outs, and our full-back Michael Thompson had an absolute blinder.
“Our number 12 Vea Mahina was a stand-out too – he and Tim combined well to keep us in the game.”
The six-tries-to-four win moves the Eastern Suburbs into top spot on the ladder as the only undefeated side.
Tia said his side was in a good position for the coming weeks.
“We’ve got a couple of state players coming back next week,” he said. “We’re actually going to start the guys that haven’t had a lot of game time, next week.
“A couple of guys we’re putting on have only played 15 games between them.”
Tia said there were noticeable improvements in the side, as the players became used to playing with each other.
“It’s starting to show that they like to play with each other – which is a huge bonus for us,” he said.
“Last week the boys were very excitable and we just did some ball work on Tuesday, then we did our lineouts on Thursday.”
Eastern takes on the winless Melbourne Barbarians this week, who had a respectable 27-13 loss to Westgate after being belted 73-10 by Kingston the week before.