Endeavour Hills star Tim Finau is now a regular starter in the powerful Eastern Suburbs line-up. 21368By Stuart Teather
EASTERN Suburbs continued on their domination of the rugby union Pillar Cup with their biggest win of the season on Saturday, smashing the Harlequin Souths 70-0.
Now with seven wins from seven games, the Suburbs are seemingly unstoppable in their quest to avenge last year’s grand final loss.
Everything went right for the side as they rampaged across the Harlequin defence, despite losing three of their starting 13 before the match, including superstar five-eighth Isaac Haimona.
Michael Breen filled in the position with ease, and was yet again among the side’s best.
He ran through four tries, Michael Thompson had four and five conversions, and Presley Naea, James Latu and Issi Kaoi had one try each.
Suburbs coach Stephen Tia said the players were shocked after the massive victory.
“We don’t know what to say, when we walked into the change rooms, all the boys were stunned,” he said.
“It was quite a sombre change room, we’re all looking at each other and going ‘what was that’ — there’s times when you ask ‘what was that’ when you play like crap, but when you play like that, there’s not too many negatives in it.”
Tia said his side reset its goals for the season before the game against Harlequin, saying the players decided their immediate aim was to secure a semi-final berth by finishing first or second.
With three games to go in the regular season, if the Suburbs win another match they will not only secure a semi-final berth, but also lock in top position.
The side’s success may now be their greatest danger, as it now faces the twin challenges of overconfidence and being targeted by the other sides.
“Sooner or later they’re going to get their backs up, and people are going to go ‘hang on a minute, this can’t be true’, and we’re looking for another tough game this week,” Tia said.
“The leadership group has to get everything grounded, and that’s the main thing, at the moment everything is going right, let’s see how good they are when things aren’t going right.”
Next week the Suburbs take on bottom side the Melbourne Barbarians, a side with just one win for the season, but looks to have found some form after its 24-17 loss to Westgate.
