Hills topple in rugby clash

By Stuart Teather
ENDEAVOUR Hills’ A team was brought back to earth on Saturday, going down to Geelong 18-14 in their round-three Victorian Rugby Union clash.
The result was something of an upset, with Endeavour Hills tipped to be the form team of the division-two competition after being demoted from the top flight Premier One at the end of last year.
Geelong got off to a flying start and put down the first try as the Hills struggled to work their way into the match.
Hills’ coach Jeff Lemalu was far from pleased with his side’s first half-hour.
“We let Geelong into the game, I think our discipline was the main thing, we just gave away too many penalties,” he said.
“We didn’t really play the full 80 minutes, we only played well for about 50 minutes of the game.”
The match stayed tight for most of the day, but Geelong got back on top in the last 20 minutes and Endeavour Hills paid the price.
Lemalu said some of his charges played in both the A and B teams on Saturday, but he was not about to use it as an excuse.
“We just didn’t turn up to play,” he said.
“A lot of the team this year is from last year, some of their heads were a bit too high, they thought travelling out to Geelong was going to be an easy game.”
The coach did find some positives in the result, including the performance of skipper Presley Naea, who had his second good game in as many weeks.
In other results, the B team picked up its first win of the season with a 31-26 victory over bottom side Warrnambool.
This week, Endeavour Hills’ A team takes on Eltham at Eltham, while the B team heads to Albert Park to take on Power House, with both games starting at 3pm.
On Thursday night, Endeavour Hills will play host to the interstate clash between the Victorian and the New South Wales Country under-20 sides.