Hills’ rugby rout

By Stuart Teather
ENDEAVOUR Hills’ A-team atoned for its shock loss to Geelong two weekends ago, belting Eltham 46-0 on Saturday in round-four Victorian Rugby Union action.
It was a revitalised side that took to the field for the Eltham game, after coach Jeff Lemalu put his charges through a punishing week on the training track.
The Hills got the game off to a good start by scoring in the second minute of the match and the side never looked back.
With Eltham boasting a bigger forward pack, the Hills relied on its back-rowers to do the damage in the clash and the plan worked to perfection.
“We kind of changed our plan a little bit to get the ball to our backline because it had more speed than Eltham and that’s where we scored a lot of our tries,” Lemalu said.
The coach praised his side’s turnaround after the Geelong match.
“It was a bit of a good change from last week; it was a good comeback from the boys.”
Lemalu said number-eight Lata Matai, who earned promotion from the B-side two weeks ago, starred in the clash and inside-centre Jeremy Nelson also attracted the coach’s praise.
A big feature of the Hills’ game this year has been its outstanding defence and even when the team lost, it still only conceded 18 points.
Lemalu said defence had been a priority for his team.
“We worked a lot over the pre-season on our defence and that worked out well for us last week,” he said.
“We cut down on a lot of mistakes when we didn’t have the ball.”
But the side’s biggest test will come this Saturday when it takes on the undefeated Maroondah at home.
Maroondah has had four crushing wins this season and sits firmly on top of the ladder and is coming off a 78-0 thrashing of Melbourne University.
The clash has added interest because late last year the two clubs almost merged in an ultimately futile effort to play in the top-flight Premier One competition in 2009.
In other results, Endeavour Hills’ B team took on Powerhouse on Saturday, but lost 22-0.
This week the side heads to Geelong for another tough clash.