Endeavour Hills’ A team suffered a shock loss to Maroondah on Saturday. 34290 By Stuart Teather
ENDEAVOUR Hills suffered a shock 17-0 loss to third-placed Maroondah on Saturday in its round 15 Victorian Rugby Union second-division clash at Maroondah.
The Hills have been one of the form teams of the competition and were strong favourites against Maroondah, having won 29-10 last time the two sides met.
But the side disappointed on Saturday, playing poorly and making regular mistakes that were punished by the home team.
The Hills’ forward pack stood strong against their opponents, but the less experienced back row proved the liability, turning the ball over regularly.
Hills coach Jeff Lemalu said he was at a loss to explain the defeat.
“To this day, I still can’t figure out what happened,” he said. “Maroondah scored three times because of our mistakes.We just had a very bad day in the office, (but) credit to Maroondah, they played very well.”
Looking for positives out of the clash, Lemalu said he was glad the poor performance came now, instead of in finals.
“The plus about this game is that we lost at a good time because we’ve got to play Maroondah again in three weeks, it was a bit of a kick up the arse for the boys.”
Meanwhile the Hills’ B team forfeited its match with Melbourne University, as one of the players had a wedding.
As a result the Bs received a 28-0 loss, conceding a chance to catch up to fifth-placed Melton on the ladder.
This week the two Endeavour Hills teams face each other in a local derby, though with a number of players injured the last time the two teams met, Lemalu hinted that the game might be more of a training run.
