Endeavour Hills men notch up another win

By Justin Robertson
ENDEAVOUR HILLS men’s rugby team scored its ninth win for the year with a 34-24 victory against Maroondah at Frog Hollows Reserve on Saturday.
The 10-point win has sewn up second spot on the ladder, and the team is two wins behind Footscray with three games remaining.
Hills coach Archie Kennedy said his team simply switched off in the second half after working hard to build a 19-point margin.
“We took our foot off the pedal a bit in the second half, which takes the gloss off the win, but I’m happy for the boys, they really worked hard for it,” he said.
“I spent much of last night talking to the boys about maintaining control for the full game, but credit to Maroondah, they played well after half time and played smarter.”
The Hills starts are becoming more like Groundhog Day. Once again they allowed their opponents to score first, but hit back hard with 22 consecutive points of their own to break the game open by halftime (22-3).
Kennedy was full of praise for his team’s relentless running.
“We rucked and mauled well and maintained great pressure which gave our wingers a chance to create,” he said. “We just seemed to run a lot better than they did and found the gaps to score.”
In the second half the Hills defended for most of the period, as Maroondah came out a lot harder and committed. And it paid off, as they outscored the Hills 21-12.
Despite Maroondah dominating the Hills on the scoreboard in the second half, Kennedy praised his back line for a solid effort but conceded he would have wanted to see more tries.
“We just absorbed the pressure and didn’t offer any counter-attacking football at all,” he said.
“They changed the shape of the game and came at us, when your head is up, you don’t feel flat, when you are defending, it’s tiring and that’s what we did for most of the second half.
Kennedy said flanker Aaron Skipworth did a great job shutting down their running players and also praised the back half for their second half job.
The Hills have no game this week and will take on Wyndham City Saturday 7 August at home.