Orange products Jack Grant and Archie Hall, along with Kinross alumnus Ned Yeomans, will all make their return to the colour city when their Eastern Suburbs side hosts Gordon in Saturday’s Intrust Super Shute Shield clash at Wade Park.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Easts head coach Craig Morrison released his line up – albeit it one to 15 – on Wednesday night, confirming Orange City junior and former NSW Country colt Jack Grant will start in the No.9 jersey after returning from a dislocated knee last weekend.
He also named Yeomans, a former Australian schoolboy, at outside centre while it’s been confirmed Hall will run from the bench in the front row.
“Having Jack and Ned, and a few other guys, being able to play in their home town or the region they’re from is great and it’s one of the reasons we’re bringing this game out there,” Morrison said.
Easts went agonisingly close to knocking off the undefeated Northern Suburbs last weekend, ultimately succumbing 24-22.
“It was a positive sort of performance and we did have our chances to win it at the death but we lacked a bit of execution and ball security, we handed it to Norths in a way,” Morrison said.
“You know, if we were to go to one and six we may as well be a mile off (the pace), so it is a pretty crucial sort of game for us.”
Defence is the main focus for the Gordon side.
Led by mercurial five-eighth Patolo Toeta, the Highlanders haven’t had an issue scoring points in the opening six rounds, so much so they’ve secured four-try bonus points in five of those games.
“We’re looking to continue our good attacking form, but we do need to tighten up at the defensive end,” coach Mark Philp conceded.
“Easts have a good backline, especially their back three. They’re very good in open play, broken play and that’s something we’ve been working on defending. We need to be ready to work together, defensively we’ve certainly had some peaks and troughs.”
Philp said his entire club is pumped up to play in Orange, as a former Australian Rugby Union development officer he’s right behind the move.
“Our forwards coach Mark Debrincat used to be based in Orange, we’ve got a few from the bush as well so we’re really looking forward to it,” Philp said.
“The guys who have only played in Sydney, I think they’ll be pleasantly surprised by the passion out in the bush, I think they’ll really enjoy playing out there. I think it’s a really great initiative.”
Saturday’s Shute Shield fixture kicks off at 3pm.