Eastern’s dream continues

By Marc McGowan
EASTERN Suburbs’ dream start to the inaugural Pillar Cup competition continued on Saturday when it overcame the Melbourne Barbarians 33-12 at Romanis Reserve.
The clash was originally scheduled for Friday night at Bob Jane Stadium, but the rain that plagued sports grounds across Melbourne last week forced a change in venue and time.
It was another successful outing for Endeavour Hills’ Eastern Suburbs representatives. The four local players who made their debut in round one for Eastern the previous week – Lewis Leamoana, Tim Finau, Tapu Ioane and David Muliaga – all backed up again, while Presley Naea and 18-year-old D.J. Stephenson played for the first time.
Leamoana proved to be an unstoppable presence and his two tries gave him three in two matches for Eastern as he establishes himself as one of his team’s biggest keys to success.
Ioane pocketed his first score at Pillar Cup level on the weekend and will be looking to reproduce his offensive prowess from Premier One standard on a regular basis.
Eastern managed a 12-5 lead by the main break, but the real fireworks came in the second half.
After a relatively tight opening after half-time, Eastern’s speed and fitness finally wore down the Barbarians as the team rattled off try after try to blow out the margin.
The win gives Eastern a perfect record through two matches following its 15-10 triumph over the Kingston Redbacks. Eastern coach Stephen Tia was suitably impressed once again with his squad’s output.
“The score flatters us a little bit because it wasn’t until late in the second half that we basically overran them,” he said.
“It’s promising for us coaches, but we’ll take it one game at a time, although we are really excited with the way our young fellas are playing.
“The positive is that we kept on running right until the end and to have two out of two … I’m very happy with that.”
Eastern’s pursuit of a hat-trick of victories takes it to Holmesglen Reserve at 7.30pm tomorrow (Friday) night, where it faces the Northwest University Lions, who have racked up a win and a loss.