Winning crucial for Gallopers finals hopes
GPS must beat Easts for the Cromwell Cup at Bottomley Park in round 14 of Premier Rugby on Saturday or risk facing an uphill battle to make the top four (kickoff 3:00pm).
A place in finals football has been narrowed down to five clubs – Brothers, Souths, Easts, GPS and the Gold Coast - with a lack of bonus points in the first half of year making the Gallopers prospects marginally less attractive.
Following their 10-3 win over University, GPS moved into fourth position ahead of the fifth placed Breakers, who sit two points further back but have played one less game.
Souths and Easts currently sit with the same win-loss ratio as GPS but their ability to collect nine and eight bonus points respectively see them positioned above the Gallopers, who have managed just four.
Losing on Saturday would give the Breakers an opportunity to reclaim their spot inside the four and could place GPS at a minimum eight points or two wins behind both Souths and Easts with six games remaining.
Making that situation worse is their for-and-against record – the deciding factor should two teams end the season with the same number of competition points - which is 58 points less than any of the other top five teams.
GPS coach Matt Pini understood the importance of the match but refused to stake it as ‘do or die’.
“If we do lose, we just have to dig in and try to win as many games as possible for the rest of the year,” Pini said.
“You never know, Easts could drop games as well. But we do know it is going to be tough. They are probably the best team we have played so far.
“All I ask is that they give 100 percent of their ability. If it isn’t good enough, you can stand up proud knowing you gave your best.
“It’s when blokes turn up and they dog it and they don’t put in 100 percent and lose, then they’ll find it difficult to sleep at night as they shirked their responsibilities.”
Easts coach Pat Richards also believed his opponents could recover from a loss with most teams in the top four still having to play each other.
“It won’t be over by any means. GPS still have to play the teams above them, so you only need to win a couple of those to get back into contention,” Richards said.
“There are also a couple of teams below that have the ability to cause an upset. That’s the worry. If you focus solely on the teams up the top, the ones at the bottom will come back to bite you.”
Boosting the Gallopers hopes is the potential return of QR Reds winger Peter Hynes with backs Bev Tuqiri (collarbone) and Sam Satui (knee) unavailable.
Pini said veteran Donovan Slade would take over goal kicking duties from Tuqiri.
“Old man Slade as we call him now has been a bit of a beacon in the backline leading the young blokes around,” Pini said.
“Donovan is also an outstanding goalkicker in his own right.”
Both teams enter the match riding a wave of momentum having won six of their last seven matches, although the Tigers enjoy a slight mental edge after a come from behind win over GPS in round three.
In that match the Gallopers led 20-19 before Reds fullback Aidan Toua involved himself in two late tries to grab victory with just minutes remaining.
Toua won’t be with Easts on Saturday after sustaining a season ending knee injury, but Pini expects former Wallaby Andrew Walker to be just as much a handful from the back.
“Can you shut him down?…he’s a quality footballer isn’t he,” Pini said.
“Given half a sniff he can create something and I’m sure he’ll do it on the weekend. We just have to try and limit his opportunities.”
Pini said the game would be won on desire from whichever team wanted it more.
“Desire has a lot to do with everything in life. It is the same with footy. If you come prepared and are willing to work for it, you will get your just reward.
“Easts are higher up the ladder and the ones scoring all the tries and getting the bonus points, while we’re struggling in those areas. If you look at it like that, you would think they are likely to win, but you never know on the day.
“It’s about who wants it more and who is willing to work harder for it.”
Richards agreed, saying that the fact neither side possessed any big names would add to the contest.
“Most of the players from both clubs have been generated through the juniors, so it always makes for a good game,” Richards said.
“We’ve obviously got players, and GPS have to, that aren’t recognised outside of clubland, but we wouldn’t swap them for others.”
Easts have made two changes from their 32-3 win over Wests last Saturday, with Tim Baumann and David Jessiman returning in the forwards.
Their inclusion is a major boost for Richards and the Tigers ahead of their horror schedule in July. During the month, Easts face the remaining four teams vying for a spot in the top four.
“If we keep improving that little bit each week, we’ll be where we want to be at the end of the season,” he said.
“Things are starting to fall into place. The attitude of the players leading up to the game and in games has been very good.”
The Cromwell Cup will be played for the second time - Easts winning the first game last year 29-7 - with the Tigers preparing a day of festivities at Bottomley Park.
