You’d have needed a massive mop to even come close to wiping the smile off Eastern Suburbs outside centre Ned Yeomans after his side won its Shute Shield clash in Orange on Saturday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The Kinross Woaroi old boy was fantastic in the midfield for the Beasties in their 33-19 win over Gordon at Wade Park, a wonderful advertisement for rugby union at that level.
For Yeomans it was a chance to play in front of his parents, grandparents and friends from school for the first time since graduating in 2014.
And he couldn’t get enough of it.
“It’s so good to come out here,” Yeomans said in the Easts sheds at fulltime.
“The bus trip, the night with the boys. We love it and there’s a heap of country boys and we’re just so lucky to be able to do it.”
“It’s supporting the rugby out here and encouraging young players to play and give them something to look forward to, it’s great. I love it.”
The former schoolboy rugby ace said playing at Wade Park was like a home game for Easts, a side with two other links to Orange through Jack Grant and Archie Hall.
The red, white and blues had the bulk of the support from the 1500 strong crowd.
“We haven’t had a ground all year. Our ground has been torn up so this is our home game, we treated this like a home game. We had all of the support, and just coming here with Easts has been unreal,” he said.
Yeomans, especially, was brilliant throughout the 80 minutes, and alongside No.12 James Field forms a stellar centre pairing for Easts, a side desperate to climb up the ladder.
The 14-point win on Saturday was just the club’s second in sevens rounds in 2017.
“We needed that win. It was a desperate win for us,” the former KWS Frist XV gun said.
“We just had a good solid week at training and we knew what we had to do and we let it slip there a bit in the second half but it’s just so good to get the win.”
Even though it looked as though Gordon would complete a stunning comeback, after reducing a 21-0 deficit to just two points mid-way through the second term.
“We knew we’d pull though, we never thought we were going to go down,” Yeomans added.