Manly Replies: Weight V Weight

Sydney Morning Herald

Thursday October 2, 1997

PHIL WILKINS

Manly tight-head Damien Cummins still carries the scar where a rival forward attempted to chop off his ear with his boot in a torrid club game earlier this year.

The 115kg front-rower they call "Turtle" had 15 stitches laced into the jagged wound, donned a water polo cap and headgear and played the following Saturday.

It was the same indomitable spirit which has taken Cummins and a lethal cocktail of footballers into tomorrow's grand final against Eastwood at the Sydney Football Stadium.

Cummins, 24, is from St Joseph's College, an Australian under-21 hooker in 1993 who went to tight-head the following year against Western Samoa and New Zealand Colts.

But it was not until 1991 World Cup loose-head Tony Daly joined Manly midway through this season and James McCormack ended his Australian under-21 southern hemisphere commitments that coach Tim Lane reshuffled his pack and gave Cummins the most onerous role in rugby, that of tight-head prop.

Daly made no secret of his admiration for Eastwood's scrum yesterday, declaring at the NSWRU's breakfast for the grand finalists at the SCG: "They'll go for Turtle, but he'll be all right."

Coach Lane said of Eastwood's scrum: "We can handle what they dish up and maybe give some back. We held our own last time."

Manly skipper Rob Gallacher, 28, the rangy, flint-hard breakaway with more than a century of first-grade games behind him, will have a rare assortment of players under his charge in the grand final.

Quite apart from personalities such as second-rower Duncan Gillies, a droll tree-lopper whose philosophy is to "go out and bash the opposition into submission", Manly have two Fijians and four Tongans in their XV.

Fiji is represented by inside-centre Meli Nakauta and winger Sikeli Qauqau, and Tonga by No 8 Willie Ofahengaue, second-rower Joe Sitoa and three-quarters Semi Taupeaafe and Sione Taufa.

Gallacher said: "In island matches, there is great rivalry between Tonga and Fiji, but here at the club they get on fabulously.

"Willie O mentioned that Tongans used to eat Fijians years ago. I'm not sure if he was talking in jest, but the guys here have great natures and there is only the best camaraderie."

What puzzled Manly was the way that as decisive minor premiers, winners of their last 12 games and grand finalists, they could fall from the spotlight within a month. By winning everything, it seems, the Blues were too good for their own good in a publicity sense.

"All the focus has been on Eastwood and in particular on their scrum," Gallacher said. "It was quite strange having media discussion on teams' strengths and how they could win the premiership, and not say anything about Manly.

"However, they were not prepared to bet against Manly when it came to making a tip. Over the whole ground, I think we have more experience, a few older guys, and hopefully it will count on Saturday.

"But Eastwood are a great, young side and will only get better."

Coach Lane, the unflappable ex-Wallaby from Brisbane in his first year with Manly, said of the lack of recent headlines: "That's just another bullet up our barrel.

"It doesn't matter if we are described as the greatest or the worst. We have to go out and perform.

"Obviously, the guys want it badly. It's a great opportunity for them, but in the end it's a matter of who wants it more on the day and who does things right."