RUGBY FOOTBALL

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23422, 1 September 1941, Page 8

RUGBY FOOTBALL

* CANTERBURY AND OTAGO DRAW LARGE CROWD SEES MATCH In a disappointing match Otago and Canterbury fought to a scoreless draw at Lancaster Park on Saturday afternoon. It was the second of the home-and-horne fixtures arranged between the two unions this season, and Otago was a little unlucky not to avenge the one-point defeat suffered at Dunedin. The game produced tew coherent movements, but it was fast enough’ and exciting enough to keep the large crowd of more than 7000, including many excursionists from Dunedin, on their toes. The weather was perfect, and the ground was in surprisingly good order considering the overnight rain and the soaking it received in the previous week. As in the match at Dunedin, the Canterbury forwards took the honours, but the hacks failed lamentably to make use of the many opportunities *Kainctl tor them by the large share of possession won in scrums and linc-ouls. To some extent this was attributable to the keen spoiling work of the Otago breakaways. But in concentrating on the “winging” game the Otago forwards robbed their own backs of any real chance of making the plaj, which was unfortunate because the inride men wore a more impressive set than Canterbury's. On the few occasions when the Otago forwards gave of their best in rucks and fed their backs with a quick heel, the latter showed such speed and penetration as to suggest that, given more opportunities. their efforts must have produced reeves. Unfortunately the Otago forwards did not seem to regard possession as important, and certainly they made sure that Canterbury’s share of possession was of the least possible use to the home side. The inevitable result was a scrambling game with much broken play. Otago's team was one of the youngest ever to represent the province; Canterbury's, too, was a very young side. The wrr undoubtedly has given many of these youngsters a chance of showing their mettle in representative Rugby. For instance. Woodhousc. the Otago half-back, who played a very sound game, was at Waitaki High School last year. The other inside backs were little older, yet they played with the sureness and confidence of veterans, the defensive work of Currie and Kearney being outstanding. Webster, the full-back, handled and kicked faultlessly. •Tolly, Phelan, Barnes, and Thomson bore the brunt of the hard work in Otago’s pack, Lanauzc, Walker, and McLennan were enterprising in the loose, and Hennessey "got away with” much spoiling work that was perilously close to off-side. In the linc-outs McKenzie. Hayles, and Knowles, often helped by Herman, were a combination that Otago could not match. The Canterbury pack had no "shiners,” and although their work in the loose had too little fire it was pleasing to see a Canterbury pack for once sticking resolutely to the essentials of hard rucking and scrummaging. A new half-back in the Canterbury team necessarily meant upsetting the combination of the backs, but apart from that Clark was much below the form of which he is capable, and could not get the ball away fast enough to beat the Otago breakaways. Roach, the first five-eighths, again kicked far too much. Canterbury’s best back was Kilworth, who was always enterprising. He came near to winning the match with a pot at goal which hit the cross-bar. On the few occasions the ball reached the three-o.uarters, Argus ran into Currie’s solid tackling. Late in the game Cartwright came into centre, where, in the absence of a centre of class, he should have been all the season, but still he saw nothing of the ball. Both teams had chances of winning the match with penalty kicks in quite handy positions. The teams were:— Otago.—T. R. D. Webster: A. E. Churchill. E. Currie, J. W. Green; J. C. Kearney, D. Murdoch (replaced late by Manion); L, V/oodhouse; M. Phelan, A. Hennessey, K. Thomson, J. Lanauze, W. H. Jolly,-R. Barnes, J. McLennan, J. Walker. Canterbury.—L. W. Smith; J. S. Cartwright. W. Argus, E. Kerr (replaced iu the lost quarter by R. McCammon): R. Kilwcrth, J. Roach; W. F. Clark: R. R. Rcthwell, J. W. Gordon. P. H. Tovey. D. Herman. A. D. McKenzie, T. C. Knowles. G. Bond, D,, Hayles. Referee; Mr C. R.McCallum. ALBION WINS CURTAINRAISER In the curtain-raiser Albion beat Athletic by 11 points to 3, gaining the upper hand In the closing stages. The game was fairly even, although there was slightly more finish about the passing movements of the Albion backs', and their forwards had more dash. Athletic staged some good attacks, but their backs were slow in getting the ball away, and in this way presented Albion with one try. The forwards worked hard, but were beaten in the majority of the scrummages. Athletic was first to score when the forwards took the ball to the line and Winter scored. Albion's backs made ■ the most of Athletic's slow handling, and Morgan, playing at centre, twice intercepted brilliantly. Once he sent the wing, Keetley, off for a try, and the second time he raced away and scored under the posts after running from his own twenty;five. The Albion half-back, Cullen, played a good game, and his dive passes seldom went astray. Clarke, Sincock, and McKerrow were the best of the forwards. Mahoney. at centre, was dangerous whenever Athletic got the ball, and one or two of his thrusts would have produced a try if he had been better supported. Of the hard-working Athletic forwards, Coll, Winter, and Callanan were always in the picture. For Albion tries were scored by Keetley, Sincock. and Morgan, and Vanstone converted one. Winter scored for Afh'etic. The teams were:— Albion—Dawkins; Keetley, Morgan, Vanstone; R. Garrett, J. Garrett; Cullen; McKerrow, Willman, Davis, Weatherhead, Sincock, Clarke, Dasler. Gray. Athletic—O'Neil: Devlin, Mahoney, Noonan: Scully, Mortimer: McCormack; Winter, Walklin, Chambers. Yandle, Coll. Doody, Mills, Callanan. Referee: Mr R. J. McLachlan LOWER GRADES Second Grade.—Linwood 6; Southern 3; Albion 8, Technical 0; Christchurch 5, .Harewood 3. Fourth Grade A.—Technical 6, Richmond 0; Kaiapoi 9, Linwood 8. , „ . Under 17.—Albion 9, Richmond 6; Merivale 27, Linwood 0; New Brighton 16, Technical C 8. Under Bst 71b—Merivale 6, Linwood 3. Under 7st—Technical 23, Richmond 3; Linwood 3. Athletic 3. „ Under sst 121b.—Southern A 12, Albion 3. JAMES-DAVY CUP MATCH OLD BOYS BEAT ASHBURTON The High School Old Boys third grade team, by 11 points to 6, beat the third grade team from Ashburton in the annual match for the James-Davy Cup played on Saturday on the south ground at Lancaster Park. For Old Boys, Storie and Waterland scored, Simpson converted once, and Waterland kicked a penalty. Brady and Small each scored a try for Ashburton. The teams were:— Ashburton.—H. Alexander; I. Reade, W. Small, J. Wall; E. Body, J. McKendry, I. Alexander; C. Glossop, S. Murdoch. D. Cretney, C. Brady, J. Harvey, G. Rollmson, T. Harrison, P. Holmes. Old Boys.—B. Henry; T. R. Andrews. W. Hume. D. K. Storie; R. Johnson. W. Duggan; R. Waterland; R. Seed, J. Stewart. A. W. Wilson. E. D. Foley, M. Tonkin, K. Heley. A. Simpson, L, Small. Referee; Mr G. Berry. TARANAKI BEATEN BY WELLINGTON (PA.) WELLINGTON, August 30. Although the weather was fine, the playing surface at Athletic Park for the return representative match, Wellington and Taranaki, to-day was very heavy and in places it was difficult for the players to maintain a foothold. Considering the conditions, the football was of unusually good standard, some forward and back movements delighting the crowd of about 9000. Wellington fielded a more experienced side, and half-way through the second half led by 24 to 8. but Taranaki finished with rare vim to add another eight points, the final scores being 24-16. The Taranaki team consisted mainly of players new to representative Rugby, some promising talent being revealed. Broughton (the full-back), Arnott and Pacy (wing-threc-quarters). M>.Cullum (half-back). Patterson and Trask (forwards) being the pick. Dance gave a grand display as full-back for Wellington. The backs shaped more confidently than in previous games. Bowman, Stanway, Todd, and Cave were prominent in a solid pack. In a curtain-raiser, Victoria College beat Auckland University 17 to 0.