RUGBY LEAGUE

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23718, 17 August 1942, Page 3

RUGBY LEAGUE

COAST RETAINS CUP REPRESENTATIVE MATCH AT GREYMOUTH (0.R.) GREYMOUTH, August 16. Canterbury Rugby League representslives to-day made a bold bid to end the West Coast’s long possession of the Northern Union Cup, but again Coast won in an evenly fought contest played at Wingham Park before a large crowd League football at its best was seen during the first half when the backs swept up and down the field with excel-' lent passing, but after the interval, when a heavy shower of rain fell, the character of the game changed completely; the ball becoming difficult to handle,, with the result that play became - rather scrambling, with backs having to take second place to the forwards, who were evenly matched. Canterbury backs showed flashes of brilliance, but they lacked the combination of the Coast rearguard. Similarly the Coast forwards were always dangerous, hunting as a pack. L. A. Bench, P. H. Sutton, and J. O’Halloran, who replaced Canterbury’s half-back, L. Brown, who was injured in the first half, were most impressive in the Canterbury backs, while in the forwards. W. Noonan and K. Wllshire showed up. The outstanding back on the field was the Coast captain', C. Mountford. He was well supported by W. Mann. All the Coast forwards Justified their inclusion, with R. Clarke and P. Mount-, ford usually in the van. Within a few minutes of the kick-off with Canterbury playing with the wind, L. Brown, the visitors’ half-back, received an injury to the leg, but he carried on until near half-time. Canterbury opened the scoring when C. H. Davison snapped up a dropped pass on the twenty-five, for a solo try. He missed the kick. Then W. Mann kicked, in quick succession, two penalty goals for Coast. With both sets of backs making great efforts to penetrate, R. Moth gave Bench' an opening, and he shot through for a. try under the posts. , < With Coast pressing, the Canterbury backs attempted a passing rush in their own twenty-five, and when a pass was dropped, C. Mountford seized the opportunity of cutting through for a solo try, which Mann converted, making the halftime score: Coast 9, Canterbury 6. Territorially, the second half was even, but Coast always appeared to. have sufficient in reserve to forestall Canterbury’s efforts to break through. Only one try was scored, as the result of a passing rush, in which four Coast backs handled, for J. Burns to touch down, in the corner, The final score was; Coast 12, Canterbury 6. The referee was Mr J. Griffen. In a curtain-raiser by third grade players, Marlst beat Blackball, 13 points to 2. A ONE POINT WIN METROPOLITAN BEATS ARMY Down 20 points to 8 half-way through the second spell. Army put in a series of great runs against Metropolitan and, with only a lew minutes to go. took the lead at 23-22, only to lose it again -when a player infringed in front of the goal. Thus Metropolitan won by 24 points to 23; as a lastminute penalty to Army went wide. Generally, it was good Rugby League, the second half much better than the first. Forward play was fairly’even, with Metropolitan whining a big percentage of the scrums. Army took charge early with fierce loose rushes, well • controlled, only to slump when its leader was hurt. It had charge again in the last quarter. In' the backs. Metropolitan was orthodox, with Army, having a much better combination, doing all sorts of unorthodox moves. The’ spectacular efforts were provided by the very strong Army trio, Roberts, Gibson, and Roughan, who were given every chance by the fast dive-passes of Foster. At times this trio made the opposition look almost cheap, and each is hard to tackle. They monopolised the attack for a time, spoiling their good work by not giving their eager young wings a chance to finish off the clever openings they had made. Of the backs, Roberts, the Army centre, was outstanding. He threaded his way through defenders in an exceptionally clever manner and generally had to be pocketed before he was grounded. Though he did not score he had a big share in nearly all the scoring movements. Besides his heavy tackles, which broke many a Metropolitan attack, Gibson was also in most attacks, along with Roughan. Of the Army forwards, Stemmer was the leader till he was hurt. From then Manhlre and Clough were most noticeable. At first five-eighths, King, a last-minute inclusion, was the best of the Metropolitan backs. Helped by a . fast scrum and half-back, King - played- bis

best game of the season. He was the only one able to break through the. solid Army; defence. Asher, Baistrick, and Walker, of Battery, were the best of the other Metropolitan backs. Berry, the ■former Sydenham player, was the best forward, being much above recent form. Genet, Wright and Lindstrom were all good in the hard work. Up to the Interval, which came with Metropolitan leading by 10 points to 5, Berry had scored a try and kicked a penalty, Asher scored, and Baistrick potted a goal, for Metropolitan. For Army, Gibson scored a try and potted a goal. In the second half King scored a try, converted it, and kicked two penalties (the second one to win the game), and Walker scored, Asher converting. For Arrqy, Clark (2), Boughan and Clough scored. Boberts converting three. Referee: Mr B. Vine. SCHOOLBOYS’ TOURNAMENT A schoolboys’ seven-a-slde tournament was won by Addington A. which beat Sydenham A by 8 points to 5. Eight teams took part. ASSOCIATION ENGLISH CUP SEMIFINALS SIGNALS AND THISTLE WIN The semi-finals of the English Cup knock-out competition were played on Saturday afternoon, Signals and Thistle having comfortable wins over Shamrock and Bangers respectively. Other games played were Hurley Shield matches. Results:—English Cup: Signals 7, Shamrock 0; Thistle 4, Bangers .2. Hurley Shield: Western 3, Army 2; Air Force 5, Field Begiment 3; A.S.C. beat Nomads by default. SIGNALS v. SHAMROCK Playing at English Park, Signals was far too good for Shamrock. Shamrock failed to.: reproduce its form of the previous Saturday, when it drew with Western, and Signals, keeping possession almost throughout, outplayed its opponents in every department. Signals thoroughly exploited the short-passing game, the whole team showing excellent ball control and positional play. Against this Shamrock appeared to have an ineffective counter and except for one brief movement that should have produced a goal, its efforts were mainly in defensive play. Though Barker, the goalkeeper, Fleete, and Williams, the full-backs, defended hard, they were not a match for the tricky and speedier Signals vanguard. Glubb, Paton, and West, the halves, also put in most of their work on defence, which left their forwards, when in possession, with no support. Of the forwards, Harding, Schlmanski, and Wilson were the pick, but poor passing and haphazard shooting left the forwards’ movements without sting. Signals, under the capable generalship of V. Smith, played as a unit and was never pressed. The backs were too solid and. made no mistakes that their opponents could profit by, and their halves saw that their forwards had a feast of the ball. The forwards showed equal ability on either flank or centre attack. Goals were scored for Signals by C. Bailey (3), B. Lucas (2), and V. Smith, and one of the Shamrock players misklcked into his own goal. Beferee: Mr T. Mathie. THISTLE v. BANGERS^ - At Hagley Park the Thistle v. Rangers match failed to come up to expectations. Thistle was impressive in the first half, but proved sluggish during the second, when Rangers showed much improved form. Thistle combined better than Rangers, besides being able to finish off a movement. Rangers was erratic in passing and the forwards did not work well together. Cook and McNaughton were again the bulwark of the Bangers defence, witn Baines and Friedburg also showing up. In the forwards. Harrison, at centre, was the pick, with Cahill and Sharp also prominent in occasional bursts. Thistle, below its usual strength, was disappointing. Nelson and Tennant proved an able set of full-bocks, and H. Smith and A. Sutherland did good work in the halves. McLennan again turned out in the forwards., but he needs a few more games. G. McMenamin was the pick of a set of forwards which might have done better. Goals were scored for Thistle by G.McMenamin (2) and W. Thomas (2). C. Sharr and R. Harrison scored for Rangers. Referee: Mr C. Sweeney. WESTERN ▼. ARMY Showing less dash in the second ball than in the first. Army was defeated by Western by the odd goal in five. Army adopted bustling tactics in the first spell with a fair measure of success, and with a little better finish would have added to its score. In the second spell Western took the initiative and, helped by poor passing by Army, which its halves were quick to turn to account, constantly had the Army defence worried by flank-to-flank movements. For Western, Gordon