AUSTRALIA WINS TEST, 20-8

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27683, 13 June 1955, Page 9

AUSTRALIA WINS TEST, 20-8

RUGBY LEAGUE

France Fails On Wet Ground (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 9 p.m.) SYDNEY, June 12. Australia outplayed France in a disappointing first Rugby League test yesterday, winning by 20 points to 8. The heavy, sticky field was against France’s style of play, but the Australian win was convincing, and the expected superiority of the pack was duly shown. The very strong Australian forward, combination played a dominating part by adhering to a plan and keeping the play tight in the first half. The French forwards tried to play Australia’s game. and. in spite of their early good tackling, they failed. Australia led 5-0 at half-time. The softening-up process conceived by Australia’s coach. Mr V. Hey, who relied on his forwards’ supremacy, resulted in the French forwards becoming very tired. Some of them could not get near the rucks in the later stages of play. For a long time France’s inside backs were crowded by their opponents. and efforts to unfold their traditional spectacular movements were stifled. The second half brought a welcome change for the crowd of 67,748. France, seven points behind, hit back with a beautiful try. The crowd looked for further rallies and encouraged the Frenchmen. But then the team made tnistakes, and the Australians, combining well, put on 13 points including three tries in 10 minutes, to lead 20-5. A brilliant rush led to a second try for France. A third try was narrowly missed.

The play was robust. A few incidents brought cautions from the referee, some of them after reports from touchline judges. But the heat shown by some players early in the second half subsided.

PAPANUI BEATEN BY MARIST

SYDENHAM AND HORNBY IN LEAD

The first games in the second round of the Canterbury Rugby League’s championship were played on Saturday on very heavy ground. The oval at the Show Grounds was soon churned up into patches of mud early in the curtain raiser, and players found it very hard to keep their footing. The leaders, Papanui, was beaten by Marist and the lead now goes to Hornby and Sydenham. Results were:— Marist 8, Papanui 5. Sydenham 10, Linwood 7. Hornby 34, Christchurch 0. Championship points are: Sydenham 10. Hornby 10, Papanui 9, Marist 9, Linwood 8, Christchurfch 2. MARIST V. PAPANUI In the main game at the Show Grounds the competition leader went down to Marist by 8 points (2 tries, one converted) to 5 points (an unconverted try and a penalty goal). Marist owed its win to its ability to handle the conditions much better. Marist did piot make the mistake of attempting too much handling, relying more on kick and follow through methods. On the other hand. Papanui for most of the game attempted to keep the game open, failing to gain much ground with the passing movements on the greasy ground apd with the very wet ball. Time and again Papanui attempted back movements only to see the attempt fail through a dropped pass or a player losing his foothold. Late in the game Papanui followed the example of Marist. and with short kicks went close to scoring on several occasions. With conditions which suited his style of play Creedy, the Marist half-back, gave a much improved display. He sent out good passes from the scrum and kicked with judgment. His two tries were excellent efforts. The most useful Marist back was the first five-eighths, Shaw. He handled the greasy ball faultlessly, and his kicking into gaps was very well judged and repeatedly put his side on attack. His defence was also very sound. On attack Anderson had few chances but he tackled very soundly. Stewart at full-back handled well and kicked soundly. The best of the Papanui backline were Barr at first five-eighths and Marsh at centre. They were always looking for a gap and showed speed in the heavy going. Their only mistake was attempting to go too far at times when a kick through would have been of greater benefit to their side. Derbridge gave a fine exhibition of handling at full-back and kicked with judgment. The Marist forwards were well led byCurtain, who was in the play from start to finish. Newton, Bright and Purdon gave him fine support in the tight play with Mulcare always prominent in the loose. Bond, Jones (until he retired injured), Pearce and Rossiter were* great toilers in the even Papanui Papanui attacked strongly from the start and in a good movement Marsh broke through grandly. Kamo took his pass and only a solid tackle by Stewart prevented a try. Marist was first to score when Creedy charged down a clearing kick and won the race for the ball to touch down for a try which McNamara converted. Marist kept up the attack with well judged kicks and only a fine tackle by Bond stopped Shaw from going over under the posts. Just on half-time, Marist went further ahead with a fine try to Creedy. Breaking round the side of a scrum he ran 30 yards to beat two defenders and touched down wide out. A fine kick by McNamara hit the upright. Papanui show'ed improvement in the second spell and made more use of the forwards. A forward rush took play to the Marist line where Derbridge kicked an easy penalty. The ground Was now churned up badly and players found difficulty in getting out of the mud patches. Papanui kept attacking and was rewarded when a defender fumbled right by the poets. Barr shot through and dived on the bail for a well earned try. Derbridge’s kick from a mud patch hardly rose. Both

sides attacked strongly but failed to score before the final whistle. Referee, Mr V. Henry. SYDENHAM v. LINWOOD When play started in the Sydenham v. Linwood game, which was the curtainraiser at the Show Grounds, there were patches of water on the ground, which soon became very greasy. In the circumstances the teams, especially in the first half, gave a fine exhibition of handling. They did not attempt to close up the game, and there were some fine back movements. After half-time, however, it became more difficult to handle the ball, and most of the play was confined to two very even packs of forwards. Sydenham won by 10 points (2 tries, one converted), to 7 points (one unconverted try and two penalty goals). Sydenham was only once in Linwood’s half in the second spell, and scored a try. The rest of the time Sydenham was battling hard to keep out the Linwood forwards, who gave a fine wet weather display.

In this spell Linwood did everything but score, and with an ounce of luck would have shared the honours. The Linwood forwards played fine football with Roberts, Blanchard and Knight outstanding. Roberts, especially, was always’ where the ball was, and he gave a fine exhibition of clean handling. A very even Sydenham pack gave nothing away. and defended grandly. Butterfield, Pimley and Beales were the pick of them in the heavy going. In his first game of the season, Clark, the Sydenham half-back, gave a Very sound* display. Although the ground did not allaw him to show his speed, he was always prominent in the open. Park was not so prominent as usual at first fiveeighths. having difficulty in handling the greasy ball. Until he retired injured Forman, the centre, was Sydenham’s most impressive back. He handled well, ran strongly, and defended soundly. The Linwood first five-eighths. Noel Clark, gave another fine display. Handling better than most of the other backs he frequently cut through to put his side on attack. He was well supported by the second five-eighths, Hodge, back in the side after a spell on the injured list. Wilson at centre made several good runs, and again showed improvement on defence. Goslin’s good handling at full-back got his side out of some very awkward situations. Early in the game Wakefield put Sydenham in front with a good goal from a penalty. After a strong Linwood attack Sydenham was penalised and Wilson evened the score. The first try of the game went to Sydenham when Mclntyre went over in th-e corner after half the side had handled in a bright movement. Forman was almost over shortly afterwards, only a fine tackle by Goslin stopping him short of the line. Right on half-time Wilson kicked his second goal for Linwood. Guy, who had moved up to centre to replace Forman, scored for Sydenham early in the second spell, and Wakefield converted. The rest of the spell was played in the mud in Sydenham’s territory, with Linwood having the best of the exchanges. After repeated attacks Knight went over from some loose play. Linwood kept up the attack, but so’id defence kept them out. Referee: Mr K. Cox. HORNBY v. CHRISTCHURCH After giving a ’ sound display in the early stages of the game on the Show Grounds No. 2 ground, a young Christchurch side was soundly beaten by Hornby by 34 points to 0. The ground was much drier than the adjoining oval, but almost from the start of the game the ball was greasy and poor handling could be expected. However, the Hornby inside backs handled exceptionally well in the conditions, ajjd several times cut through the Christchurch defence with their speed and straight running. In the first half Christchurch countered with some good work by the forwards and hard and purposeful work by S. Collins, T. Grimes, and W. Gray held the competent Hornby pack for a time. Good work in the open by B. Woodgate and M. Cooke later gave Hornby the advantage, and .with the forwards giving the backs a fair share of the ball the side maintained a brisk pace. G. Neiman, who started as wing three-quarters, and later moved in when M. Courtenay came on as a replacement, showed remarkable speed in the conditions, as did G. McSeveney at centre three-quarters. Courtenay also showed plenty of speed in scoring two tries in quick succession. With Hornby making the pace, the Christchurch defence slackened and several times easy tackles were missed, a disappointing spectacle after the early solid tackling and sound cover defence. B. Mitchell, at full-back, had plenty of work and acquitted himself well, and M. Burney, the centre-three-quarters, also did his share on defence. The backline did not have the speed or the handling ability of the Hornby line, but B. Miller, the half-back, and D. Stewart, the seconq five-eighths, played soundly against a mucn faster set of backs. Hornby’s points came from tries scored by Cooke, G. Neiman (2), M. Courtenay (2), K. Tod. McSeveney, and S. Lumsden. B. Woodgate converted three tries and kicked two penalty goals. The referee was Mr P. E. Southerwood. AUCKLAND TEAM CHOSEN MATCH AGAINST CANTERBURY (New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, June 12. The Auckland representative Rugby League team, chosen to play Canterbury at Auckland next Saturday, is as follows : R. Moore. R. Craike, C. Eastlake, J. Edwards. W. Sorenson, W. Barber. W. Belsham, R. Percy. K. Bell, A. Hawkes. W. Woolsey. A. Mclnteer, C. Johnston. Reserves: H. Maxwell, I. Gray. R. McKay, N. Denton. MATCHES IN OTHER CENTRES Auckland.—Mount Albert 25, North Shore 7: Ponsonby 23.- Glenora 14; Ellerslie 15, Northcote 10; Point Chevalier 22, Marist 5; Richmond 18. City-Newton 2. Wellington.—Randwick 11, Taita 5: Korodale 11. St. George 7. Dunedin.—Athletic A 25, Athletic B 2; Caledonian 17. Celtic 15.