Canterbury Kicked Too Much On Northern Tour

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28362, 22 August 1957, Page 15

Canterbury Kicked Too Much On Northern Tour

TJUGBY enthusiasts in the province will have found little in Canterbury’s northern tour to inspire optimism about the Ranfurly Shield challenge match, to be played in a little more than a month. The team s losses to Auckland and Waikato and its narrow victories over East Coast and Poverty Bay, are not happy auguries for September 28, but it' would be inadvisable in assessing Canterbury’s chances of beating Wellington, to place too much emphasis on the team’s performances in the north.

The touring team, although a strong one, was not the strongest in the province—particularly m the forwards—and it had to contend with an influenza epidemic which affected every member, injuries, and* staleness through too much travelling. These were the main factors which contributed 'towards Canterbury’s modest successes.

These factors had a definite effect on the team’s performances, but there were other reasons for Canterbury’s inconsistent showings and these cannot be lightly dismissed. Change In Style The worst feature of the games was the over-emphasis placed upon kicking and the consequent lack of three-quarter play. This type of play has been foreign to-Canterbury’s game in the last few years and it is not a healthy sign to see it returning. Much of it was forced upon Canterbury through the extremely shallow back formations adopted, but this did not apply in the East Coast or Poverty Bay games, matches won by Canterbury by only one and two points respectively. But even this shallow defensive back formation could have been overcome if the service from the scrums had not been too

slow. This . was particularly the case in the Manawatu and Poverty Bay games, and it was even more apparent against Auckland. It was in this match that A. R. Pryor many times kicked the ball out of M. F. Whitta’s hands as he came round the side of the scrums. S. G. Bremner, therefore, often found it necessary to kick. Much of the kicking, however, was to the side-line and in this a reason could be found for the forwards’ surprisingly indifferent play. In the past the Canterbury pack has always been assured that the backs would do something constructive with the ball, and the forwards have played hard to that end. On this tour, however, through the increased amount of kicking, the forwards were called upon for an abnormal amount of line-out play. The result was that the forwards were in the thick of the play throughout and the three-quarters had only spasmodic contact with the ball. Vice-Captaincy The back line had the players to give Canterbury some convincing wins, but it lacked cohesion. This could have been acquired had the play been controlled closer to the scrum. It had been the policy of the union in the past to have the backs controlled by a captain or vice-captain either at first five-eighths or half-back, but for this tour —and for the season to date—the backs have had R. M. Smith, a winj, as the vice-captain. Smith is an experienced player, and he has been a very clever one, but it is difficult for him, as a wing, to be able to guide the play from such a long way away from the scrum. How much better it would have been to have had either a half-back or five-eighths to control the back play is open to conjecture, but it was not a sound move to have a player at times five places out from the scrum directing movements. Re-adjustment The team will arrive back in Christchurch tomorrow and it will then have five weeks in which to readjust itself to the type of game that made it the champion side of the Dominion for three years and a half. Canterbury still has the players and they are just as good today as they were when the shield was won in 1953. But the kicking policy will have to be abandoned, for it is obvious that while it is continued, possession—one of the three principles of the game so fervently advocated by the great Rugby tactician Mr V. G. Cavanagh—cannot be retained. Without possession, no team can be succuMfuL