League THACKER SHIELD CHALLENGE

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28685, 8 September 1958, Page 13

League THACKER SHIELD CHALLENGE

West Coast Retains Trophy By 14-8 By defeating Hornby, the champion team from Christchurch, Brunner, winner of the West Coast Rugby League’s senior championship, reI s ? I "®*} Possession of the Thacker Shield. The trophy was won for the West Coast last year by Runanga, which defeated Papanui in Christchurch. The score in yesterday’s game, played at Wingham Park, was 14 points to 8. Brunner’s score con-! sisted of two tries, one converted, and three penalty goals, while Hornby gained two tries, one of which was converted. Play was a little too dour to be spectacular, and there was not enough brightness about the back movements. One of the highlights was a strong run by P. Tongue, the Hornby full-back, from his own twenty-five to within a couple of yards of the Brunner goalline, where a defender just managed to tap his foot and so save a certain try. Another player who gave a fine display was the Brunner full-back, B. Senior. His defence was very sound: he handled well and kicked with good judgment. The game was played in bright sunshine and on, a hard ground. Apart from an odd puff there was almost an entire absence of wind. The attendance was only fair. Playing with the sun, Hornby did most of the attacking, but could not penetrate the defence. About midway through the spell Brunner was attacking just outride the visitors’ twenty-five, and from a scrum infringement, J. Menzies opened the scoring with a penalty goal. Brunner scored again almost immediately. A passing rush sent the ball to the right wing. F. Hassan was on hand to take an in-pass, and he crossed near the corner. Menzies missed the kick. Menzies had another opportunity of adding to the score when he failed, with a second penalty shot from a position almost identical with that from which he had succeeded on the first occasion. Maintaining the pressure, the Brunner forwards followed up a kick through, and E. Gutter let scored in a handy position. Menzies converted, to make the half-time score: Brunner 10, Hornby 0. Play had been resumed for only a few. minutes when Menzies kicked his second penalty goal from just beyond the twenty-five after a breach of the play-the-ball rule by a Hornby forward. Hornby then set up an attack, and Tongue failed with a penalty shot from the twenty-five straight in front of the posts. Maintaining the pressure, the Hornby players broke away with a passing bout which ended in R. Pont forcing his way over at the corner. Tongue converted with a splendid kick from the sideline. Another try followed almost immediately, J. Minards, on the right wing, took a pass infield and outpaced the opposition to ground the ball behind the posts. Tongue missed the easy shot. Brunner attacked for the remainder of the game, and, from a penalty awarded for offside, Menzies made the final- score: Brunner 14. 'Hornby 8.

In a curtain-raiser, the Richmond schoolboys team from Auckland de-? Seated the West Coast schoolboy representatives by 13 points to 6.

Italy May Form League

(New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, September 7. The English Rugby League’s secretary (Mr W. Fallowfield) has sent a cable to the New Zealand Council asking if it has any objection to an Italian League being given honorary membership on the International Board. The cable, which was received by the national secretary (Mr J. E. Knowling) yesterday, said that there wu a strong probability that an

Italian League would be formed. “New Zealand would be quite in favour of honorary membership.” said Mr Knowling. “Naturally, if the League was formed it would have no vote on the board until it crew to auitabla atrength.”