Club Rugby Review L

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28894, 14 May 1959, Page 18

Club Rugby Review L

With a very swift service from .his .half-back,. M. Taiaroa, the University first five-eighths, S. G. Bremner, should have given his backs every advantage. But his determination to pierce a tight defence brought nothing but anxiety to the rest of the backs, who received the ball only occasionally. • It is apparent that Rugby is not suffering from the lack of referees that some other sports are experiencing. The Canterbury Rugby Referees’ Association has closed its roll, as it believes there are adequate referees to cover all games. Several applicants are still awaiting examination. • | . The value of the fast folx LJ lowing-up of a kicked ball was well demonstrated by the Sunnyside-Spreydon forward, C. Payne, when his team played Albion on Saturday. The Albion players, although they failed to score a try, were on attack for the greater part of the match, and Sunnyside’s main chances came from kicking the ball upfield from loose play; in this Payne stood out. His first try came when he picked up the ball from broken play and went over in a handy position, and at the end of the match he was on hand to dive on the ball as it rolled over the Albion line. • Sydenham got an adequate supply of the ball from set play in the match against New Brighton on Saturday but sound defence by New Brighton and frequent cross-field running by the Sydenham backs prevented any score. Several times the Sydenham backs made little or no ground through not running straight and once when R. E. Cotton launched a movement from the New Brighton 25-yard line, Sydenham lost several yards before the ball went out. • i Spectators who have LJ been buying the Rugby —i 1. Union’s official programme each Saturday to identify players have been receiving a poor return for their 6d. Some clubs have already failed to notify teams, and others have forwarded teams and numbers for publicaticta which, on the Saturday, bear little resemblance to those which take the field. Other clubs, notably Christchurch, have taken a pride in having their teams correctly numbered and named week after week. For a long period last year Christchurch teams took the field as published —a practice that is to be highly commended to clubs which are not so meticulous.

| One of the best players L | in the vigorous New Brigh- ■ I !■ ton forward pack is C. Browne, the hooker. He strikes quickly for the ball in scrums, is a good forward in the tight, and is also capable of neat breaks from line-outs. He made one such break in the match against Sydenham on Saturday and gained about 20 yards in a good run before kicking for touch.

©Strengthened by players rom other provinces, lerivale has .become a much more formidable side than it has been for some seasons. More than half of Saturday’s team which beat Technical Old Boys by 11 points to 3 were from elsewhere—T. Gallagher (MidCanterbury), P. Smith (Otago), J. Patrick (West Coast). N. Williams (West Coast), B. Young (West Coast) in the backs, and I. Gallagher (Mid-Canterbury), J. Callaghan (Southland), and W. Trotter (Banks Peninsula) in the forwards. • The Old Boys full-back, (gjj C. Mullany, played another fine game against Christchurch last Saturday. His tackling, particularly, was first class. His fielding of the ball, generally, was good, but at least twice he waited for the bounce when, with a little more effort, he might have taken the ball on the full. This hardly detracted from the rest of his play, however.

When the Merivale forwards gave an outstanding display to get the better of the Technical pack, one who stood out was the flanker, M. Bourne. Originally a loose forward, Bourne usually played last season as a centre, because the team was then very short of backs. He did not have much success in this position. Back to his accustomed place on Saturday he seemed to be always where he was needed.

Marist is fortunate to have two very good front rankers, J. De Llevre and B. R. Mann. Against University they went quite well in their unaccustomed roles as line-out forwards and they did much to hold the lighter Marist forwards together against a virile pack. O OThe Sunnyside-Spreydon second five-eighths, E. Tiplady, gave an impressive performance against Albion on Saturday. A hard runner with a good pair of hands, Tiplady was by no means overshadowed by his inside partner. V. Sykes, during this match. He made several fine breaks with the ball, and his cover defence was also sound.