RUGBY LEAGUE Two Teams Share Tavendale Cup

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29827, 21 May 1962, Page 15

RUGBY LEAGUE Two Teams Share Tavendale Cup

Two teams—Papanui-and Hornby—will share the Canterbury Rugby League’s Tavendale Cup for the 1962 season. When the final matches were played on Saturday, Papanui, Hornby and Marist met with successes, which also took them a further step on the road to the senior championship.

For the first time this season there were no upsets in form, on Saturday with the three successful teams winning by handsome margins. Papanui, Hornby and Marist have now emerged as decidedly the strongest teams in the competition. Results:—

ful kicker of the five that Papanui called upon. John Flanagan scored a try for Linwood and A Smith kicked four easy penalties and converted Flanagan's try. Mr D. C. Wilson was the referee. Convincing Win Although Marist was quite easily the more convincing side, as the margin of 28 points would indicate, Sydenham at least had the satisfaction for a considerable part of the game of keeping Marist in sound check. Marist’s superiority, although always evident, was hard-earned and indeed from 10 minutes before half-time until well into the second half, Marist was unable to score while Sydenham scored twice. In the first 30 minutes of the game Marist swept Sydenham aside to score 21 of its 26 points and it was during this period that the game was won. Marist’s play was full of enterprise and dash, with its big forwards running straight and strongly through the dreadfully weak Sydenham defence to open up play for their backs. Sydenham, however, recovered well and with Marist. perhaps feeling the pace of the first spell, tired, barging tactics became all too noticeable.

Papanui 22, Linwood 13. Marist 36, Sydenham 8. Hornby 21, Christchurch 8. The positions of the teams, with championships and final Tavendale Cup pointj, are:—

Polished Attack Papanui played some of the finest football seen at the Show Grounds this season in the second half of this match. Granted, Linwood had a substantial and what must have been an embarrassing lead of 11 points—nine of which came from the boot of A. Smith—to 3 at halftime but it seemed hardly sufficient. For even in the rather tight defensive play o’ this first spell Papanui was playing with more polish and purpose.

The Marist forwards were again the spearhead of the side's attacks and it speaks volumes for their ability when they scored all but one of the team’s eight tries. B. Kennedy, who surely must be the fastest forward in the competition, was at the head of many rushes, and J. Jones. J. E. Bond and P. Hughey were always there to lend support. M. Mohi was in quite magnificent form and was a constant menace with vigorous, bustling play. R. Irvine made some fine darting runs and H. Nepia played a splendid all-round game at full-back for Marist. After its initial set-backs Sydenham tightened its defence appreciably, B. Butts had his best game of the season and others to please were R. Lewis and T. Bisman in the forwards and K. Harding and C. Preece in the backs.

In the second half Papanui was immeasurably, the better side. The backs and forwards, moving swiftly passing and handling cleanly and backing up consistently. ’ ran Linwood ragged and the play was always kept moving forward from quick passing from the play-the-ball and from the scrums. The return of N. K Roberts was of immense value to Papanui, His passing, crisp and sure, allowed J A. Bond more latitude and he continually kept nopping up to start something fresh. The side was wellserved at full-back by R. Kingston whose handling was faultless and the whole backline Played their part splendidly on attack

For Marist. Kennedy (3). Jones (3), Mohi and P. V. Smith scored tries. Mohi and Bond eonvmed three each. J. Martin and Preece scored for Sydenand Bisman converted one Mr W. Gray was the referee.

The forwards, -too, were at their best when running hard with the ball, especially G. Copper and E. J. Tavendale. G. Bond, who has seldom plaved better, was rewarded for his relentless following up with three tries and G. H. Turner showed signs of returning to his true form.

Bright Display interesting tussle at Woolston Park, Hornbv may have been a little flattened by the margin of their victory over Christchurch. Hornbv was without doubt the better side and deserved to win but it was only in the last 15 minutes that their superiority was evident. The large crowd who watched the game could hardly be disappointed with what thev saw. There were plenty of bright movements with plav see-saw-mg from oae end of the field to the other.

Linwood was at its best in the first spell but for much of the game the side was spent chasing the ball. The backs, of course, received little chance on attack while T. Journee and John Flanagan gave of their best throughout in the forwards.

For Papanui G. Bond (3), A. N Amer (2), and Roberts scored tries. G. Neiman who converted a try' and kicked a penalty, was the only success-

As a combination the Hornby backs were better than the Christchurch line while the two packs of forwards were very evenly matched. On at least one

occasion it looked as though things may have got out of control as players indulged in over-vigorous play, which was quite uncalled for. Hornby’s tries were scored from some particularly fine movements while Christchurch on the occasions that they looked dangerous did not seem able to complete the movement by scoring. M. Cooke was an able leader of the Hornby pack. He was never far from the ball and covered his backs well. I. Drayton played probably his best game for the season and his strong running resulted in two of Hornby's tries. Ln the Christchurch forwards none worked harder than L. Ayers and R. Turton, the latter probably being the best forward on the ground. R. Austin also tried very hard. J. Bray was the pick of the Hornby backs and his three tries were a just reward for his untiring efforts. I. Robb and A. Williams also played well. The Christchurch backline improved greatly when D. Walker changed from full-back to first five-eighths. He showed excellent penetration and his handling was outstanding. G. Clarke was very capable behind the scrum.

Tries for Hornby were scored by J. Bray (3), Williams and Robb. " Drayton converted two tries and kicked a penalty. For Christchurch Walker scored a try and converted it and H. Turton scored a try. The referee was Mr P. Yaxley.

p W L D For Ag Pts Pap. 5 4 1 — 69 38 8 Hom. .. Q 4 1 — 88 35 8 Mar. 5 3 2 — 91 66 6 Chch .. 5 2 3 — 53 66 4 Lin. 5 1 3 1 53 69 3 Syd 5 — 4 1 33 113 1