Kiwis Win At Toowoomba But Injury List Is Growing

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30156, 13 June 1963, Page 9

Kiwis Win At Toowoomba But Injury List Is Growing

“Th« Press" Special Service

TOOWOOMBA, June 12. The New Zealand Rugby League team scored a comfortable victory over Toowoomba, 22-0, today, but had to pay a costly price in injuries. The centre, J. E. Sparnon, left the field after 10 minutes with a twisted ankle and was replaced by test five-eighths, J. A. Bond. J. E. Fagan limped badly and K. R. McCracken received a cut on his eye. These added to the already long list will present problems of team selection for future games.

New Zealand did “not” impress against weak opposition and their tackling was high and weak. The Kiwis led 10-0 at half-time and with the prop forward, J. H. Fisher, giving the tourists 17-10 advantage in his first attempt at hooking, the Kiwis used the ball to advantage to score five of their seven tries in the second half.

Fagan had an off day with his kicking and landed only two out of nine attempts. B. T. Reidy took the last attempt at conversion but was unsuccessful. N. L. Denton, Bond and G. J. Woollard showed out in the backline. The forwards were not impressive but R. D. Hammond toiled hard on defence. The Kiwi play was ragged at times on a hard, dry ground before a crowd of about 4000.

Shortly after Sparnon was replaced by Bond, New Zealand went ahead. Ellwood broke clear to hand to Fagan who sent Denton in for the first try after 18 minutes. Fagan landed a beautiful kick from the sideline. Fisher burst through some weak defence from the

twenty-five yard line to add the second try, and Fagan again added the points. However, he missed two penalty goals from wide out and the Toowoomba full-back was wide with a penalty attempt just before half-time. Kiwis Break Away After defending for long periods, New Zealand broke away to score in the twentythird minute of the second half. Lee made the initial break from a play-the-ball movement, passed to Emery who drew the full-back and then gave Ready a 35-yard run to the line. Fagan was just short with his kick from the sideline. Play travelled across the field before Deniton sent a high pass infield to put McCracken over for the Kiwis’ fourth try. A try by Woollard gave New Zealand a 19-0 lead. Toowoomba narrowly missed scoring when J. Mulhall lost the ball after taking a high up-and-under over the New Zealand goal-line, losing the ball as he fell to the ground. McMaster scored on full-

time after New Zealand had been pinned in its own territory fo rthe last ten minutes.