Doshisha Jugglers Too Good For Lincoln

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31029, 7 April 1966, Page 19

Doshisha Jugglers Too Good For Lincoln

The cup of Rugby goodness bubbled over at Lincoln College yesterday when the touring Doshisha University team beat Lincoln College, 16-9.

It was a game which made the New Zealand conception of open Rugby seem outmoded. The tiny Japanese centres impudently engineered a succession of brilliant moves which . f.abbagasted the home team’s cover defence and produced three tries in the last 14 minutes. The bewildering speed with which the Doshisha players released the ball when tackled made the game a spectacle of almost constant movement. Second Victory Although the Doshisha players were highly pleased with their victory—the second of their New Zealand tour—the game’s real winner was Rugby. Lincoln College entered into the spirit of the encounter and a delightfully free-flowing game, free of incident and spiced with humour, was unfolded before a crowd of about 1600. By the accepted canons of Rugby, Lincoln College should have won. The forwards dwarfed their opposites and outweighed them by almost two stone a man, so winning possession proved no problem. Then, too, the home side played into the strong wind in the first half but after eight minutes of the second half it had the Japanese team down by two tries to nil. That the Doshisha side was able to win handsomely in the face of these handicaps was a tribute to the speed of foot and agility of its players. But it was also a tribute to the men of Lincoln Col-

lege, who forsook the safety of the touchline and sought to match the visitors in the handling game. The referee, Mr A. R. Taylor, saw to it that the game did not lose its tempo through any over-zealousness on his part. It was a day on which enterprise reaped a just reward. The key figures in Doshisha’s win were the brilliant centres, Matagi and Hashimoto. Their exceptional acceleration, anticipation and ability to duck beneath anything but a hard, low tackle opened up the opportunities for the visitors to score four brilliant tries. In one of these movements, Matagi effected a scintillating break down the centre of the field, threw a high overhead pass to Hashimoto, who caught the ball cleanly and sent the left wing, Sakata, hell-bent for the goal-line. Scissor Movement Nine minutes later Sakata entered the line from the blind side, broke through the first line of defence and scissor-passed to Hashimoto. The remaining defender was drawn expertly and the right wing, Hirokazi Ishizuka, was dispatched on a try-scoring run. Hiroji Ishizuka, the No. 8. scored the final try two minutes later after more midfield wizardry by the two centres. Lincoln College had the better of the first half, when its forwards rampaged through the Lilliputian ranks of the visitors. A torrent of scoring seemed likely to burst over the heads of the Japanese, but they checked it with a most effective dam: counterattack.

The Doshisha forwards were not at all embarrassed in the set pieces. They won some quick ball with their un-

orthodox three-man line-out: technique and the hard throwing of Nishimura, and, at times, pushed the Lincoln College scrum back a yard or two. They piled into the rucks fearlessly, too, but rarely won the ball. Judo Not Needed The Lincoln College halfback, Rowsell, and first fiveeighths, Tapsell, were full of enterprise and fine running and Davison generated genuine pace on the right wing. Three times in the first half he sprinted furiously for the line, but on each occasion his marker, Sakata, a judo black belt nailed him in the comer—without resorting to the techniques of his other sport. For Doshisha, tries were scored by Hirokazu Ishizuka, Hiroji Ishizuka, Nishimura and Sakata. Matagi and Hashimoto converted one try each. Eggleton and McLellan scored tries for Lincoln College and Keoghan kicked a penalty goal.