KICKING DECIDED

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31090, 20 June 1966, Page 16

KICKING DECIDED

Dunlop In Good Form SYDENHAM 15: B. Wilson, G. Hay tries; A. E. Dunlop three penalty goals. MERIVALE-FAPANUI: 11: C. Johnson a try; L. S. MeCaughan a penalty goal, conversion, dropped goal. The Waltham Park meeting of two very even teams was resolved, in the end, by goal-kick-ing. Dunlop was in excellent touch for Sydenham but the combined team missed, on one count, 11 penalty attempts, seven of them from within the 25 yard line. Like the match, the players were very even and it was moments, rather than over-all displays by individuals, that pro vided the highlights. These included Dunlop’s kicking, Johnson’s try when he cut infield and wrong-footed the entire Sydenham defence, and two or.three probing 30-yard runs by the Merivale-Papanul wing, W. S. McLaughlan, who was much neglected. The first half was undistinguished by a certain amount of scrappy play and unpleasantness although Sydenham attempted to use its blackline and succeeded a little because the Merivale-Papanul backs were slow up on defence. However, the Merivale-Papa-nul backs Improved their tackling in the second half and both lines then tended to cancel each other out, both covering and recovering well. When he moved to half-back fairly late in the game, an under-20 player, J. K. Taylor, niade a distinct Impression for MerivalePapanul.

There was a very even forward struggle with neither pack gaining the ascendancy. The combined team missed the height and weight of D. Wynne, who went off with a dislocated finger, but J. W. Grocott was a most adequate replacement Referee: Mr W. A. Eaglesome.