Late Goal Held Lions To Draw

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31144, 22 August 1966, Page 3

Late Goal Held Lions To Draw

(Special Crspdt. N.Z.P.A.) NAPIER. The British Lions and Hawke’s Bay produced some exhilarating football at McLean Park, Napier, on Saturday. The result was an 11-11 draw.

The Lions scored two tries, a penalty goal and a conversion, and Hawke’s Bay scored a try, a conversion, a penalty goal and a dropped goal. This was easily the most exciting match of the tour, and over the last few minutes of play the tension built up to a fever pitch. With five minutes to go the Bay was trailing by five i points. It scored after a magnificent forward short-passing I movement. Then, with only a minute remaining, the winger, W. L. Davis, raced away for what i seemed a certain try and the crowd began to storm on to the field. However, the referee Mr P. McDavitt, brought play 'back to just inside the Lions half and awarded a penalty to i the tourists for obstruction.

The final result, however, is a very fair one and a good indication of the qualities of the two sides. Both willingly threw the ball around from the first minute until the last, but it was also disappointing to see the number of elementary errors the Lions made.

It is still hard to understand why international players cannot pass a ball correctly or throw out an accurate pass. The Lions often looked as if they could have cut the defence to ribbons but mistakes foiled these efforts. However, some of the errors were forced on the Lions by the Bay loose men, K. R. Tremain and T. Johnson. Tremain was at his dynamic best. He stormed at the British inside backs relentlessly and made life very unhappy for D. Watkins. Watkins really had to scamper to dodge Tremain. But once when he avoided a Tremain tackle by turning infield, he ran straight into Johnson. Tremain also charged down an attempted dropped goal by Watkins.

Nearly every loose rush that the Bay mounted was initiated by Tremain. He threw himself into attack after attack and twice came within feet of scoring.

Before the Bay acored its

try, Tremain had made an allout assault on the Lions line after taking the ball away from a scrum. He went through like an enraged bull and it took an heroic tackle by the Lions flanker, R. A. Lamont, to stop him. Lamont achieved his purpose but in doing so nearly knocked himself out. On Saturday night he had a black eye, his face was badly swollen, and he had to have one stitch inserted in his face. Johnson was not far behind Tremain on the day. He covered a lot of ground and featured in most loose passing movements. His reward came with a try after all the forwards had handled the ball. Unexpectedly, the Bay won the line-out honours. In the first half the Lions had a feast of possession but later the Bay men went in with great gusto and made up the leeway. This has been typical of the Bay play this season. In its last three matches it has left its run until the last 15 minutes of a game. In many ways the Lions did exceptionally well to hold out as long as they did. Both packs got through a tremendous amount of work. W. J. Mcßride again played some magnificent Rugby. Be-

sides being the key ballgetter in the line-outs, he was seen on two occasions to take the ball under his arm and charge through the opposition. One of these efforts was only halted two yards from the Bay line. He received great support from N. A. A. Murphy. Besides covering a lot of ground in loose play, Murphy also worked hard in the tight. A. E I. Pask served his side well from the end of the lineout and did some magnificent covering on defence. The captain, M. J. CampbellLamerton, toiled hard as usual. The rangy D. Kirkpatrick was largely responsible for the Bay getting so much possession in the line-outs. Ably supported by K. Crawford, he never let up in his I battles with CampbellLamerton. The All Black, I. R. MacRae, at centre, never had a tchance on attack, mainly because his inside backs were weak. Macßae, however, demoralised C. W. McFadyean with his crashing tackles. I Bishop was sound at full-back and his two goal kicks were most efficient efforts. The Lions scrum-half, R. M. Young, sprang back into

- his early tour form and could ; have played his way back > into the test side. He spun I out some long passes to C. • M. H. Gibson, the best Lions > back on the day. 1 Gibson’s tackling was shattering and he entirely upset his opposite number, G. - Watts. If it had not been for I the Bay loose men, Gibson > could have wreaked great . havoc. D. I. E. Bebb was again ’ in grand form. With 18 points, 1 he is the top try 'scorer in ■ the side. On Saturday he ran ‘ hard and fast and scored a * great try after running around Bishop with only a : few feet in which to move. S. Wilson was completely 1 safe at full-back, and took ' marks in the face of the ' storming Bay forwards. Bebb and Lamont scored for the Lions and Wilson kicked a conversion and a , penalty goal. Johnson scored . for Hawke’s Bay, M. Lough- , lin kicked a dropped goal and ' Bishop kicked a conversion , and a penalty goal.