QUEUE OF AUSTRALIAN INJURED Wallabies Take Beating In Rough, Bruising Game

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31210, 7 November 1966, Page 3

QUEUE OF AUSTRALIAN INJURED Wallabies Take Beating In Rough, Bruising Game

(Speetat Correspondent N.Z.P.A.) CARDIFF. The Australian Rugby team fell before a deluge of rough treatment from Cardiff at Cardiff Arms Park on Saturday. The Welsh side beat the Wallabies, 14-8, after turning on some fiery play which left a queue of injured Australians.

The Wallabies did well to control themselves; if they had not, the game might have flared into a nasty business. Only in the closing stages did the Australians, tired of constant, unnecessary needling, offer much retaliation.

But the damage had been done, mainlj’ in the first half, when the game was lost.

The Wallaby halfback, K. Catchpole, was the target for some of the husky Cardiff forwards, and midway through the first half he came to grief.

Catchpole was kicked on the head and left the field for 10 minutes while he had three stitches inserted in a deep cut. He returned with his head in a turban-like mass of bandage.

The full-back. J. Lenehan, who has been one of the driving forces behind Australia’s recent successes, was booted in the kidneys when he went down on a rolling ball late in half. Play was moving clear of Lenehan when he was kicked. He needed first aid attention and the Cardiff second row forward, L. Baxter, was spoken to by the referee, Mr R. Lewis. Mr Lewis spoke to several other Cardiff forwards during the game, but nobody was ordered off. The Australian five-eighths, P. Hawthorne, was spitting blood after the game, and was taken to hospital for a pre-

cautionary X-ray examination. He has a bruised lung, and will be out for about a week. The other Australian casualties were:

G. Davis, injured ribs; P. Johnson, nose bleed for most of the game; D. Taylor, kick on his shin: J. Brass, barely walked after a hard kick on his calf-muscle. Asked about Cardiff's vigorous play, the Australian manager, who recently sent home R. Cullen for an alleged ear-biting incident, Mr W. McLaughlin, said: “I have no complaints—we were beaten by a better team.” So the “hoodoo” of the Cardiff Arms Park remains—Australia has never won a match there.

Saturday’s loss was Australia's second in the first six games of the current tour and the first defeat in Wales. A disappointing crowd of 30,000 turned out in bleak conditions to see the match. Australia’s play, even allowing for the upsetting Cardiff tactics, was not up to expectations. The line-out work was below standard and often Catchpole was presented with the ball from mis-directed deliveries. The pack also failed to stop the Cardiff forwards bashing through the line-outs on to Catchpole. The referee was too lenient in his off-side rulings and Catchpole was sometimes confronted with two Cardiff fer-

wards standing between him and his five-eighths, Hawthorne. He was forced to duck back into the heavy going of the forwards. As a result of the trouble Catchpole and Hawthorne encountered, the backs outside them were not given fair opportunities. Even when Lenehan came bounding up from full-back he was more often than not stopped in his tracks as he tried to burst through the reputed fragile defence of the Welsh backs. Cardiff’s man of the match was the red-haired K. Rowlands. the captain and second row forward. As the game progressed Rowlands unravelled Australia’s system of line-out signals and began nominating for all to hear exactly where the ball was going to be thrown.

“Short-ball” or “long ball” or “centre ball,” he would call to his line-out forwards to the amazement and annoyance of the Wallabies. Cardiff’s halves, W. Hullin, and P. Morgan, were also instrumental in their side’s win. In Catchpole's absence, Hullin ducked over from a scrum after 21 minutes for a try, and seven minutes later dropped a field goal after a scrum five yards from the Australian line. The score was 6-0 at halftime, and the full-back, R. Cheney, made it 9-0 with a penalty three minutes after play resumed.

Australia then began to bridge the gap. Hawthorne made a lovely break down the side of the scrum close to Cardiff’s line, threw a dummy pass, and then sent Lenehan, who had raced up, crashing over for a try. Lenehan kicked the conversion. Seven minutes later Hawthorne gathered a loose ball 25 yards out and sent another of his deadly field goals between the uprights. Australia, trailing by a single point, fought on determinedly for a while, but then the game slipped away from the tourists. Morgan put his head down, burst downfield, gave the ball to K. Jones, who raced across for Cardiff’s second try. There was some question whether Morgan’s pass was legitimate or whether it had travelled forward to Jones. Cheney’s easy conversion completed the scoring.