Patchy Display By All Blacks In Win

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31547, 8 December 1967, Page 15

Patchy Display By All Blacks In Win

(From T. P. McLEAN)

NEWPORT.

No first prize for tactical brilliance or perceptive understanding of the possibilities was won by the All Blacks in the course of their defeat of Monmouthshire, 23-12, at Rodney Parade.

Admittedly, the down-field wind exercised a considerable influence and accounted for the total domination by Monmouthshire of the first half.

Nevertheless, the early evidence of instability in the Monmouthshire defence, especially in the three-quarters, was not accepted by the All Blacks.

They stuck to close-quarter stuff, they became easily discouraged when E. W. Kirton’s attempts to run the ball were checked by scrappy handling, and they persistently battled within a few yards of the scrum. Had the ball been run about the field from the beginning, the defence must have tired much more rapidly than it did.

, Not even B. J. Lochore, usually a serene sort of tactician, was quite up with the play for a long time. He made many crashing runs with the idea of setting up secondary attacks, but every time he was hurled to the ground ball and all and the movement was killed. MANY BREACHES The All Blacks in the first half were committing many breaches although perhaps not quite so many as the referee, Air Commodore G. C Lamb, detected. Up until half-time all the scoring was from penalties. W. F. McCormick kicked two for the All Blacks and the 19-year-old K. Jarret kicked four from seven attempts for Monmouthshire, In the second half Kirton, A. G. Steel, K. R. Tremain,

and B. L. Muller scored tries, with McCormick converting one and kicking a goal from a penalty. When McCormick, a quarter of an hour from the end, put the New Zealanders into the lead with a penalty, it was clearly evident that the touring team’s unbeaten record would be sustained. But even in this second half the All Blacks’ back play and tactical control were wanting in sureness and flexibility. GOOD TRY So the victory, while worth a great deal, was still not quite as sweet as it might have been. Yet there were two or three delightful compensations. Easily the most enjoyable for the whole of the team was the try Muller scored after Lochore had caught a bouncing ball and run into tackles about 10 yards short of the §oal line.

After an indifferent first half in which he found it difficult to link with S. M. Going, Kirton entirely redeemed himself with a magnificent 40-yard run for a try. He fed W. D. Cottrell and doubled around him to take a pass.

Steel’s try, which tied the score, was exhilarating too, for it involved a clever switch when Lochore, breaking off the scrum, began running to the open side. Welsh defenders instinctively moved with him but as the ball emerged from the scrum Kirton was running left on the blind side and Steel was in the clear when he took Kirton’s pass. Lastly there was Tremain’s telescopic reach when, while standing on the mark for a

25-yard drop-out, he clutched out of nowhere a short kick intended by M. Grindle for the blind side.

Defenders ran very fast to get to Tremain as he broke into the clear, but with a deft dummy to J. Major he threw them off and carried on for another 15 or 20 yards for a try. Of the All Blacks, K. F. Gray, W. J. Nathan, Lochore, and Tremain were especially prominent with their work in the open. S. C. Strahan defeated the oustanding Welsh forward, B. Price, in battles for the ball in the line-out. Apart from Going and Kirton, McCormick was the only back to see much action. He was often put under pressure by Monmouthshire. Cottrell and the three-quar-ters saw very little of the ball.