Merivale-Papanui Defends Strongly

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31660, 22 April 1968, Page 14

Merivale-Papanui Defends Strongly

MERIVALE-PAPANUI 3: W. Me* Laughlin r try. NEW BRIGHTON 3: B. Hobson a penalty goal* In the first 20 minutes New Brighton seemed assured of an easy win. Its forwards, with K. J. Tanner, G. Tanner and I. H. Penrose in front of most rushes, were far more vigorous and purposeful than the MerivalePapanui eight, and the backs, although not particularly cohesive, were dangerous on attack. But bad handling by the backs, and a tendency to place individual efforts ahead of team work, cost New Brighton scoring chances and allowed Merivale-Papanui to assemble its defences. At half-time the game was scoreless and Merivale-Papanui gained the wind. It used this quite well and the forwards, responding to some judicious kicking by the first five-eighths, L. S. McCaughan, began to dominate the exchanges. Using its backs well, MerivalePapanui gave the New Brighton defence many anxious moments. The try scored by the left wing, McLaughlan, was an excellent effort. McCaughan chopped inside C. Smith and then widened the gap expertly. Although C. Johnson was tackled near the posts he managed to throw an overhead pass to the centre, T. R. Marshall, who quickly passed the ball to McLaughlan. Stung by this, New Brighton made some determined attacks in the last 20 minutes and i forced Merivale-Papanui to de-

termined defence. Although New Brighton made some dangerous moves they were mainly individual efforts and there was an air of desperation in the New Brighton team as all its efforts foundered on the very fine Merivale-Papanui defence. But in the last few minutes Hobson kicked a penalty goal to even the scores and bring about a fair indication of the game. Two young New Brighton backs, R. Pierce at centre and R. King on the left wing, showed some promise and made some dangerous runs in the loose broken play. L. Dickson sent out some long and swift passes but occasionally sacrificed accuracy for length, so that often his passes bobbled around between the first and second five-eighths. The New Brighton pack did not look as formidable as in other years. The Tanner brothers and Penrose were rugged and vigorous but too often they lacked support from the other forwards. Merivale-Papanui on its showing should produce some interesting Rugby this season. It has its largest pack for many seasons but is still quite mobile. B. Ramsay played excellently at No. 8. His hard tackling and alert covering was of great benefit to the team when it was under strong pressure towards the end of the match. D. Wynne was useful in the line-outs and determined in the tight and D. Pirie hooked quickly and cleanly. Referee: Mr A. R. Taylor.