Addington,Papanui Lead League Premiership

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31725, 8 July 1968, Page 9

Addington,Papanui Lead League Premiership

The Canterbury Rugby league club championship promises to develop into one of the most exciting for some seasons following Addington s 9-7 victory over Papanui in the best club match of the season and ManstWestern Suburbs’ convincing upset of Linwood at the Show Grounds on Saturday.

Addington drew level with Papanui in the minor premiership lead with its narrow win but the game could have gone either way in an enthralling second half as play swung from one end of the field to the other with tries being stopped only by desparate cover defence.

There were many outstanding individual performances —the opportunism and running of A. F. McNaughtan, R. L. Lanauze’s deception on the wing, and J. L. White’s superb captaincy, tackling, and line-kicking, for Addington; and the grand co-ordina-tion of R. Walker and thrilling runs by M. R. Napier in a losing, but far from disgraced, Papanui side. It was Walker, a 19-year-old loose forward, who played much of his schoolboy football in the halves—as had the former Kiwi captain, M. L. Cooke—who emerged with the “player of the week” award for his fine ball distribution, ability to make ground from set and loose play, and fine defence.

Against expectations MaristWestern Suburbs, and not Linwood, threw down the gauntlet to the leading teams as M. H. Mohi and G. A. Cowan, in the forwards, and J. C. Hawthorne, L. P. J. Brown and W. D. Beri, the most penetrative backs, bewildered Linwood with excellent attacking play. It will defend the Desmond-Rogers Memorial Challenge Trophy against Papanui next week. Further down the table Hornby and Eastern Suburbs beat Kaiapoi and Sydenham to prove that past form does have some bearing on prematch predictions. Results: — Addington 9, Papanui 7. Marist-Western Suburbs 24, Linwood 11. Hornby 38, Kaiapoi IlEastern Suburbs 15, Sydenham 7. Championship points (with Vivian Cup points in parenthesis) are:—

Brilliant Display ADDINGTON »: R. I- Lanauze try: Lanauze two goals, J. L. White field goal. PAPANUI 7: A. W. Thompson try; C. R. Schwass two goals. Neither team deserved to lose after 8® minutes of brilliant football in which the widest margin was only two points, except for five minutes mid-way through the second half when Addington crept to 9-4 before Papanui fought back for Thompson’s try. It could so easily have been a draw—a long penalty by Schwass hit the cross-bar while P. Napier had the chance to convert Papanui’s try but the width of the kick had the final say. The return of J. H. Fisher for Addington did not eventuate; indeed, it was Papanui who introduced a player unannounced. M. Chapman, a former Canterbury Colts Rugby forward, joined Thompson in the second row and, Individually and in partnership, both enjoyed successful games. The excitement that had built up during the game reached its pitch when Papanui attacked desperately in the last eight minutes. Gaining possession from the scrums. Papanui had M. R. Napier and J. M. Toki bursting in from the blind-side wings but Addington threw back every assault with admirable defence. The young Addington hooker, A. Clark, initiated the Magpies’ try when he dashed up the touch-line beating the defence with two dummies, before finally sending the ball into Lanauze. R. S. Cotter distributed the ball well amongst his backs and F. M. Endicott ran strongly in the centres. McNaughtan, sometimes playing near the full-back, on other occasions appearing in the centres, appeared to own the ball, such was his determination to be in the right position at the correct time. In addition to Napier and Toki, who had some difficulty in containing Lanauze but still made ground on most occasions, the deceptiveness of G. H. Clarke and Schwass’s solidity were invaluable to Papanui, while K. R. Blackler joined Walker. Thompson and Chapman as the most impressive forwards. Referee: Mr P. Yaxley. Mohi Impresses MARIST-WESTERN SUBURBS 24: p. V. Costigan. M. H. Mohi, M. Teen, L. P. .J. Brown tries; J. C. Hawthorne six goals. LINWOOD U: L. Bone try; G. J. Rosanowski goal: Rosanowski (two), J. Hales field goals. Linwood's attempt to apply

"knock-out drops" to MaristWestern Suburbs failed as the lattef replied to Linwood’s field goals with tries. A club with more than its share of discarded representative players, Marist-Western Suburbs gave a complete reversal of its woeful performance against Kaiapoi the previous week. And it was some of the former provincial players, Mohi, Hawthorne, N. M. Diggs, and P. V. B. Smith, who were largely responsible. Hawthorne played his best game this season; darting through gaps before putting his team well on to the attack with finely-judged kicks ahead. Although he trails Rosanowski on the individual points table he failed with only three of his nine attempts while Rosanowski kicked one goal from eight opportunities. But it was Mohi, crashing through from the rucks, scooping up loose balls with the finesse of a scrum-half and opening up great holes in a Linwood defence that appeared somewhat tentative after feeling the weight of his runs, who was the outstanding individual on the field.

Only in the closing stages when the game was beyond saving did Linwood score as the defence momentarily relaxed before being further urged on by Smith, whose own tackling equalled that of any other two players. Referee: Mr T. C. Houston. In Bondage

HORNBY 34: B. W. Langton 3, T. Jones 2, P. J. Tongue 2. R. O. Moffat tries: T. Williams 5, Langton, Tongue goals. KAIAPOI 11: M. Pullin try; Pullin 3 goals; F. W. Day field goal. Apart from a try and some fine goal-kicking by Pullin and the occasional kick through that gave its opponents some trouble, Kaiapoi was kept in bondage by the Hornby defence. The absence of its cap-tain-coach, J. E. Bond, was again sorely felt, by Kaiapoi and it had little reply to the strong running of the Hornby three-quarters. Although some tries were lost by what has now become known as "fantasy football” as Hornby threw the ball around indiscriminately after the result had been settled beyond doubt, the running of Langton, Moffat, Jones and Tongue was generally too strong. Hornby had almost complete domination in the forwards as the defence stood off at the rucks, allowing the ball to be cleared to the backs or used by the forwards to widen the holes that were already visible. Referee: Mr N. E. Taylor. East’s Win EASTERN SUBURBS 15: J. Wikaira, R. H. Turton, D. Parker tries; L. Tehuia 3 goals. SYDENHAM 7: J. Winika try;

R. W. Mcßeath goal; B. Tatnell field goal. ", A make-shift Eastern Suburbs played just a little better than Sydenham to win a reasonably interesting game at Bradford Park. Three tries in the first half set Sydenham back but its defence improved markedly in the second spell and Sydenham scored the only try in this period. The big Eastern wing, Wikaira, again made his presence felt with a charging try before leaving the field with a badly cut finger. The experienced Turton and D. Robinson again played well for Eastern Suburbs but the explosive running of G. R. Cooksley was sorely missed on attack. F. Clark, Mcßeath and P. Taite were the most impressive Sydenham players. Referee: Mr J. Hillsdon.

W D L For Agst Pt8 Pap .. .. 9 0 2 265 126 18 (6) Add .. .. 8 2 1 174 80 18 (5)

Mar-W.S. 7 1 3 213 158 15 (6) Lin .... « 2 3 206 139 14 <6> Horn .. 6 0 5 180 130 12 (6) East S 4 1 6 172 161 9 (3) Syd .... 1 0 10 127 249 2 <0> Kaia ... 0 0 11 112 406 0 (0>