Canterbury Side Still Strong

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31772, 31 August 1968, Page 15

Canterbury Side Still Strong

"The Press** Special Service

NEW PLYMOUTH.

Taranaki should be pleased at the prospect of meeting a Canterbury Rugby team that has lost eight of its top players, but it seems that this will be no picnic match for it at New Plymouth today.

Canterbury has lost eight players to the South Island team, and Taranaki has lost two—A. E. Smith and B. L. Muller—to the North Island team.

The Taranaki pack without Smith and Muller is without its two most powerful players, but Canterbury has managed to field a very capable team. Only the second fiveeighths, L. Legge, is without representative experience. However, the Junior All Black, I. Eliason, will give Taranaki a good hand in the line-outs, the All Black flanker, M. C. Wills, should be as fast to the loose ball and the tackle as any of his Canterbury opponents, and another Junior All Black, A. J. Gardiner, should be capable in the tight. Gardiner and the Canterbury prop, K. Tanner, could

provide one of the interesting individual clashes of the game. There should be a tussle between the respective inside back combinations, B. A. Watt and T. N. Wolfe are old adversaries.

Canterbury has beaten Waikato and Wanganui and lost to Auckland on this tour. Taranaki lost to Bay of Plenty after beating North Auckland and losing to Auckland. The teems are:—

TARANAKI: K. P. Hurley; R. L. Clarke, W. D. R. Currey, W. L. Hopson; R. C. O’Dowda, T. N. Wolfe: D. J. Wards; A. L. Campbell: M. C. Wills, T. D. Jenkins, I. M. Eliason, P. G. Coles: A. J. Gardiner, F. W. Harris, I. Rielly. CANTERBURY: S. Murray; R. Woolhouse, H. .1. Joseph. R. Cox; L. Legge, B. A. Watt; L. Dickson; I. H. Fenrose; L. E. Cochrane. N. R. Perkins, W. J. Risman, N. Cornelius; K. Tanner, J. J. Creighton, A. McLellan.