80 MINUTES OF NIGHTMARE RUGBY Canterbury Wins Poorest Game Of Season

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31781, 11 September 1968, Page 19

80 MINUTES OF NIGHTMARE RUGBY Canterbury Wins Poorest Game Of Season

(By

J. K. BROOKS)

The wisest Rugby followers in Christchurch yesterday were those who stayed away from Lancaster Park. They missed the most dreadful match of the representative season, an exhibition of Rugby jabberwocky in which Canterbury beat North Auckland, 5*3.

It was a game full of bumbling, fumbling, mis-kicking and misdirected enthusiasm. The few good moments were engulfed in a morass of mistakes. Both teams gave the impression they were trying to exorcise an evil spirit from their systems.

For the crowd of about 4000 the result was a Rugby nightmare. and an 80minute nightmare was hard to take. \

Peter Jones would probably have had a word for it—and it would not have been complimentary.

With stoppages coming at the rate of one every 30 seconds, the game stumbled along in an agonising fashion. The strong southerly wind exposed the folly of players who kicked the ball high, but this provided a little light relief from the stodgy fare of fumbled passes, passes which missed the waiting hands altogether, high tackles and fruitless charges. Davis One Of FewEven S. M. Going found that his wizardry had turned sour, and he was overshadowed by the Canterbury half-back. Davis, who was one of the few players to give a consistently good display. The points were scored in splendid fashion, and offered a crumb of comfort to the crowd. K. T. Going kicked a 66yd penalty goal in the fifteenth minute of the first half, after Burns had been caught pushing S. M. Going without the ball.

Canterbury had to strive for more than an hour before it gained the winning points. Cocks came into the back-line from the blind-side, beat three defenders with a corkscrew run, and passed to Joseph. Wyllie took the final pass and bullocked his way across theline, between the goal posts.: McCormick converted to put* Canterbury in front. North Auckland fielded a I pack of tall, sturdy forwards, j but it lost almost twice asi much ball as it won. Burns : won many line-outs for Canter-1 bury with his grand leaping; and safe catching at number) three; in the second half the: home team enjoyed a three to I one superiority in the lineouts, with Kirkpatrick and ’ Risman also jumping well,

while McLellan fed the ball I back surely. But it was in the rucks that Canterbury really made its! presence felt. With Hopkinson and Penrose showing the way. Canterbury won 20 rucks to North Auckland’s six. But the backs made little capital from this precious gift, and many promising moves found ered either through Canterbury’s errors or North Auckland's solid tackling. Davis played splendidly, passing well, linking up quick-

ly when Kirkpatrick and Wyllie had taken the ball as far as they could, and making several swift breaks which would have won the approval of S. M. Going. The other backs, however, spent most of the time in the grip of the dreadful Rugby malaise which hung like a pall over the game. Even the special movement in which Cottrell passes inside to McCormick after Watt has doubled round on a dummy run failed through a dropped pass.

North Auckland was no I better in this respect, and the ' brilliance of the Going i brothers was only a distant memory. 10 In Movement The only occasion on which Canterbury showed the promise of great things was when backs and forwards combined in a spirited sortie inside the North Auckland 25yd line in the first half. About 10 play ers handled the ball, Cottrell participating in the movement three times, but after several switches of play and good backing up, the North Auckland defence had the last word.

The North Auckland wings had four chances to score during the game, but stout defence by McCormick, Cottrell and Joseph foiled their bids. Cottrell’s covering was worth a good deal to Canterbury.

North Auckland did not fare as well as was expected in the line-outs; Kirtlan was overshadowed by Burns, and Hewitt and Hull had only occasional success further back. Holmes, who is highly thought of in the North Island, marred his game with off-side play. The best of the visiting forwards was Guy, a very mobile prop who achieved good work in the mauls and loose rushes. Colthurst, a 15st 71b hooker and a nephew of the “old master,” E. H. Catley won the only two tight heads of the game.

Going Pinned Down

S. M. Going made two of his famous breaks but his lack of match fitness and the alertness of the Canterbury loose forwards led to him being deposited at the bottom of rucks more often than not.

The Canterbury backs tried hard to achieve penetration, but Cottrell, for once, could not winkle his way through, and Joseph’s penchant for propping for the inside break stopped several moves. Jones, the North Auckland centre and the heaviest back on the field, broke up many of Canterbury’s moves from secondary play. Although the Canterbury forwards were quick to the

I rucks and formed a solid wall in the line-outs—two facets of I their game which were in need

of improvement—they, too, were often all fingers and thumbs when they attempted to run with the ball. Hopkinson, Wyllie and Kirkpatrick made the best showings, and McLellan, as busy aS 1 a beaver, proved that the faith ' in him was not misplaced. I Referee: Mr L. S. Kirk.