Country Shows Strength For Town Match

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32308, 28 May 1970, Page 17

Country Shows Strength For Town Match

The Canterbury Rugby Sub-unions indicated that they were well prepared for their annual game against Town on Monday, by convincingly beating MidCanterbury, 19-9, at Kaiapoi yesterday.

Considering the cold conditions, both sides gave an impressive display of open Rugby, but the fast pace caught up with several players and there were some relieved faces when the final whistle went.

Mid-Canterbury opened impressively, backs and forwards combining well and testing the subunions defence with little grubber kicks and high up-and-unders.

After 30 minutes, Mid-Can-terbury led 6-0, its points coming from a 40-yard penalty by B. P. Isherwood, and a try scored by L. E. Shearer, after the ball had been spun along the back-line and giving Shearer enough room to dive over in the corner.

At this stage, the subunions forwards took control and the speedy Mid-Canter-bury back-line was starved of ball for the rest of the game. Commanding Pack The Sub-union pack gave a great display of power Rugby. Led by the two AU Blacks, A. J. Wyllie and A. E. Hopkin son, it dominated the middle and latter stages of the match. Hopkinson was a great asset in line-outs. At No. 2 he won the ball every time it was thrown to him, and when it was thrown to the back he would double round the line to act as a block against the Mid-Canterbury loose forwards. It was unfortunate for Sub-unions that Hopkinson had to leave the field with an injury midway through the second half, although W. Scott was a competent substitute.

Wyllie started the game slowly, acting mainly as ball distributor, but when warmed up, he made many of his typical runs with shoulder down and ball in one hand. Spectacular Try

The Sub-unions final try, scored in the dying stages, was a gem. Wyllie picked the ball up from the back of a scrum near Mid-Canterbury’s ■ line and ran hard for the cor- ■ ner. As he was about to be ■ tackled, he in-passed to S. Wyllie, who bullocked his way over.

A. Francis and J. Sowden were two competent locks, while the sub-union captain, N. G. Cornelius, led his team by example. G. Dunster supported Wyllie well in the loose and the hooker, M. Crawford, who replaced J. Sheehan early in the match, featured in many passing rushes.

Best of the sub-unions backs was the half-back, W. Croft, who scored two tries. His second came when he robbed his opposite of the ball after a scrum went down on the Mid-Canterbury goal-line. Fine Solo Effort P. Sheehan, the sub-unions full-back, scored a splendid individual try. He fielded a kick ahead on his own side of half-way, beat two tackles, kicked ahead, followed up fast, toed the ball over the line, and won the race to score.

The five-eighths, D. Wyllie and P. Vavasour, both performed creditably, Vavasour scoring one try and losing the ball when diving for another. Outstanding in the Mid-Can-terbury pack was the team captain, M. J. Hanham. He was most proficient in cover defence and a hard man to

bring down. One such run livened the spectators but a lack of speed cost him a try. L. R. McCulloch, making his debut for Mid-Canterbury, was the pick of the other forwards, all of whom were outplayed by their opposites. Limited Chances Unexpectedly, it was in the backs that Mid-Canterbury had the edge. The wings, L. E. Shearer and G. R. Bryant, were extremely speedy but their opportunities were limited. Isherwood kicked well at full-back but also made some handling errors, and P. L. Whinham, the first fiveeighth, handled safely but tended to lob his passes, thus slowing down the back-line. For the sub-unions, tries were scored by Croft (2), Vavasour, Sheehan, and S. Wyllie; Sheehan and D. Wyllie each kicked a conversion. Shearer scored for MidCanterbury and Isherwood kicked two 40-yard penalties.