COMBINED SIDE MISSED KICKER Lions concede 4 tries to second-half rally

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32640, 23 June 1971, Page 32

COMBINED SIDE MISSED KICKER Lions concede 4 tries to second-half rally

(From Our Own Reporter)

BLENHEIM.

Like the kingdom that was lost for the want of a nail, the want of a kicker in the Combined Nelson Bays-Marlborough side was its downfall yesterday afternoon.

The British Isles put on 23 points in the first half without Combined scoring. The Lions added only eight more points in the second half to Combined’s 12 all of them coming from tries to win 31-12.

For the young Combined full-back, L. C. Sparks, the afternoon of the shortest day was probably the longest he has remembered. All nine of his kicks at goal missed (five of them from penalties), and A. R. Sutherland, taking two long-range penalty shots, fared no better.

The hopelessness of the situation manifested itself late in the second half when Combined, with a penalty close to the posts, ran the ball from a tap. It led to A. R. Sutherland scoring. There were moments in the first half when it seemed the Lions would surpass the record of the 1959 Lions side, which beat the Combined team, 64-5. Loose or untidy Combined ball was snapped up avidly by the Lions, and in nine short minutes they put 15 points on the board. Good kicking But it was the Combined side which held sway in the second half. Having learnt early that the passage of the ball through the backline could not match the speed of the Lions coming up on defence, Combined probed and breached the Lions’ defences with intelligently - placed kicks from the half-back, R. J. May, or the first fiveeighths, A. M. Goddard. At the same time, the Combined loose forwards worried the Lions’ fly-half, C. H. M. Gibson, and J. S. Spencer into handling lapses. Good ruck ball, with more well-placed kicks kept the pressure on and finally brought the reward of four tries in the half —twice more than have been scored by any other side the Lions have met so far. But while “what might have been” will keep the crowd of about 12,000 at Lansdowne Park, Blenheim, talking for many a day, the points on the board were facts with which none would argue. The Lions’ points all came from clean tries, and some fine kicking by the full-back, R. Hiller. They were scored from well-conceived and beautifully-executed manoeuvres to which Combined had no counter.

As in past matches, the tackling of Combined was not all it should have been, but the speed and tremendous

determination of every Lion when he ran with the ball, often made even some copybook tackles ineffectual. If there was one facet of play above all others which might have caused the Lions some concern it was the number of penalties they had in the first half. Combined were awarded seven by the referee, Mr R. Fenton, of Otago, and in the second half he awarded Combined a further eight. Combined was penalised only twice—-both in the first half. In the main, the Lions achieved possession and they had more of it than Combined from line-outs and scrums, from the loose ball or from misdirected kicking. But it was not until the game was nine line-outs old that they achieved firsthalf domination of this phase. The tall Combined No. 8, B. C. Grant, playing mostly at No. 5, made some splendid two-handed takes in the first half, and repeated this success with some more fine possession in the second spell. His opposite, W. J. Mcßride, mostly at No. 3, and G. LBrown, further back, got a lot of good tap ball and with adequate protection, the scrum-half, R. Hopkins, sent Gibson away with long, swift passes. Scrummaging Although Combined held its own in the line-outs, it could not match the scrummaging of the Lions, and its half-back, May, did well to clear the ball while his forwards were being marched back. Towards the end of the second half, the Combined front row buckled badly, and there was one never-to-be-forgotten scrum when the Lions’ loose-head prop, J. McLauchlan, popped his opposite, B. Smith, out of the scrum like a cork from a bottle. But in the final count there were only five tight heads, three of them to the Lions.

In the loose, and especially in covering play, P. J. Dixon and D. L. Quinnell covered a lot of profitable ground for the Lions. Dixon being rewarded for one glorious backup with a good try. Mcßride too, while not as conspicuous in the more open play, retained his reputation as an indomitable trier. The othet lock, M. G. Roberts, with the front-row men, J. F- Lynch, the hooker, F. A. L. Laidlaw and McLaughlan, were a very efficient quartet in the tight

Too few glimpses of the brilliance of Gibson were seen. He made one magnificent run which brought a ' congratulatory response from the crowd, and he scored a good try, but he appeared to have been cast in a secondary role for much of the game. It was the centre, C. W. W. Rea, who impressed in everything he did, and the left wing, A. G. Biggar, with three great tries was another to catch the eye. J. S. Spencer, the other centre was competent, but for a few handling lapses, and the other wing, T. G. R. Davies, like Biggar, had a good match. The full-back, Hiller, was the Lions’ saviour on many occasions, and his goal-kick-ing—much of it from extremely difficult angles—was superb. He ran too, and when he did so he was always a danger. Unhappy day Combined’s full - back. Sparks, had an unhappy day to say the least, and so, too, did the right wing, T. W. Mitchell. Both Mitchell and Ross looked for play, but too often in vain, because the ball never came their way along the line. Ross made one dashing run through the centre, but failed to get his

pass away. At centre, R. G. Bowater never received the ball from a movement, .but his terrier-like questing of the loose ball helped keep Combined on the attack in the second half. Inside him, J. T. Gleeson and Goddard, gave little away. Both suffered from the attentions of the flankers and the quick defences of the backs, but their tactical kicking undoubtedly helped give Combined the edge in the second half. Although beaten in the scrums, the Combined pack yielded mastery in no other phase of play. The loose trio —Grant, J. P. Allan and A. R. Sutherland—covered and harassed all day, and in many instances their swiftness to the ball in the second half gave Combined excellent possession. Tidy rucks The rucks, due to R. S. Sutherland and R. P. Dickson —who also took a share in the credit for Combined’s line-out efforts—were mainly tidy affairs and well-knit. J. W. Joseph had a great tussle with Lynch on the loose head, and seldom strayed from the harder play. Srhith and Forrest, likewise, tried hard to the final whistle. For the Lions, tries were scored by Biggar (3), Gibson, Dixon, Davies and Rea. Hiller converted five of them. Combined’s tries were scored by Allan, R. S. Sutherland and A. R. Sutherland and Gleeson.