Long, testing season for Canterbury Rugby team

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33816, 12 April 1975, Page 4

Long, testing season for Canterbury Rugby team

(By

J. K. BROOKS)

There will be feverish early-season activity for the Canterbury Rugby team, so that it will he in good shape to meet the might of Scotland on May 31. But, as a result. Lancaster Park patrons will have little to enthuse over in the normally busy month of September.

The mter-island match and. perhaps, a slice of the inter-provincial seven-a-side competitor! will be all that is offering in Christchurch in the last month of the season.

However, the sacrifices made by the Rugby planners will be worthwhile if the Canterbury-Wellington game at Athletic Park on September 27 is for the Ranfurly Shield. Wellington will challenge Auckland for the prized trophy three weeks before this date.

Canterbury A will have away games against West ( oast and Marlborough and a home match agginst Otago before it plavs Scotland on May 31. As well as the benefits which will emerge from these fixtures in the form of match fitness and improved combination, it is pleasing that links with Marlborough have been restored. In June. Canterbury will make its annual pilgrimage to Fraser Park, Timaru, and then it will play Wellington rt Lancaster Park, a week before it is confronted by its second over-

seas opponent of the season. Tonga, in early July. The annual fixture against Mid-Canterbury at the Ashburton Showgrounds will come later in July and then, in August, '"anterbury will face three powerful North Island sides. Bay of Plenty, Auckland and North Auckland, at Lancaster Park. Also on the schedule for August is a match against Southland in Invercargill. Because of the reshuffling of arrangements to accommodate the Scottish tour, Canterbury will not have its usual southern tour this year. Instead it will make its annual appearance in Dunedin five weeks and a half after the Southland game. Canterbury sub-unions will play four games, three of them at the Rangiora Showgrounds, and Canterbury B will have three matches, two of them at home.

Three, and possibly four peaks will have to be reached by the A side this season. The first will be for the game against Scotland, the second for the Tongan match, and the third for the AucklandNorth Auckland “double” in late August. The away matches against Otago and Wellington at the end of September might call for a further strong effort.

This situation will pose interesting problems for the Canterbury selectors (Messrs S. F. Hill and D. A. Arnold). It is logical that they' have clung largely to the men who wore the

red-and-biack jerseys last season for the initial matches. After the Scottish - game they might be tempted to cast their net a little wider in the interest, of team building for next year. Their first task was ♦o find adequate replacements for the two All Blacks who had left the district. Hamish Macdonald and lan Hurst. Denis Wall-

er (Christchurch) and David Thompson (Belfast) were clearly the two bestequipped candidates for the post of Vance Stewart's locking partner, while Ricky Allen (Suburbs) found favour as the man to take over as second five-eights. Allen probably gained his chance by overshadowing Murray McEwan (Christchurch) in a first round game. Bruce McPhail (Old Boys) has been recalled, but he will have to recapture

his form of two years ago, if he is to make certain of winning the right wing position. Ricky Knight (Christchurch) Will probably emerge as another strong contender. In. any case, he would be a useful utility man for the squad.

Mr Hill is confident that Canterbury has the material. and the spirit, to make a strong, successful team. His toughest task will be to keep the side on the boil throughout a long and testing season.