Reduced Papanui reaches final

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33942, 8 September 1975, Page 15

Reduced Papanui reaches final

(By

JOHN COFFEY)

Even the handicap of having to play a man short for 72 minutes was not sufficient to prevent Papanui from beating Linwood, 19-13, in the Canterbury' Rugby league championship preliminary final at the Show Grounds on Saturday.

The Papanui prop for-! ward, Mike Godinet, was dismissed by Mr T., Drake as a result of a kicking incident with a Linwood player. Whether Godinet is avail-1 able for the grand final next! Sunday will depend on the! hearing at the league’s board of control meeting this evening. With its ranks reduced, Papanui continued with a five-man scrum, but was still decisively better than Linwood for the third time in as many weeks. Two quick tries took Papanui to a 14-4 lead; at the interval, and only! nine points to Linwood in the; final quarter reduced the; margin to respectable propor-i tions. I Only one man—the Papanui j captain and coach, Rod; Walker—stands between the; other grand finalist. Christ-church-Eastern Suburbs, and the Pat Smith Challenge Trophy. Walker moved from his regular forward position to stand-off half on Saturday, without lessening his effectiveness.

Walker’s value to Papanui was) emphasised when he and the! Linwood centre, Robin Walker.; spent 10 minutes in the “chilly-j bin” after a punching bout that erupted into a brawl late in the; first half. Linwood pushed the, leaderless Papanui XI back to its own try-line and would surely have cut into the lead had it not blatantly wasted its scoring opportunities. When Walker returned, so did the smoothness in Papanui’s pattern. Athol Clarke came to terms with the temporary hooking problems he was experiencing in set play — and did well to trail only 15-19 — and Walker’s long passing again had the Linwood

i cover-defence racing back into i its own territory. It had been Walker who had I planned the touch-downs by i Mark Broadhurst and Kevin Walker in quick succession just into the second quarter. Walker II took possession from play-the-balls. attracted his rivals to the tackle, and timed his deliveries : expertly to Broadhurst and . Kevin Walker, who were moving I at pace. Russell Seaward put the pros- ‘; pect of a late Linwood revival ; out of the question when he con- , tributed a characteristic try 20 ’ minutes from full-time. Angus McGregor, his prop, had been rather fortunate to take a, re- ’ bound off an opposing player, but 1 once with the ball he ably I worked into a position from . which his in-pass left Seaward . unmarked. ’ As attractive as much of Papa- ’ nui’s football was, the match was 1! a disappointment. The teams • were perhaps just too conversant with each other’s style and per- ! tonalities as an outcome of their frequent clashes in the last month. There was frequent nig- ; gling. and there were as many penalties — 34 — as scrums, the ■ first time this has happened in a i [ club match for many years. A casual spectator might have !' thought that he was watching a . goal-kicking contest between I Lewis Hudson (Linwood) and Kevin Williams (Papanui i for ! much of the time. Williams l kicked for goal from six first-half penalties and Hudson, the more 1 accurate, had five attempts. . Linwood should have prospered . when it won the ball from the first seven scrums after the re- ‘ sumption, particularly as Rod

Walker was watching proceedings from the distant dead-ball line. But Hudson went alone and was caught with Guy Roberts unmarked outside him. Hesitant passing cost other points. Williams had a most successful game at full-back, troubling Linwood with his forceful entries to the back-line and displaying soundness under the high punt and when required to tackle. His efforts won for him the McWilliam's Wines “player of the. week” award. Around the scrum-base, Phil | Bladder more than shared the i honours with Wally Wilson. Gary; Taie’ and Robert Schwass presented a solid defence in the i

centres, and Seaward impressed on the right wing. However, Rod Walker was the master-mind of Papanui’s victory whether setting up his threequarters or turning possession into his second-row pair Kevin Walker and Broadhurst. Clarke, back in action after a spell because of injury, quickly found his football feet again and was active in the loose. Few of Linwood’s players performed consistently for the full 80 minutes. The two exceptions among the forwards were Rex Dalzell and Chris Millbank, and Cliff Leney did his utmost to infuse some penetration from fullback. Broadhurst. Kevin Walker and Seaward scored tries for Papanui and Williams kicked five goals. The Linwood try. in the last movement of the match, went to Milbank, and Hudson added five goals.