Amco Cup will be highlight of representative season

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34104, 17 March 1976, Page 19

Amco Cup will be highlight of representative season

(By

JOHN COFFEY)

The inclusion of Canterbury among 32 teams from Australia and New Zealand in the $210,000 Amco Cup knock-out tou r namen t should have shaken rugby league players and officials out of any lingering off-season lethargy and has ensured that the representative programme will be one of the most memorable for many years.

Within an hour or so of receipt of the news that Canterbury would make its Amco debut against Eastern Suburbs at Brisbane on the evening of April 24, the selectors (Messrs Alister Atkinson, Gary Clarke and Jim Fisher) were devising plans to have their squad as physically and mentally prepared as possible.

Members of the panel have attended friendlymatches to gauge the fitness of likely candidates, and two teams will be named on Sunday to oppose each other in the first of three trials under floodlignts next Wednesday evening.

Their surveillance will continue during the South Island seven-a-side tournament at the Show Grounds on March 27 and 28, and when the inter-club competitions open on April 3. To all intents, everything possible has been done to have Canterbury ready to continue on its winning way of a season ago.

Fortunately, all of the members of the first XIII last year are available —

the only withdrawals from contention are the former Kiwi forwards, Wayne Robertson and Rod Walker — and they have been joined in the running for places tn the team by an influx of experienced footballers from other provinces. There are few, if any, positions in which the

encumbants could consider themselves safe. Canterbury’s unbeaten record in the Rothmans finals last year presents a firm argument for retaining most of the individuals responsible for its triumph But it must be remembered that the two kiwis in Britain and France-, Bruce Dickison and John Greengrass, did not play in the win at Auckland; that Eddie Kerrigan is available again; and that Bob Jarvis, Wayne Bunn and Murray Wright will be attempting to add Canterbury honours to those already earned for Auckland. Trial form, therefore, will have a great bearing on the eventual composition of the squad of 17 to travel to Brisbane. There are some particularly attractive confrontations in prospect: Jarvis against Graeme Cooksley at stand-off half, Kerrigan, Mocky Brereton, Lewis Hudson and Francis Lawrence vying for the wings, Dale Brown — after 23 consecutive appearances at hooker — challenged by Wright, and Stewart Hogg, Alan Rushton, Mark Fuller and Greengrass disputing the other front-row roles. At full-back. Jack Clarke has an obvious rival in Kevin Williams, while the versatile Mike O’Donnell would enter the reckoning either in this berth or as a centre if the other goalkickers, Hudson and Lawrence, gave way to the 1974 test pair. Brereton and Kerrigan, on the Hanks of the back-line. Brereton scored the vital try against Auckland as a centre and will no doubt come under consideration, along with Dickison. Gary Taie and Leon Paskell. in mid-field. The efficient Wally Wilson is the logical scrum-half unless the selectors choose to utilise the big-match skills of both Jarvis and Cooksley behind the pack.

Already there is evidence that the young second-row

combination of Mark Broadhurst and Rex Dalzell would be no less effective than last season, when they hinted that higher honours were not too fatahead of them. But Bunn made a very impressive debut for Hornby on Saturday, a heartening factor if Broadhurst leaves Christchurch during the season. It is unlikely that Canterbury has ever before been in the position of being able to ,field two sides of almost similar strength, a factor that is especially pleasing because of the conditions under which the Amco games are conducted. All four re-

serves are allowed to take the field, and there will be no fears that the over-all potential of the team will be lessened by necessary or tactical substitutions. A defeat at Brisbane next month would have a dampening effect on the remainder of the representative programme, but there are three other major assignments ahead of the Canterbury team regardless of how far it progresses towards the pot of gold at the end of the Amco rainbow.

Queensland will make a brief visit to this country, with fixtures against Auckland on May 12 and Canterbury four days later. There has been a remarkable resurgence in Queens-

land rugby league and the state XIII gave New South Wales a series of torrid tussles last vear.

In August Canterbury makes its entry into the restyled national Rothmans contest, against the other southern zone qualifier, almost certain to be its perennial rival. West Coast. There was little between the two provinces in 1975. Canterbury being fully extended before emerging a 14-11 winner at Greymouth and a 20-15 victor at home.

If Canterbury should clear this hurdle, it will host the grand final of the tournament. The Show Grounds would be an ideal venue for a rematch with Auckland, which will be most eager to wipe out the memories of its upset at Carlaw Park five months ago.

Wellington must be given an outside chance of beating Auckland for the first time, especially now that two test backs, Warren Collicoat and John O’Sullivan. have moved south to join their former Kiwi team-mates, Phil Or-

chard. Don Munro and John Whittaker. It is doubtful, though, whether Wellington can restrain the Auckland forwards to give these players full attacking scope. Even though Auckland’s depth of talent has been eroded by the loss of Robertson. Jarvis. Wright. O’Suii ivan, Collicoat. Dane Sorensen — the young New Zealand prop who has decided to take a spell from football and spend some time in the United States — and Bunn, it can never be taken lightly. Other provinces have to rely on first-class matches to harden their team members; Auckland’s club competition is sufficiently strong to achieve this. At the recent annual general meeting of the Canterbuy Rugby League frequent mention was made of how difficult it had been for the province to reach the top in national rankings — and how much harder it will be to stay there. The months ahead will tell whether Canterbury has the resources to achieve the second of these objectives now that the first is behind it.