Jarvis to test team

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34128, 14 April 1976, Page 40

Jarvis to test team

(By

JOHN COFFEY)

The late inclusion of the Kiwi stand-off half, Bob Jarvis, in the Canterbury B team will ensure that the provincial Amco Cup rugby league squad experiences an even more formidable rehearsal than expexjpected at the Show Grounds this evening.

Jarvis made an impressive debut for Hornby against Halswell and tonight will be returning to the scene of one of his finest performances — he scored two tries at France’s expense in his first full international last year.

The initiative to bring Jarvis into the match — arranged to give the Canterbury A side a thorough test before it plays in Brisbane next Wednesday — was taken by one of the Canterbury selectors, Mr Gary Clarke, who coached the second XIII last evening.

One of the most obvious reservations about the quality of Canterbury’s Amco challenge was the decision to switch Ken Tait, a scrumhalf for his club, to standoff half. Tait can hardly be expected to match Jarvis, but he should benefit from the encounter. The Canterbury selectors (Messrs Jim Fisher, Clarke and Mel Clinton) had already taken a bold step in pitting as powerful a team as possible against their first choices, and Mr Clarke said yesterday that he might have another surprise in store at the kick-off.

An injury has forced Dale Brown, the regular Canterbury’ hooker until he was passed over last Saturday, toi withdraw from the B squad’s! reserves, and there is some; doubt whether the in-form centre, Michael O’Donnell, will be playing His availability rests on whether he returns from a business conference in Nelson in time.

Canterbury B appears no weaker than its opponent in quite a number of positions. Jack Clarke (full-back), Graeme Cooksley (scrumhalf), and Mark Broadhurst (second-row) did the province proud in Auckland and elsewhere a season ago, Jarvis and Murray Wright (hooker) were Kiwis within the last 12 months, and Bruce Murphy (wing) and Noel Turner (centre or wing) are no strangers to firstclass football.

The young Eastern forwards, Terry Giliman and Jim Churcher, have progressed pleasingly, and Eddie Kerrigan will have his first serious test in the centres since returning from a long spell on the side-lines because of injury.

It would be a rather humbling experience for the A team if victory was not; achieved in a comfortable manner, but it is better for any inadequacies to be shown on the Show Grounds rather than ’ Lang Park a week later. The fact that the match will be played under Amco Cup rules, incorporating four 20-minute quarters, .will be of assistance to the Canterbury coach (Mr Fisher) in planning his tactics for Brisbane. Three of the Canterbury A backs, Bruce Dickison, Gary Taie and Kevin Williams, have only been able to undergo light training, and whether they piay tonight, and travel to Brisbane, will depend on their fitness.