Tavendale Cup will be shared by three

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34149, 10 May 1976, Page 9

Tavendale Cup will be shared by three

The Tavendale Cup will be the Canterbury Rugby League’s most travelled trophy next summer. Kaiapoi’s victory over Linwood at the Show Grounds on Saturday left these two clubs level with the holder, ChristchurchEastern Suburbs, at the top of the competition table. The three-way tie, and the threat to the leaders imposed by Papanui and Hornby, ensures that there will be considerable interest in the premiership, which begins next Saturday, Kaiapoi’s feat of inflicting the first defeat of the season on Linwood was the result of a gradual wresting of supremacy among the forwards and the speed and goal-kicking accuracy of its left wing, Francis Lawrence, who contributed 20 of his team’s 26 points.

Although it was evident at quite an early stage of the second half that Kaiapoi was not to be caught, this was by far the most interesting of the three cup fixtures. Papanui and Eastern had big winning margins against Addington and Sydenham, respectively.

Rod Walker, the Papanui captain and stand-off half, produced the best of a number of excellent goal-kicking displays. He was accurate on 10 occasions from 11 opportunities, mastering both the strong wind and some difficult angles. Bruce Dickison (Eastern) added a try to his nine goals for a personal tally of 21 points, Lawrence was astray only twice, and Lewis Hudson (Linwood) had a perfect record from his four attempts. The leading try-scorers were the fellow-forwards from the Papanui pack. Mark Broadhurst and Angus McGregor, with three each. McGregor would have had another, but he was ruled to have crossed the dead-ball line in the act of touching down.

Riccarton bolstered its ’claims for promotion to the ‘premiership when three tries in the final quarter enabled it to beat Halswell in the last of the qualifying games. The Canterbury Rugby League board of control will decide this evening whether Riccarton’s superior points scoring percentage gives it preference over University-United, with which it tied on compe- . tition points. • Results: —

TAVENDALE CUP Kaiapoi 26, Linwood 11. Christchurch Eastern Suburbs 48, Sydenham 6. Papanui 53, Addington 3. QUALIFYING ROUND Riccarton 25, Halswell 16. COMPETITION POINTS

COMFORTABLE WIN In his First match against his former team-mates, John Greengrass made a vital contribution for Kaiapoi in its defeat of Linwood. There was conjecture whether Kaiapoi’s 11-4 half-time advantage would be enough to off-set the handicap of playing into the wind, but Greengrass soon settled the issue when a powerful run took his side into the favourable position from which Mark Fuller scored an excellent try.

Greengrass and Fuller —who was a deserving recipient of the McWilliam’s Wines ‘‘player of the week” award—were joined by Dale Brown and Danny Millward in giving Kaiapoi the” upper hand in the forward exchanges. Linwood’s defence made very few errors in the first hour, but eventually the pounding taken from containing the Kaiapoi pack began to take its toll, and the Kaiapoi wing. Francis Lawrence, capitalised on his two chances when left with room to move in the last quarter. Only in the scrums, where Paul Truscott managed to beat Brown to the strike on 11 of the 19 occasions, did Linwood partially' balance the forward struggle. However, this was cancelled out by less confident handling by Linwood and Kaiapoi’s 14-11 penalty advantage. The Kaiapoi tackling was even more solid than the defensive

line mounted by Linwood. There were no gaps near the play-the-balls, and the inside backs, Tony Bergman and Charlie Paki, ensured that there was no respite for Linwood around the edges of the rucks. Lewis Hudson’s accurate kicking kept Linwood in range for much of the match, though it was not until 20min remained that Robin Turner was able to provide his team’s only try. Turner and Doug Wells had probed earnestly for breaks in the centres, without being able to slip their markers, Charlie Smith and Kelvin Kennett. Injuries depleted Linwood's ranks as the game advanced, and its coach. Bill Godfrey, made his first premier appearance for seven years when Wells left the field. Godfrey was not able to inspire a revival from his younger team-mates, but showed that he had lost none of his old determination. AND THEN THERE WERE 11 It seems difficult to imagine from the final scoreline that Sydenham was given a reasonable chance of upsetting Christchurch-Eastern Suburbs when the teams rested at halftime in the curtain-raiser on the oval. However, at this stage Sydenham trailed by only 6-12 and both sides had scored two tries. Eastern had not been able to gain any marked ascendancy over Sydenham, in spite of having benefited from the brisk wind, and there was the likelihood that most of the final 40min would be pla.\ed in Eastern’s territory.

Probably Eastern would have survived, but all competitive interest was removed when Sydenham had its ranks reduced to 12 tonly Imin after the resumption) and then 11 (lOmin later) men because of injuries. Both substitutes had been usetf in the first half, before further mishaps put Barry Bigwood and Keith Hines out of the game. The inevitable holes in Sydenham’s defence soon appeared, and Bruce Dickison only just failed to hold a pass with the try-line open. It mattered not, for Stewart McLauchlan, Dickison and Graeme Cooksley were soon touching down in quick succession and the pattern of one-way traffic was established.

Sydenham battled on, and even managed to win some possession from its three-man scrum But as the hopelessness of the situation became obvious to the players, the tackling became progressively more sloppy and there were simply not enough players to also devise a cover defence

Given the confidence that it had not always shown in the opening spell, Eastern quickly moved the ball to its outside backs and both wings, John Wesley and Bruce Murphy, claimed two tries each. Cooksley was alert to spot Sydenham’s deficiencies, and won the Jim Bearn award as “player of the match.” While Sydenham was still in contention, Alan Campbell had made several bustling bursts in the forwards and Reynold Andrews also crossed the Eastern try-line after threatening to do so on a number of other occasions. FORWARDS' FEAST There was never any question Papanui would win the late game on the No. 2 ground, its forwards quickly took charge and the 20 point lead at half-time made the last 40min a rather dull formality. Papanui had much for which to thank its forwards. Athol Clarke conceded only one scrum in the first half and with Papanui fielding something of a sec-ond-string back line, Rod Walker was often content to return play to the forwards. They certainly responded to the invitation. Angus McGregor pounded in for two tries in the first quarter hours and Mark Broadhurst scored his three also within 15min in the middle of the game. Papanui’s best player in an even performance was the scrum-half, Ken Tait; while Walker not only directed play as well as ever but was in superb kicking form. Otherwise, the best of the hacks was the omnipresent David - Field. Mutu Stone, as always did a power of work for Addington, but his wholehearted efforts were largely unsupported.

Tavendaie Cup Eastern W . . 4 1 135 61 Pts 8 Kaiapoi 4 1 129 63 8 Linwood • . 4 1 112 88 8 Papanui * ’ 2 3 159 83 4 Sydenham 1 4 80 165 2 Addington 0 5 44 199 0 Qualifying round W I F A Pts Hornby . - n 0 266 20 10 Woolston 3 2 138 116 6 Marist . . 3 2 109 102 6 Riccarton . . 2 3 64 108 A University . . 2 3 77 182 4 Halswell . . 0 5 62 188 0