League leaders fit for match

Press, 28 July 1976, Page 34

League leaders fit for match

BY

RAY CAIRNS

The “score” currently stands at 1-all, and the winner of this evening's Air New Zealand premiership match between Papanui and Eastern Suburbs is assured of early favouritism for the rugby league championship when the grand final is played in September. The match between the two top teams in Canterbury was postponed from last week because of the beating the Show Grounds Oval has taken. But the pitch has recovered remarkably well and this match has all the in- : gredients of the best game of the season. They are worth}’ opponents, even if Eastern won last season’s grand final' in a storming manner. Papanui started the season slowly j and has since proved unbea-| table, though it has had a fright or two, at the hands I of Hornby and, significantly,) Eastern.

That was back in May, and Papanui had to recover from a 7-20 deficit to win 25-20. That it did so was due in no small measure to its coach. Rodney Walker, and he will undoubtedly play a significant part in this match. So will his opposite, Graeme Cooksley, and his performance will be subjected to close scrutiny with a Canterbury team to be chosen to play in the Rothmans series, and with Bob Jarvis still out.

The stand-off half position is one of some concern to the Canterbury selectors, and though they have shown a reluctance to use Cooksley, the veteran of 47 matches for Canterbury — the record — may forca their hand. In the curtain-raiser, Homby plays Linwood — a meeting of two teams which have had more than their share of injuries this season.