Papanui will keep Massetti Cup

Press, 16 August 1976, Page 17

Papanui will keep Massetti Cup

Papanui assured itself of outright possession of the Massetti Cup and established a new Canterbury Rugby League premiership record at the Show Grounds on Saturday, but it had to recover from the brink of defeat before achieving its 21-15 victory over Kaiapoi,

The win was Papanui’s fourteenth in a row. It i had already left behind ! the previous best—lo, ; by Marist-Western Sub- ' urbs in 1969—and its success on Saturday extended its unbeaten; sequence past that of thet 1975 Papanui side, which had 11 wins and two draws before dropping a decision to Addington. It is ironic that Kaiapoi, one of the opposing combinations most respected by the Papanui squad, might not now qualify for the championship play-offs because of the decision of the code’s administration not to count first-round premiership points unless a tie occurs. Since the start of the return series, Kaiapoi has been going through the type of poor patch which plagues most teams, and it is fifth behind Papanui, Linwood, Christchurch-Eastern Suburbs and Hornby. There is little compensation in the fact that it still leads Linwood over all fixtures. Kaiapoi’s chances rest on Linwood losing to both Papanui and Eastern in the next two weeks, provided Kaiapoi itself can dispose of Marist and Hornby. The partial return to form by Hornby in its crushing of Sydenham has not boosted Kaiapoi’s stocks. ; Apart from Hornby, at was a troublesome afternoon for the favourites at the Show Grounds — and a bad day for goal-kickers, few of whom could handle the greasy and heavy balls. Eastern contributed five of the first six tries in its match before Addington drew level at 15-15; a late penalty by Bruce Dickison eventually pulled Eastern through. And Linwood was only 8-6 ahead of Marist entering yhe final quarter, adding 10 points in that period to give respectability to the margin. Mark Broadhurst, the Papanui second-row forward, and Lex Clarke, at stand-off : half for Hornby, earned the “player-of-the-match” \ awards on the oval. Results: Papanui JI, Kaiapoi 15. Christchurch-Eastern Suburbs 17, Addington 15. ’ Linwood 18, Marist-Western ■ Suburbs 4. . Hornby 38, Sydenham 3. ! PREMIERSHIP POINTS

Grand final series points: Papa, nui 10, Linwood 8. Eastern 8, Hornby 6, Kalapoi 4, Addington 2, Sydenham 2, Marist 0. ANXIOUS MOMENTS Kaiapol almost clinched an unset victory over Papanui with six minutes remaining of the main game. Dominating possession after Papanui s hooker, Athol Clarke, had been Injured, Kalapoi pulled up to 15-18 when its speedy centre, Francis Lawrence, was dragged down just a metre or so short of the Papanui try-line. Some how, the acting hooker for Papanui. Grant Findlay, managed to heel the ball back from the resulting scrum —one of only two conceded by Dale Brown from the 11 formed after Clarke s departure—and move play upfield. After having launched so many attacks, from which tries to Wayne Stanley and Dennis Neylon had resulted, Kaiapol could not revert to defence ' quickly enough and Mark Broadhurst placed Papanui out of 1 reach with his second try. The loss of Clarke was the root of Papanui's problems. He had won four of the first five scrums as Papanui took the initial advantage, and was only slightly behind Brown at the time of his retirement.. Although Papanui took the field without its captain-coach. Rod Walker, It was seemingly headed for a comfortable result when it went ahead by 16-2. The Kaiapol tackling had made several costly indiscretions, on the flank when Graham Waite was left clear near the corner Hag. and then in centre-field as Kerry Blazey and Mark Broadhurst surged through, Broadhurst also breaking away from Inside his own half to set up a try tor David Field, Few of the Kaiapol thrusts had amounted to much. and its chances seemed to have evapor, ated, even when Kelvin Kennett crossed at the end of a passing movement just before the interval. But Kaiapoi’s more solid defence and its dominance of scrummaging restricted Papanui to an early penalty by Kevin Williams until Broadhurst’s eleventh-hour try after the resumption. Walker made his entrance when Clarke left—for the first time this season, Papanui did not have two hooker-utilities in its pack because of Mike Godinet’s work commitments—and he did much to stabilise proceedings in Papanui’s moments of most concern.

It did not take Kaiapol long to realise that two premiership points were no longer a forlorn hope, though, and John Greengrass, Dannv Millward Brown and Neylon began to take a greater hand in the forward exchanges previously governed bv Broadhurst, Kevin Walker and Findlay. Neither back line could master the conditions, and Eddie Kerrigan failed to add to his try tally for only the second time in the premiership. Field, because of his coolness and studied positioning, was one who was not satisfied with remaining anonymous. CHANGES OF FORTUNE Eastern Suburbs looked likely to run rampant over Addington as twift changes of pace and attacking direction fsd Io five EnNwlt tfiea

But Eastern went off the boil as suddenly as it came to it. The goal-kicking of both Bruce Dlcktson and Barry Edkins was abysmal and this failing appeared to transmit itself to the remainder of the team’s performance. Eastern was never again the team it was in the first 30 minutes as Addington refused to wilt before the onslaught. It at- ■ tacked with great determination ; Itself, with George Te Aho and jMutu Stone providing much of the thrust. There was never any question, though, that Eastern deserved its win. Graeme Cooksley sparked the back line into that early swift action and the backs were well complemented by the strong bursts of Wayne Jeffs and Terry Gillman. POOR KICKING The way Linwood's Lewis Hudson was missing kick after kick, It did seem MaristWester* Suburbs had a chance of snatching at least a draw In the early game on th* second ground. Hudson was certainly tidy enough in general play and assertive to score the first two Linwood tries — and the first eight points — but he was off-target with three kicks from in front. It was ironical, too, that when Hudson had to go off injured, Linwood looked a more fluent unit and the unlikely Rex Dalzell looked by far the best kicker of the day. Once again, Graeme Church ; was the pick of the Marist team, , tackling with great dedication ' and hounding Linwood at all ■ times. And the best of his team’s forwards was the veteran, Don I Barton, not always the most accurate passer but a tireless ■ worker. ‘ NEVER IN DOUBT J Hornby opened Its curtain- : raiser with Sydenham dearly • determined to rub out the , nightmares of its heavy defeat , at the hands of Papanui the ■ previous week-end. The coni certed Hornby attack* produced three trie* within nine minutes and the result was I never In question.

However, It was not long before many of Hornby’s players began to fall into error. Given the freedom of a handy lead, Hornby attempted some intricate manoeuvres that would best have been reserved for a firm playing surface and, over-all, the match was a disjointed affair. The Sydenham defence, in spite of some fine leadership by Stewart H ,gg, never really came to terms with Hornby's advantage in pace among the outside backs. Once Hornby had successfully relayed possession from centre-field, Warren Wright and Hillman Hornbrook were left sufficient leeway to claim three tries each.

Wayne Robertson was once again the pivot of Hornby’s thrusts, and Wayne Bunn and Richard Popata ranged up alongside of him to assist in drawing Sydenham’s cover in from the flanks. Lex Clarke and Merv Manson, in the halves, were quick in their passing and appreciation of capitalising on SydenhSm’s limitations.

There were few bright moments for Sydenham, the only positive one being when Bob Douglas touched down on the call of full time. Hornby’s longest period of scorelessness was for 17 minutes in the third quarter.

W L F A Pts Papanui Eastern 14 11 0 3 600 435 173 175 28 22 Hornby 9 5 351 225 18 Kaiapoi Linwood 8 7 6 7 254 273 183 270 16 14 Addington 5 9 231 400 10 Marist 4 10 209 359 8 Sydenham 4 10 185 370 ... 8