Young league players anxious to please

Press, 26 February 1977, Page 4

Young league players anxious to please

Bv

JOHN COFFEY

Five young rugby league players have, by a series o! circumstances, the opportunity at the Show Grounds this afternoon to enhance greatly their prospects of travelling to Brisbane with the Canterbury squad for the first round of the lucrathc Amco Cup tournament.

Cliff Leney (full-back). Pat, Lagrosse (centre), and the forwards. Mike Godinet. Barry F.dkins and Grant Findlay, will be seeking, by, their performances for the' Canterbury XIII against the Hornby Invitation team, toi convince the selectors of; ;their abilities to handle more! important assignments once the representative season starts. The announcement earlier this week that Canterbury' had retained its .Amco Cup position might well have caught some more established players unawares. Not, too surprisingly, there had; been a number of with-, drawals because of the early date of the John Lloyd Testi-' menial match and clashes' with summer sports. Of the youthful quintet. Godinet probably has the! best chance of finding a| permanent place in the full I provincial side. He was the! most successful and consis-! tent hooker in the clubj championship last year, and! his all-round play has! matured since his one pre-! vious game for Canterbury! in 1974. Now 24 years of; age, Godinet has a versatility ( value that would be most!

useful under Amco conditions. Edkins. who has played five times for Canterbury in the last two seasons, and Findlay, a fairly regular representative between 1972 and 1974. should form a most competent second-row combination against a Hornby forward formation which can call on four internationals and two Kiwi trialists. Such has been Edkins’s importance in ChristchurchEastern Suburbs’s rise to become one of Canterbury’s leading clubs, it is difficult to appreciate that he is still eight months short of his twenty-first birthday. Findlay, 24, was back at his best with his former club. Papanui, in 1976 and deserves another bid for first-class selection. Somewhat fitter and stronger than at the corresponding stage a year ago, Leney has been used as a utility by Linwood, and it will be interesting to compare his full-back efforts with those of the test encumbent. Warren Collicoat, today. It is to be hoped, though, that Michael O’Donnell is also given a spell at full-back as well as

iin the centres; he bad m • peer in New Zealand last I year. Lagrosse. who has had to imake his mark from the ■ lesser tanks of premier B ( football, is in rich company j alongside O’Donnell and in >n to Roger Bailey (and John O’Sullivan. If he i emerges with his reputation unscathed, then he will be [ able to put pressure on those ’ preferred ahead of him in the i past. A come-back of a vastly different nature is that being I made by Graeme Cooksley at stand-off half. Chosen to captain the Canterbury' XIII, Cooksley has been given sudden promotion from obscurity and has enhanced his odds of furthering his record of 47 games for Canterbury’ A Ground conditions will be | very firm, ideal for the Hornby guest players. Colli coat. Bailey. O’Sullivan. Tom Conroy and Tony Coll, tn display their attacking skills in company with such outstanding footballers as Wayne Robertson. Bob Jarvis. Mocky Brereton. O’Donnell. Eddie Kerrigan and Alan Rushton.