Canterbury XIII humbled again

Press, 23 May 1977, Page 20

Canterbury XIII humbled again

By

JOHN COFFEY

Wellington The trend that Canterbury rugby league teams have in divorcing themselves from their true potential when appearing at Wellington continued on Saturday. The visiting players appeared to have taken out a separation order against each other in losing once again — by 2618.

As the Canterbury coach (Mr Trevor Bisman) remarked after the match, it was in the basic fundamentals of an understanding on attack and defence that Canterbury faltered most. Mr Bisman was almost cast in the role of marriage I guidance councillor in his ! half-time comments, after Wellington’s lead had been restricted to five points only |by Michael O’Donnell’s outstanding goal-kicking. But his plea tor the players to work together in attempting to breach the solid line of Wellington tacklers, and to stop it making such effective use of its even share of possession, failed to (gain a reconciliation, and Canterbury needed two late I tries to emerge from the • game with some respectI ability. i Understandably, WellingI ton administrators were ' quick to mention their Amco Cup aspirations, and Canterbury must now seek rapid ; improvement against West Coast on June 6 if it is to enter the national Rothmans tournament with sufficient confidence to keep it among the top two rugby league provinces in New Zealand. On far too many occasions Canterbury' frittered away opportunities. Mishandling and misdirected kicks on the first and second tackles — inexcusable in perfect conditions — served Wellington a generous helping of the ball, and its strong-running forwards prospered.

Local observers rated the Wellington XIII as possibly the finest to have repre-

sented that league, but! Canterbury should have had the skill and the composure to have wrested the in-1 itiative when Wellington | also fell into error in the ! third quarter. However, the Canterbury pack, almost to a man, tended to amble, rather than run forcefully, on to its passes around the play-the-balls. The three-quarters, too. were anonymous, and no-one was able to probe in the manner that John Whittaker, ignoring a leg injury which threatened his withdrawal, created chances in mid-field. John O'Sullivan, a former Kiwi outside back, certainly found his niche as Wellington’s stand-off half and captain. In what must have been his finest performance in a representative match O’Sullivan was largely responsible for four of Wellington’s six tries. His quickness of eye and foot had laid on a try for his scrum-half, Huka Love, and another for himself in the opening spell, and it was O’Sullivan who broke the stalemate after the score had been standing at 15-10 for the first 25 minutes of the Edition, is the only filly in second half.

The extremely powerful prop, Whetu Henry, stood tall when caught by the Canterbury cover, but managed to lob the ball away and O’Sullivan reached high to grasp the ball and force it. Soon afterwards, O’Sullivan provided the last pass for his full-back, Alan Brooks, to touch down, and when Brian Jolley set up a try for Tam Mellars Canterbury had conceded 11 points in six minutes.

Then, and only then, did the Canterbury forwards begin communicating, and there was the feeling that Wellington relaxed a little in the knowledge that it could not lose. Steve Brewster, the Canterbury front-row forward, twice found the leeway to crash across the Wellington line to close the mar-

gm to a somewhat flattering eight points. Few Canterbury players enhanced their reputations. O’Donnell deserved his selection as the visitors’ “Player of the match,’’ not only for his six goals, but also because he was one back endowered with the timing and evasiveness to make progress. He kicked five consecutive penalties in the first half, including successes from 47 metres and then 50 metres in just two minutes. The halves. Bob Jarvis and Ken Tait, earned praise for their courageous tackling, particularly one try-saving effort by Tait when the big Wellington loose forward, Whare Henry, was in the clear. It was not Jarvis’s fault that O’Sullivan had such a memorable match, and even two hard knocks did not dim his enthusiasm for work.

Barry Edkins, the smallest of the Canterbury forwards, was by far the most active over the 80 minutes. He set an unheeded example to his team-mates in taking the ball at speed, and his covering was admirable. Over all, though, there was not the flair to counter the freerunning of the Henry brothers, Jolley and Mellars. Canterbury did not enjoy its expected superiority in the scrums. The binding was rather ragged, with possession becoming something of a lottery as the ball regularly flew from the legs of the open-side props. Most of the clean hooks went to Wellington, with the result that O’Sullivan and Whittaker had time to move it along their back-line. O’Sullivan (two), Whittaker, Alan Brookes, Love and Mellars scored tries for Wellington, and Brookes added four goals. Brewster’s two tries for Canterbury were boosted by O’Donnell’s six goals.

The referee (Mr Graham Church, of Taranaki) awarded 14 penalties to Wellington, and 11 to Canterhurv.