Moral victory to Hawke’s Bay shakes up Lions

Press, 23 May 1977, Page 30

Moral victory to Hawke’s Bay shakes up Lions

From

KEVIN McMENAMIN

Napier “There is something about a magpie.” goes the opening lines of Hawke’s Bay’s rugby theme song, continuing “and it's fine, fine, fine.’’

“Fine” would be understating the performance of j the 15 "magpies” who were; desperately unlucky not to score an upset win over the! Lions at Napier on Saturday.! The Lions were beaten j everywhere but on the i board, which read 13-11 to| them at the finish. There is a well substantiated story in Napier that the Hawke’s Bay coach (Mr ■Tony Small), expecting a sizeable defeat, told his men last week that they should j use Saturday’s game as a build-up for forthcoming : national championship I games. If so, then his play-; ers must have misheard him for with a goal-kicker they would undoubtedly have! achieved the victory they ; deserved.

The goal kicking record was about par for the course in New Zealand these days. The full-back. Murray Tocker, had a tremendous game, marred only by his inability to find the posts more than once in eight at-

tempts. With the side’s sec-ond-string kicker sitting in the stand, Hawke’s Bay ended up taking tap kicks from distances within goalkicking range.

Taking in the All Black trials and the two games the Lions have played so far there have been too many missed kicks. The likelihood of the Lions beating New Zealand teams on goal-kick-ing alone is increasing all the time.

The Lions secured from Saturday’s game the cold comfort of knowing that they can play badly and still win, if only by the grace of their goal-kicking strength. They scored one try to two, but Steve Fenwick saved the day by landing three penalties, a 50 per cent kicking return.

• The team’s manager (Mr ■George Burrell) told his Iplayers after the game that i“they now know they are in I New Zealand.” a worthy ■ compliment to a Hawke’s

Bay pack which could have been wearing All Black jerseys and not just black hooped ones. Another compliment Mr Burrell paid the local forwards was when at the after match function he spoke of the three “walls” of Hawke’s Bay. Both the president and the chairman of the union are named Wall, although they are not related. The third “wall” was the brick one the Lions had been battering against at McLean Park.

It was a sobering experience for the Lions after their big win at Masterton last Wednesday and the result has thrown wide open the whole question of how good they are. Certainly on Saturday’s performance they are nothing wonderful.

The forwards were routed. In the line-outs, where the order was constantly changed in a search for improvement, they were beaten more than two to one (23'10). They were at a similar

disadvantage in rucks and mauls, although they held firm under some fiery assaults. Only their scrummaging was reasonable.

The backs, with piecemeal possession, were cut right down to size. Only the first five-eighths, John Bevan, for his coolness, and the fullback, Andy Irvine, for extricating himself from some awkward situations, looked much above provincial class. Mike Gibson was a big disappointment. He displayed all his old powers of anticipation, but none of the attacking verve of his earlier tours. At times, in fact, he seemed as slow as a carthorse. Gibson's one memorable moment was when he played a leading role in the Lions’ only try. Bevan caught the defence napping when he tap-kicked a defensive penalty and Irvine, Gibson and John Williams carried the movement downfield before Irvine sprinted in again to score an excellent try.

This was in the eleventh minute. Until then the only feature was the referee (Mr W. L. Adlam) handing out penalties, at the rate of one every two minutes. The try was good enough to suggest that the Lions were on their way to their expected big win.

. But only once again did they look like scoring a try. This was just before halftime when the left wing, Gareth Evans, was pushed out in the corner. In the second half the Lions left their own half only half a dozen times.

Still, at 13-3 ahead at half-time the warning bells were pretty faint. Hawke’s Bay had been no more than putting up a good fight, which most doubted it could maintain. That it was able to assert the authority it did for the rest of the game shocked the McLean Park crowd of about 20,000 into roaring their heads off for the first time in years.