Mistakes mar win by Lions

Press, 26 May 1977, Page 36

Mistakes mar win by Lions

From

KEVIN McMENAMIN

in Gisborne

The British Lions scored the sizeable win they needed against Poverty Bay-East Coast at Gisborne yesterday, but the 25-6 result was hardly sufficient to indicate that the side wall maintain its unbeaten record for long.

The match generated little excitement and was so full of errors that neither side could have any great sense of achievement.

The Lions had good reason to be thankful to two of I their Scottish members, lan McGeechan, who was the captain for the day, and Doug Morgan. McGeechan, easily the best of the backs, scored two tries and Morgan converted two tries and kicked three penalty goals. The other four points came from a try by Gareth Evans and like McGeechan’s

I two it was scored in the i first half, the half-time score being 16-0. The Lions at least made some improvement on their Hawke’s Bay effort. With Alan Martin jumping superbly at No. 5, the visitors took the first five decisive line-outs and it seemed likely that they would dominate this source of possession.

But it was not to be. The combined side managed few clean takes, but it bounced the bail about enough to stalemate many line-outs and the final count had the Lions ahead only 16-12. It would have been even closer had Martin not come to light with some more timely leaps late in the game. Not only was it in the line-outs that the bail shot wildly away from grabbing hands. The game was riddled with handling errors and the Lions were more at fault than their opponents. When a player of Mike Gibson’s class drops passes that once he would have taken blindfolded it is distressing indeed. Equally sad is that Gibson has still to rid himself of the sluggishness that marked his first appearance of the tour at Napier. The Lions backs suffered further through the indecision of the halves, Morgan and John Bevan. Bevan was safe, although not without fault, in his defensive play, but rarely did he move sharply enough to create chances for those outside him. The combined side took a leaf from Hawke’s Bay’s book and used the high kick at every opportunity. The Lions were better prepared, but it still remains the tactic to which the side is most vulnerable.

Bruce Hay was equal to some testing early kicks and later when he was replaced by Andy Irvine — for the second time in three games — the new man had barely been on the field 30 seconds when he had a difficult high ball to contend with. Irvine took it cleanly and he finished with a plus of two out of three in taking high punts that were catchable.

Once or twice in the first half the Lions ran the ball with the elan for which they are famous. It was good stuff while it lasted, forwards and backs slipping passes to one another at precisely the right second. Unfortunately for the crowd of about 14,000 the exhibition was all too brief.

The rest of the play had a dithering quality about it. The forwards could only hold their own against a pack which was no more than useful and the backs lacked the inventiveness to make headway against rivals who missed few tackles.

For much of the game the combined side stationed the All Black loose forward, Lawrie Knight, at No. 3 in the line-outs to mark Moss Keane and it was Knight who fared better on the short throws. Knight had a sound game in other respects, but for bustling energy it was the other flanker, Ray Falcon, who took the eye most often. lan Kirkpatrick, playing his seventh match against the Lions, was a powerful figure in rucks and mauls and the way he charged up the field from kick-offs was evidence enough that he is far from a spent force. It was unfortunate that in the dying minutes of a game which for all its failings had been cleanly fought Kirkpatrick and Willie Duggan should have exchanged blows. Graeme Thompson, flat out a few metres away, may well have been the cause of the incident. Earlier Thompson, the cqmbined side’s first, and later second, five-eighths, had distinguished himself with some towering punts placed to perfection and the Lions are unlikely to meet many better full-backs on their travels than the 24-year-old Wilson Issac, Everything he did bore the stamp of assurance. The combined side was just as prone to mishandling as the Lions and although it seldom got into try-scoring positions it could well have made things more difficult for the tourists if it had made better use of the ball on the ground. On such a perfect pitch there was no excuse for so much fly-kicking and disjointed action. McGeechan opened the scoring in the fourteenth minute with the first of his two tries. The Lions’ right wing, Peter Squires, fielded a high kick and broke clear. He passed to Gibson who sent McGeechan on a 40metre run to the posts. Morgan converted.

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This first try was against the run of play, but after the Lions had worked themselves into an attacking position Gibson threw a long pass to Evans on the left wing. The pass landed at Evans’s feet, but he was able to kick it over the line and win the race to it, helped considerably by the full-back, Issac, tripping on turning. A superb tap down by Martin at a line-out paved backs charging ahead like the way for McGeechan’s second try, scored in the thirtieth minute. It was the Lions’ best movement of the game with the forwards handling like backs and the

forwards. Morgan converted and his reliable kicking contributed nine more points from three penalty goals in tlie second spell.

Issac almost matched this by kicking two penalty goals for Poverty Bay-East Coast during the second spell.

The Lions claim that the tough game against Hawke’s Bay was of great value in “bringing them down to earth.”

Yesterday’s display Would suggest that while they might now have their feet firmly on the ground they have got to discover better ways of getting themselves and the bail over it.