Supremacy in forwards carries Canterbury to 30-12 win

Press, 29 August 1977, Page 17

Supremacy in forwards carries Canterbury to 30-12 win

By

KEVIN McMENAMIN

Total supremacy in the forwards made it fairly easy for Canterbury to continue on its winning way in the Radio New Zealand rugby championship with a 30-12 win against aßy of Plenty at Lancaster Park on Saturday.

It was not a match, how-1 ever, that Canterbury could' feel entirely happy about. Thej forward dominance was only! to be expected but apart from] an exciting championship! debut by Shane Gibbons the I back play was disappoint-' ing.

Bad passing and weak; tackling were the biggest failings, but a stream of minor errors prevented Canterbury from piling on the points in the second half when it had Bay of Plenty almost at its mercy. The Canterbury forwards, too, were guilty of an occasional handling error when the line was in sight, but in their own sphere they reigned supreme. They won the lineouts, 23-9, the rucks and mauls at the rate of two to one, and John Black's five tightheads to none were an extension of the scrummaging mastery.

Some of the forward drives were expertly controlled, particularly those which developed into open-field passing rushes. Dave Thompson and John Ashworth were often prominent in this regard. Thompson played one of his best games for Canterbury, making him a worthy recipient of the “player of the day” award. Where Canterbury fell down badly was when the ground work had been done and a try was in offing. The backs would receive the ball from a second or third ruck, but in their eagerness to get it away from a struggling defence, mistakes would be made.

The Canterbury half-back, Lyn Davis, was put under a good deal of pressure by his namesake, Teddy Davis, but his passes did not suffer and Doug Bruce was invariably running on to them. Bruce, however, was a little below his form of recent weeks. His kicking lacked its usual accuracy, and he did not always steer his outside backs in the right direction. Murray McEwan was a more positive fiveeighths, although he did not always time his passes well to Gibbons.

Gibbons was similarly at fault when moving the ball to the wings, but there was an aggressive quality about

his attacking play that was refreshing. He moved with perfect balance on several long runs, and the outside swerve he employed to fool two defenders on the way to his second try was sheer brilliance.

Terry Mitchell was kept busy on the right wing — the play ran his way more than it did to Scott Cartwright on the left flank — and while he missed a tackle or two he compensated by the swiftness with which he took his attacking chances. By comparison, Richard Wilson had a light day at full-back. He took one awkward high kick safely in the face of charging forwards and generally played satisfactorily. His goal-kicking count was four out of seven. It was as well for Canterbury that Gibbons ended the match with an excellent try, otherwise the crowd of about 4000 would have been left in no doubt that the best tries were the two scored by Bay of Plenty. The left wing, Graeme Moore, scored the first after a thrilling movement that Greg Rowlands began on his own 22-metre line. Mark Taylor handled twice, and it was a strong break by him on the second entry that set Moore up for a try behind the posts. Eddie Stokes scored the other try with a typically bold run, although the trail of would-be tacklers he left in his wake was an indication of the brittleness of the Canterbury defence. Even with only scraps >f possession, the Bay of Plenty backs proved just what a formidable line they are. Rowlands, Moore, Stokes, and Taylor all showed pace and determination, and some of their counter-attacking — from their goal-line at times — was based on more than just faint hope. But the Canterbury forwards had the match in safe keeping from an early stage. Barry Thompson marked his return to the side with a fine display of scrummaging ;and rucking, and there were I also sizeable contributions ! from two other Country fori wards, Alex Wyllie and

Graeme Higginson, who is improving with every match. Canterbury narrowly missed a number of tries — McEwan may well have scored one if he had stretched for the line instead of turning to look for support — but it could count itself lucky to score one of the five that tt was awarded. The scorer was John Phillips, b'tt the referee (Mr B. Dawson) could only have missed a knock-on by Cartwright. However, in all other respects Mr Dawson controlled the match extremely well.

With five wins in five matches, Canterbury is setting a strong pace in the national hampionship. The matches this week against Southland and Otago are likely to be more demanding than Saturday’s, but it may require only a little more polish to be applied to the back play for the unbeaten record to be kept intact. For Canterbury, tries by Gibbons (2), Phillips, Dave Thompson, and Higginson; Wilson two penalty goals and two conversions. Moore and Stokes scored tries for Bay of Plenty and Rowlands kicked «cn.