Dickison move works

Press, 15 April 1978, Page 56

Dickison move works

By

JOHN COFFEY

Bruce Dickison, one of the most adventurous and successful midfield backs in Canterbury rugby league for many years, seems certain to be retained at loose forward by his Sydenham coach, Gary Clarke, for the remainder of the season. A New Zealand centre and wing during the second round of the 1975 world championship series, Dickison was quite outstanding in his new role against Eastern Suburbs last Wednesday evening.

Although Sydenham was rather surprisingly beaten, 17-13, by Eastern, Dickison was overshadowed only by the brilliance of the Eastern loose forward, Barry Edkins. The characteristic flair of

Dickison was very evident, in spite of his having missed most of last season because of an overseas working holiday. The try he scored was Dickison’s eighty-seventh at premier club level, and he had scored another 13 in 19 appearances for Canterbury before choosing to restrict his football to Sydenham’s cause this winter. “When I mentioned the positional change to Bruce, he was very keen,” Clarke said yesterday. “He did a lot of tackling and covering, and was an ideal ball distributor between the forwards and backs.”

Sydenham, at full strength, has an accomplished three-quarters line comprising Francis Lawrence, Mark Vincent, Barry Bigwood and Andrew Bailey, and the additional inclusion

of Dickison further boosted its attacking potential. But Sydenham’s ranks might be depleted by injuries for its vital match with another championship-semi-final contender, Lin- ■ wood, at the Show Grounds today. Dickison is one of those in doubt because of swelling above one knee. David Field played against Eastern with a poisoned ankle and the problem was aggravated in the game, Bob Grant has shoulder and leg injuries, and Kerry Corkran’s dislocated finger will keep him on the side-lines. In the curtain-raiser, Eastern is strongly favoured to beat Kaiapoi, even though there is no-one better equipped to counter Eastern’s tactics than its former coach, Graeme Cooksley, who is now guiding Kaiapoi.