Barry Edkins: growing in size, rugby league stature

Press, 29 April 1978, Page 12

Barry Edkins: growing in size, rugby league stature

By

JOHN COFFEY

A frequent introductory line used by stand-up comedians has been "a funny thing happened to me on my way to the theatre tonight.” It could, in more serious vein, be said that several unusual and unrelated happenings steered the sporting steps of Barry Edkins towards a probable New Zealand rugby league trial at Carlaw Park next month. Had it not been for a series of circumstances Edkins might now be playing another code in a different position and might not have developed the latent goal-kicking skills which are now a familiar part of his allround game. Edkins was but a tiny six-year-old when, wearing his first pair of football boots, he joined the queue at a rugby union club’s pre-season weigh-ing-in ceremony.

•'They told me that I was too young and too small, so tnv father (Rex Edkins) started a rugby league team at the North Beach School and we plaved for Eastern Suburbs in the eight-years grade,” Edkins said earlier this week. “The side came through the grades without doing much good until we were about 12 years old. Dick Hamburger was then our coach and he took us through until we were ready for the premier squad,” he said. Hamburger, who is now the secretary of Eastern Suburbs, gradually developed the potential that Edkins displayed at scrum-half, and Edkins was a regular representative in his junior career, culminating in three appearances at national schoolboy tournaments. “I thought that I had done enough to make the schoolboy Kiwi tour to New South Wales in 1970, but I missed out after playing for Southern Zone with a thigh injury. Ironically, was I chosen •he next year, when I had doubts that my selection was warranted,” he said. Had the Edkins story followed a predictable

course he would almost certainly have earned recognition as one of this country’s most capable halves, particularly as he gained New Zealand 17years honours in that role. Edkins and his present Canterbury team-mate, Francis Lawrence, still swop tales of their tussles behind their respective Eastern and Papanui packs, but it is now from loose forward and wing that they serve their province.

From the age of 16, Edkins made an occasional premier appearance when the former Kiwi, Graeme Cooksley, was absent, and he was spotted early by experienced observers, being named “player of the match” in his debut against Marist-Western Suburbs. But soon afterwards fate was to change the trend of the Edkins tale.

Edkins • suddenly began to increase in height and weight to his present I.Bom and 87kg, and “it became clear that I would have to challenge as a forward for a permanent premier place with Eastern.” He was in the second-row for the New Zealand 19years team in its 13-0 victory at Penrith’s expense three years ago.

The previous season he had travelled to Penrith with the Canterbury intermediate squad and feels that he benefited greatly from the touring experience and insight into the professional world of Australian rugby league. Edkins is a strong advocate of such reciprocal visits: among his fellows on that trip were Mark Broadhurst, Lewis Hudson and Lawrence.

“I have no regrets about having to change to the pack, although scrum-half was always my favourite position, it is some consolation that a loose forward has to produce a similar style of play,” he said. As a youngster, Edkins was a regular observer of the various methods of premier

scrum-halves; his attention was later switched to studying loose forwards at representative level. Edkins became a goalkicker quite by accident at his third schoolboys’ tournament, deputising with some success after the first-choice kicker had failed. But even though he goaled 66 times for Eastern last year and has taken over the task on a full-time basis since Bruce Dickison’s transfer to Sydenham, Edkins still regards himself as only a “make-shift” kicker. “I try not to let it affect my game,” Edkins said. His round-the-corner style was a matter of necessity. “When I was a kid I would be kicking a ball around through the week in bare feet — it hurts to try kicking straight on without

boots.” Edkins’s accuracy is emphasised by his career aggregate of 443 points for Eastern. Tackling is one of the high points of Edkins’s individual contribution to Eastern and Canterbury. He recalls his first-class debut, as a replacement against Wellington in 1975, with some relish. “They had just scored a try, we kicked off, and one of their forwards tried to run around me. He was perfectly lined up and I hit him low and hard with the result that he lost the ball, collapsed in a heap and later went to hospital to have his thigh examined. There is no better feeling than going in firmly and low and seeing the ball roll loose.” An automatic selection for Canterbury last winter after having been a substi-

tute in the Amco Cup match in Brisbane, Edkins was placed in the second row because of the presence of his captain. Rod Walker, at the back of the scrum. Edkins, however, was virtually able to adopt a loose forward role, with Walker distributing and calling the tactics.

He considers that his adapting to increasingly higher levels of rugby league has been made easier by Alan Rushton, New Zealand’s World Cup hooker.

“In my first premier match I suffered cramp — it was Rusty who came along, pulled me to my feet, and pushed me back into it. Similarly, he looked after me in my early matches for Canterbury, if anything, Rusty has made my game,” Edkins said. Edkins, now 21, sets himself particularly high

standards and it was typical that he felt he had not done enough for Canterbury against Wellington on Tuesday, even though he topped the tackle count with 26. He was disappointed with his attacking efforts and felt that he might have been too concerned about the other forwards in his initial experience as vice-captain. “At the start of the season I set my sights on the Kiwi tour to Australia, and was keen to do well at Wellington. Now I will have to try all the harder against West Coast at Greymouth on May 7. If I dip out this year, then I will look to the trip to Britain and France in 1980.”

Some people have been quick to compare Edkins’s emergence with that of Walker and even the great Mel Cooke, both of whom developed from scrumhalves into test loose forwards. Such parallels are of interest; they are also unfair to a young man who has all the qualities necessary to make his own name in international rugby league.