Odds favour Coast in second leg of league

Press, 29 July 1978, Page 56

Odds favour Coast in second leg of league

By

JOHN COFFEY

W est Coast will have three important factors in its favour when it meets Canterbury in the second leg of their Rothmans rugby league tournament zone tie at Wingham Park, Greymouth, tomorrow.

Don Ladner, the West;) Coast full-back, goal-kicker and captain, and his hooker, !< John Griffin, have the spe-, cialist skills to play winning roles, while the Canterbury squad faces a tiring bus trip:' across the Alps at first light I tomorrow morning. li Whether by design or not, Canterbury officials nullified Ladner’s points-scoring po- ' tential by using white foot-, balls for the first-leg fixture at the Show Grounds last 1 : month. Few kickers havej been able to gain mastery over that particular brand of! ball and. although Ladner: had length, his accuracy was : astray and his two goals !; from eight attempts was his worst in memory. In comparison, Ladner’s >

■eight goals from nine opportunities made all the difference between the two provinces when West Coast had a comfortable 22-12 advantage in an early-season I "friendly” game. That result will not be taken into ’consideration tomorrow, and Canterbury will start with the 19-7 lead it achieved at Christchurch. If West Coast is to overcome its 12-point deficit and go on to oppose Wellington j or Waikato in the national I semi-final at Wellington or Huntly on August 19, it will need more possession than Griffin has supplied in the iprevious encounters. Mike Godinet held sway in the scrums both at Greyi mouth (16-8) and Christ-

church (15-11), but injury has forced his withdrawal on this occasion and his Papanui club-mate, Danny Millward, has been switched from prop to substitute. Millward has not hooked regularly since his junior days and has had little time to undergo a refresher course.

Keen interest should also be taken in the performances of two other individuals, the Canterbury secondrow forward, Barry Edkins, and the West Coast scrumhalf, Don Monk. Only a few weeks ago long odds would have been offered against either appearing in this match.

Edkins had his jaw broken and was knocked out of the Kiwi tour to Australia and

Papua New Guinea in his debut for New Zealand at Wagga Wagga. His loss hasl been sorely felt by thei Kiwis, for he had wasted no time in zeroing in towards his target of test selection and would by rights have been toiling away in the heat of Port Moresby against New Guinea today but for that cruel blow.

The shoulder injuries suffered by Gerard Harcourt in each of the earlier Canterbury games has led to Monk’s return to first-class rugby league. He has worn his province’s colours since 1967 and reached the verge of Kiwi honours with his astute distribution, backing up and defence from behind the West Coast pack. West Coast might lack the sheer size of the Canterbury forwards, although its play* ers have proved in the past that team spirit and provincial loyalty can burn deeply enough to overcome physical deficiencies. Wingham Park is their happy hunting ground and Canterbury could need all 12 of the points that it has in hand. The Canterbury B side will virtually clinch over-all victory in the South Island second-division competition if it beats its West Coast second XIII counterpart in the curtain-raiser. Canterbury easily defeated Otago at Dunedin, and West Coast struggled to head off Marl-borough-Tasman Bays in the first round.