University A and Chch set for rugby final

Press, 14 August 1978, Page 19

University A and Chch set for rugby final

University A and Christchurch are likely to dispute the grand final of the senior rugby championship for the C.S.B. Trophy at Lancaster Park on August 27.

This was the strong im-, pression after the second! round games in the cham-' pionship play-offs at the oval on Saturday. University A, the trophy holder, played with verve and assurance to beat the accomplished Christchurch side in a high scoring and absorbing match. But Linwood made many mistakes on the way to beating a New Brighton team which could not command sufficient possession to be a real threat. On Saturday’s showings, University should beat Linwood, and Christchurch should account for New Brighton next week-end to qualify for the grand final. The games have been pushed back to the unfashionable hour of 12.30 p.m. This is, of course, so that players can follow the first test between New Zealand and Australia, in Wellington, but it also removes the last vestiges of drama from the play-offs. The enforced absence of its regular tight-head prop, Tony Porter — ordered off and subsequently suspended for punching the Linwood captain, lan Mallard, the previous week — cost Christchurch dear against University A. In Porter’s place, Christchurch played a lock, Neil Denton, who was often buckled and lifted by his marker, John Edmonson, as the University pack applied the weight when Christchurch fed the scrums. Strangely, Christchurch made no attempt to reshuffle the pack, and so helped give University dominance. Christchurch scored four tries to University’s three, but two of the Christchurch tries came after the titleholder had virtually clinched the victory. Doug Heffernan gave a splendid display of goalkicking for University, succeeding with six attempts out of seven for 15 points. But Richard Wilson, the Christchurch and Canterbury full-back, was not at his best, landing only three goals from eight kicks. It was a fine, sunny day, and the teams responded by running up 268 points, including 38 tries, in the eight senior games. Albion scored six of them in beating Lincoln College to! strengthen its prospects of! retaining the D.C.L. Shield.) Old Boys stopped Burnside’s i charmed run, and Suburbs) and Shirley are also unbeat-1 en in this competition.

Results were:— C. TROPHY University A 30, Christchurch 23. Linwood 16, New Brighton 9. D. SHIELD Section I Old Boys 32, Burnside 12. Suburbs 12, Sydenham 9. Hornby 10, Marist 7. Section II Albion 30, Lincoln College 22. Shirley 14, Mervala-Papanui 10. Belfast 22, University B 10. Points are:-—

COSTLY LAPSES Errors by two experienced Canterbury players cost Christ* church 12 points in the space of three minutes midway through the second half and enabled University A to romp away in a high-scoring match. First, Murray McEwan languidly attempted a clearing kick, but his marker. Kevin Jennings, charged the ball down, pounced on it, and gleefully flung himself across the goal-line. Then Richard Wilson, presented with an awkward ball by Gary Barkle, tried a soft fly kick, but was horrified when his boot met air. Randall Scott swooped in from the University right wing, controlled the ball with his feet, and scored a tidy try. Doug Heffernan converted both tries, to place University 14 points in front. Badly Christchurch fought back with grim resolve, and the versatile Graham Sims scored two tries. But that was a little like closing the stable door after the horse had bolted. University seized the initiative in the first quarter through hard, driving forward play, which produced good second phase possession, superbly cleared by Barkle. This was complemented by the excellent goal-kicking of Heffernan, whose 100 per cent success rate from four attempts gave his side a 15-6 lead after 20 minutes. In the latter stages of both halves Christchurch made strenuous gap-bridging efforts. But in both instances, University had already stolen a march. The rivals had equal possession, but University was clearly superior at the ruck, and Barkle’s sharp and intelligent i play at half-back did the rest. John Edmondson, the loosehead prop, had a fine game, and lan Stewart and Wayne Wooster also did well. But it was the cohesiveness of the eight forwards, and the impetus with which they hit the rucks, that meant so much to University. ! Kieran Keane and Jennings | played wisely and well in the I five-eighths, and Heffernan’s (kicking for touch and for goal (was on a par with his best i efforts last season. . Peter Coleman and Mark Treweek showed up in the Christ- > church pack, but there was not

the same degree of collective force as University’s exhibited. This limited the backs’ contri? bution, but there was still some promising cuts made by McEwan and John Collinson in midfield. Sims, used as the blind-side workhorse, finished up looking the best of them all. LONG RUN ENDS it was mainly a huge advantage in possession which enabled Linwood to end New Brighton's long golden run in a match which never rose to great heights. The seasiders played tidily and well, cut their errors to a minimum, and did their best to throw Linwood off balance. But with only 30 per cent of the ball at their disposal, their chances were slim. Linwood drubbed its rival at the line-out, with Robert Johns, leaping like a trout, contributing chiefly to a 26-5 count against New Brighton. But this glut of possession was not handled with the loving care is deserved, and bad passing and fruitless punting by some Linwood backs constantly let New Brighton off the hook. It was not just scoring chances which were damaged by Linwood’s carelessness. Brent Nahkies was drawn into a nasty collision with John Te Amo through trying to retrieve a pass thrown behind his head by

Gary Overend; later Nahkies got l a “hospital” pass from Dennis Andrews and was crunched by Ross Gibson. Frustrated by the way things were going, Terry Mitchell, Linwood’s best back by a considerable margin, often stole away from the left wing to insert himself in the mid-field to get some action. He was successful to a point—he broke through with ease several times, but failed to link well with his supports. Linwood continued to kick with fine disregard for the gaps, but pressure tries by John Phillips (from a scrum) and Gary Hogg (from a line-out) salvaged something of value from the shambles. Even so, Dave Bowick came tantalisingly close to rescuing New Brighton, missing narrowly with two difficult penalties and a drop-kick in the last quarter. Bob Davison played a lively game for Brighton in the forwards, and Graeme Ellis, for his passing and covering, and Gibson, for his tackling, were the pick of the backs.

MANY ERRORS An over-all domination in the forwards gave High School Old Boys an advantage Burnside was unable to overcome, and, although the Old Boys' backs showed only average ability, faulty defensive work allowed them to gain points. Generally the back play was disappointing and the few good movements were overshadowed by the bad handling and injudicious running from both sides. Cid Boys did little with the possession won and a tendency to kick and cut back by the inside backs spoilt much play. There were also moments of indecision under the high ball. The Old Boys forwards controlled all phases of play, Mark Harding and Alan Croad gained the greater share of line-out ball and the ability of Mike Toner to harrass the Burnside halfback meant that even from set play Burnside was denied possession.

The Old Boys backs were a mixed lot. Simon Bloomberg was adequate behind the scrum but outside him all the others were guilty of fundamental errors, Clive Currie was a capable fullback who gave the line penetration and lan Mather a strong running wing Graham Church and Paul McKay were the best of a beaten Burnside pack and the full-back, Muri Lloyd, ran well. His break from his own 22m line led to Burnside’s only try. However, the Burnside backs were disappointing and they crumbled badly in defence in the final 20 minutes. MARIST BUSTLED In a tense struggle at Denton Oval the home team caused

an upset by defeating the more favoured Marist side, however, Hornby deserved its win The Hornby forwards were more lively in the tight and the backs made more of the loose ball than did Marist. For most of the match there was not much enthusiasm shown by Marist.

The opening stages of the match set the pattern that was to be followed to the final whistle. Marist enjoyed cleaner possession from the line-outs but ensuing back movements were kept to a minimum because of bustling play by the Hornby forwards and a remarkably alert half-back in Neville Wilson. He displayed remarkable qualities: he tackled tenaciously, his chips ahead were embarrassingly accurate and his passing was usually reliable. Generally, the Hornby backs were more effective than their opposition. When the ball was whipped along the backline the Hale brothers ran hard and straight. Hornby was not disgraced in the line-outs. Robbie Webster jumped high and in the dying stages of the game, he outpointed the Marist forwards. Although Hornby was the better team on the day, much of the blame for Marist’s loss must fall at the feet of Bernie Stewart. He was noticeably slow off the mark and his passing was poor. On several occasions in the first half Marist might well have gained extra points but for Stewart’s sluggishness. However, Kerry' Flood was a lively forward and the full-back, Peter Gaul, was rarely caught out of position. Althogh Webster, Wilson and the Hale brothers made valuable contributions to Hornby’s win, it was an all-round team effort that carried the day. KICKED TO WIN An eleventh-hour dropped goal by John Neilson from an indirect free kick brought Suburbs home in an undistinguished game against Sydenham. Neilson has blossomed as a

kicker for Suburbs recently; he has scored 45 points in the last four games. His contributions were badly needed on Saturday, for Sydenham was on terms with its rival for most of the game, and showed signs of sprightliness in the latter stages. But with customary solid contributions from Mike Cron and Warren Hay, Suburbs made a stronger showing up front. There were, however, too many mistakes on both sides to life the game out of a rut, and many frustrations occurred before Neilson, with his third goal of the game, rescued Suburbs. Sydenham had some recom pense in the able play of its schoolboy full-back, Brent Nichols. BRIGHT GAME Both Lincoln College and Albion showed a willingness to run the ball, and although mistakes were made on both sides the result was an entertaining game with the issue undecided right to the end. Features of the game were the fine driving and passing of the Albion forwards and the goalkicking and general all-round play of the Lincoln full-back. Brett Codlin. With 10 minutes to go the score was 18-all and then Albion scored a push-over try. In the 37th minute Lincoln narrowed the gap to two points and on time Albion scored under the posts to clinch the match. Albion carried the day because of the greater sharpness of the backs and better all round play of the forwards, well led by Murray Straight. Belfast scored its expected win against University B after leading all the way. but it was not a performance that gave the side prospects of winning the D.C.L. Shield for the third time in four years. There were gaps and loose ends in the Belfast team’s play, ond some of these were exploited by a University team which has forgotten what it feels like to win. but has not tossed in the towel. In between times, Belfast’s highly rated forwards, Billy Bush and Dave Thompson, rampaged through at the head of a strong pack, and little Teddy Davis. scampering in their shadows, was ail artfulness and guile. Outside him. Roger Taylor was solid and businesslike. When the game was safely in Belfast’s keeping, University unleashed some bold but despairing attacks, which produced two tries after spectacular runs. For the second time in as | many weeks. Merivale-Papanui attacked with vigour only to’exjerience another narrow loss. This one was to Shirley, which scored two death-knock tries to win by four points. With Steve Scott orchestrating moves from the base of the scrum. Shirley made a bold showing, but had precious little to show for it until its final flurry of points. There was a solid effort from the MerivalePapanui pack, with the stalwart, Dennis Skipper hewing away devotedly in the tight.

C.S.B. TROPHY W L D F A Pts Univ. A 1 0 1 48 41 3 Chch 1 1 0 48 44 2 Linwood 1 1 0 30 34 2 New Bri. 0 1 1 27 34 1 D.C.L. SHIELD Section 1 w L F A Pts H.S.O.B. 2 0 42 15 4 Suburbs 2 0 27 22 4 Burnside 1 1 21 36 2 Hornby 1 1 23 22 2 Sydenham 0 2 12 22 0 Mar 1st 0 2 11 19 0 Section II w L F A Pts Albion 2 0 36 25 4 Shirley 2 0 23 16 4 Belfast 1 1 29 26 2 Lincoln Coll. 1 1 38 37 2 Merivale-Pap. 0 2 13 20 0 University B 0 2 16 31 0 COSTLY LAPSES