Hipwell star at Pukekohe

Press, 16 August 1978, Page 42

Hipwell star at Pukekohe

PA Pukekohe The emergence of an eh fective inside back combination helped Australia to a 17-8 win over Counties at the Pukekohe Stadium yesterday. The play of the verteran half-back, John Hipwell, and the fly-half Ken Wright, against the mistake-prone Counties side also raised Wallaby hopes for the first test against the All Blacks in Wellington this Saturday. Hipwell having his first game in an Australian jersey after a three-year interval, injected new life into the 1978 Wallabies. His ability to organise the defence in pressure situations and concoct attacking moves contributed to the much-needed Australian reversal of form.

Wright’s play was of an equally high standard. As well as kicking two superb penalty goals from 40m into the slight southerly breeze he engineered some highly promising attacking moves.

He and the second fiveeighths, Martin Knight, exes cuted the “double-round” on two separate occasions and split the home-team’s midfield defence. While the Wallabies were rightly content with their win it was qualified somewhat by the poor performance of Counties, particu-

larly in the backs. The replacement half-back, Mike Littlewood, laboured his passes a little which placed the second five-eighths, Graham Taylor, and the All Black centre, Bruce Rob’ ertson, under constant pressure. It was not until late in the game, when Counties began to run the ball from secondary-phase situations that the All Black centre was able to show his attacking qualities. While the Counties backline rarely functioned as an efficient unit it did enough to highlight some defensive inadequacies in the Wallabies. The Counties, tries scored by Taylor and Fan Mcßobbie, resulted from the ball being run on the blind side after a scrum and a maul respectively. The best try of the match was scored by the 19-year-old Queensland wing, Brendan Moon, in the eleventh minute after a classic backline move from set play. Moon ran round his oppo» site, Warren McLean, with the greatest of ease to score in the corner after the fullback Laurie Monaghan, entered the line. Scorers. — For Australia: Moon, Knight tries; Wright two penalties and a dropped goal. Far Counties: Graham Taylor, Mcßobbie tries.