Wallabies will be wary of Mid-Canty today

Press, 22 August 1978, Page 28

Wallabies will be wary of Mid-Canty today

By

KEVIN McMENAMIN

If they are students of history, the Wallabies, who have the task of playing Mid-Canterbury in the seventh match of their tour at Ashburton today, will be unmoved by any talk of the local cause being hopeless.

In 1964, Mid-Canterbury, was given a game against I, the touring Australian team | of that year — its first ever against an overseas side —.< and the Australian XV that I day contained some fine I players, such as Terry, Casey, 1 1 Phil Hawthorne, Greg Davis,! I Peter Crittle, and John Thor- I nett, who was the captain. But it was a day for thei underdog, and Mid-Canter- < bury scored four tries to two and won, 16-10. The i game, incidentally, was ’ sandwiched between the first and second tests, as is ! today’s. It is hard to imagine his-' I tory repeating itself, but I Mid-Canterbury can be ex-i i pected to play above its me-’ | diocre record this year and , if its forwards can last the , full 80min Australia may be ‘ in for something more than just a romp. it

The match holds some im-t portance for the Wallabies. || They are now on the second! i half of their tour and a good I i provincial win would not!: only be a great morale i booster in the count-down: for the crucial second test in 11 Christchurch on Saturday,! but also a sure sign that! I they are improving. 11 The Wallabies are giving! < most of their non-test play- I ers a run, but this does not| I appear to bring any notable;! reductions in speed and size, if the two qualities which are! likely to place the greatest) i strain on Mid-Canterbury. I: Against Canterbury last ' month, Mid-Canterbury held ! together well for the first! I spell, but then the greater' | power of the Canterbury it forwards and the superior speed of its backs were J translated into an avalanche: j of points. I f

i Mid-Canterbury cannot ex[pect to command much possession this afternoon and if it is to have any chance at all it will need to tackle as if it was defending the local licensing trust’s annual pro-’ ‘fit. One of the Mid-Canter-1 bury coaches, Mr Neville Goodwin, gives his team a! chance. “I am happy with! the way the preparations’ have gone since we lost 0-15 to Marlborough nine days ago,” he said yesterday. A result which may hold more interest* to the Wallabies is the 3-9 loss MidCanterbury suffered to Otago at the end of June. Otago is one of the three’ provincial teams which has beaten the tourists. The home team has received a major setback with the withdrawal because of injury of its most ex-) perienced back, Peter Kee-I

nan. His place at second five-eighths has been taken by Michael Wilson. The oval at the Show Grounds is firm and with no dramatic changes predicted in the weather it should stay that way. The teams are:— Australia. — Roger Gould; Brendan Moon, Bill McKid, Stephen Streeter, Andrew Slack, Ken Wright, Rod Hauser, Robert Onus, Tony Shaw, Garrick Fay, Keith Besomo, Tom Barker, Chris Handy, Bill Ross, Stan Pi-| lecki. Mid-Canterbury. — lan! McLenaghan, David Wilson, Allan Grieve, Peter McLay, Michael Wilson, Murray Roulston, Alan Edge, John McLay, Alister Morrison, John Ross, Russell Chilton, Bruce Parkin, Don Grant, Ray Church, Jack Perry. Referee: Mr Brian Duffy (Taranaki).