Eastern, Papanui lead league

Press, 28 May 1979, Page 3

Eastern, Papanui lead league

By

JOHN COFFEE

Eastern Suburbs-Hertz and Papanui assumed joint leadership of the Canterbury rugby league premiership when they gained victories in contrasting circumstances during the fifth round at the Show Grounds yesterday.

It was only after a stern 11 struggle, largely contested! t by two strong forward! t packs, that Eastern pre-| vailed, 16-11, at the expense>i of the prevtausly-unbeaten i Maris t-Western Suburbs s side. s Earlier in the afternoon 1 Papanui encountered far I more opposition than t had been expected > from the lowly s Hornby XIII. The scores were still tied as the game j entered its final quarter, but , Papanui finished much the i better and added 14 points , in the last ISmin to win by • 27-13. j The other favoured teams, ( I Sydenham and Linwood, also , Rencountered keen com- j 'petition on the adjoining j field. Sydenham was behind Kaiapoi for a time before slipping away to a 23-12 , margin, while Linwood eventually beat Halswell, 32-17. The tussle for the championship semi-final positions intensified. Eastern and °apanui are just one point ahead of Marist, Linwood and Sydenham, and Adding-. ton, which had the bye! yesterday, is two points off the pace. Forwards dominated the ' “man of the match” awards, with Mark Broadhurst (Marist), Doug Thompson (Papanui) and Tua Ale (Sydenham) among the recipients. The exception was the Lin- ‘ wood centre, Lewis Hudson. Results. — Eastern Suburbs-Hertz 16, Marist-Western Suburbs 11. Papanui 27, Hornby 13. Sydenham 23, Kaiapoi 12.

Linwood 32, Halswell 17. Addington a bye. PREMIERSHIP POINTS

An outstanding try by the Eastern replacement wing, Peter Klink, enabled it to regain the lead mid-way through the second half of the main match and inspired

his team-mates to repulse it the determined late attacks 11 by Marist. p Alan Rushton made the!] initial running and the Mar-11 ist defence neglected toil smother his pass on the > sixth tackle. Barry Edkins, Bruce Murphy, | Murray French and 1 then Klink handled in a i spectacular movement that i swept more than 50 metres. Only a few minutes earlier - Marist had seemed a likely 1 winder, having recovered from a 10-3 deficit to take a i one-point lead when Kevin Franklin, who had switched from the centres to the sec- 1 ond-row, touched down to capitalise on one of many I breaks made by Mark Broadhurst. But once Klink had replied with his try, Eastern was in no mood to concede the competition points for which if. had toiled so diligently. The Eastern pack, . although tiring, found the energy to return to Marist’s territory and the alert Wayne Jeffs was on hand |for his second try. Even then Eastern could not relax, for it was pinned inside its own 22m area and Marist might have equalised had its scrum-half, Graeme Frew, held a pass with the try-line open. Frew had been stunned by a heavy tackle early in the piece and one of the several balls which eluded him from set play gave French a simple try. Eastern dominated possession in the second spell much more than John Maguiness’s 19-16 hooking <

advantage would suggest. French was alert around the scrum-base. and Eastern prospered as it overcame the handling problems which had plagued it before the interval. Papanui appeared to approach its match with Hornby in too confident a mood, and it was only the accurate goal-kicking of Bryce Nicholson which kept it in or near the lead in the third quarter. Papanui was not particularly safe until its prop, Doug Thompson, brushed past some weak tackles to score 12min from the finish. In its most positive display of the season, Hornby was in front three times, largely through the efforts of its captain, Wayne Wallace, and the inside backs, Brent Ringdahl, Lex Clarke and Kelvin Kelly. Wallace directed Hornby’s play and moved deceptively for his two tries. The young Papanui wing, Merv Clarkson, sprinted 90 metres to touch down after an interception in the opening minute and used an over-lap to score again near the finish. Kevin Williams and Ken Tait were other successful Papanui backs, with Thompson the most notable forward. The little-fancied Kaiapoi and Halswell sides had their memorable moments on the No. 2 ground. Kaiapoi was still within range of Sydenham until 22min from the end, and the Halswell player-coach, Lester Wilson, claimed two tries against his old club, Linwood.

P W D L F A Pts Pap 4 3 1 0 103 45 7 East 4 3 1 0 95 53 7 Mar 4 3 0 1 142 40 6 Un 4 3 0 1 71 57 6 Syd ;> 3 0 2 86 83 6 Add 4 2 1 1 76 51 5 Hal n 1 0 4 51 161 2 Kai 5 0 1 4 64 138 1 Horn 5 0 0 5 48 108 0