Canterbury looks for new formula

Press, 10 July 1979, Page 36

Canterbury looks for new formula

The Canterbury rugby team appears to be heading for a record turnover of players this season. The Inclusion of four new men for tiie match against Soul Canterbury at Rugby Park this afternoon brings the total to 33 in only five matches. At this rate the Canterbury union will need a cinemascope camera to take the team photograph in October. The latest moves are bold ones, but they are not without an element of risk. Steve Scott, returning to the side as halfback for the first time since last season, has been paired with a rank newcomer, Wayne Smith, the Belfast first five-eighths.

Kieran Keane has been switched back to second five-eighths, and his midfield partner will be Dave Ngatai, another player making his first appearance, while Shane Gibbons has been left on the wing. In the forwards, Dave White has been retained at lock after an encouraging first performance, and Alan Croad, the tall and wiry Old Boys No. 8, has been placed on the side of the scrum. Scott and Smith are both players who like to run with the ball, but Canterbury’s greatest need is to create more striking power in midfield with consequent scoring chances on the wings. Sharp running and crisp

passing by Keane and Ngatai will be expected if Randal Scott and Gibbons are to be brought out of stagnation. It is unlikely that South Canterbury will make the home side’s task any easier, even though there is

By

JOHN BROOKS

nothing hanging on the game and such wellknown players as Bill Anderson, Noel Dennison, Alan McLaren and Larnie Palmer are missing from the side. South Canterbury is traditionally a difficult opponent for Canterbury early

in the ..Liter at Fraser Park, but today’s team will be largely unknown force as far as Canterbury is concerned. The greatest strength will be in the loose forwards, where Harvey King, Noel Glass and

Peter Grant form an exceptionally good combination. Although the All Black, Lyn Jaffray, will not be playing, South Canterbury has useful backs in Ray Teahen, Barry Gallagher and Tony Kelly, and Ken Tarrant is a sturdy half-

back who clears the ball well. In the Canterbury pack, Alex Wyllie is back as captain and No. 8, and the All Black front row has been reunited. Croad will be expected to win some good ball towards the back of the line-out: he is one of the few genuine two-handed catchers in Christchurch football. Inter-provincial games d.a not bring much success to South Canterbury last season, and it was fortunate to remain in the first division when it drew with Marlborough in the promotion-relegation match at the end of the year.

Today’s match will be a pointer to the first division contest between the

two sides in rimaru in September, and will also assist both teams in their preparation for the championship, now looming largely on the horizon. The teams are:— Canterbury.— Richard Wilson; Gibbons, Ngatai, Randal Scott; Keane, Smith; Steve Scott; Wyllie; Croad, Graeme Higginson, White, Barney Henderson; Bill Bush, John Black, John Ashworth. South Canterbury— Kelly; Paul Carter, Stuart Lamb, Teahen; Garry O'Brien, Gallagher; Tarrant; King; Glass, Dave Bell, Murray Kerse, Grant; John Cleverley, Terry Murphy, Dave McKenzie