Canterbury wins, but not convincing against side of modest talents

Press, 11 July 1979, Page 34

Canterbury wins, but not convincing against side of modest talents

By

JOHN BROOKS

Both Canterbury and South Canterbury will have hard rows to hoe in the national first division rugby championship judging by their performances in a noncompetition game at Rugby Park yesterday.

After losses in its previous two engagements, Canterbury showed improvement in some ar 'ects of its play and won the match by 28-0. But for a team which commanded 70 per cent of total possession, Cant'rbury was not convin. g against a side of modest talents. There were an extraordinary number of mistakes in the Canterbury effort, and a side stronger than South Canterbury would have made the red and blacks pay dearly for them.

But, apart from its loose forwards, South Canterbury was an anonymous side and it was not until the sixtythird minute that the ball was passed along the backline for the first time. Several transistor radios were dotted among the crowd of about 1700, and there were many occasions when developments in the France-Southland game at Invercargill appeared to hold more interest than the live action in Christchurch.

One player who did much to recapture the attention of spectators vas the new Canterbury first five-eighths, Wayne Smith. He caught and passed well, ran with Imagination and a touch of daring, and generally did a good deal to restore sharpness to the Canterbury attack.

Kieran Keane, outside him. seemed more at home as a midfield attacker and was certainly removed from the temptation of kicking too much. He received the ball 20 times and passed or

ran on all but three occasions.

The third member of the new combination, Dave Ngatai, was closely marked but still showed penetration and appealed as a good ball distributor.

Although the Canterbury pack won such a big amount of ball, especially from scrums and rucks where the weight advantage told heavily, the individuals did not impress greatly. John Ashworth, however, was an exception. He was a force at the core of the rucks and drives, and after South Canterbury had made a mockery of Canterbury’s line-out ability in the first half, it was Ashworth who led the revival, cutting off clean ball at No. 2. There was not much that could be said for the rest. Bill Bush was last to many rucks, o-d, incredibly, had to be pushed into one by the half-back, Steve Scott. John Black, just as incredibly, escaped censure from the referee, Mr A. R. Bateman, after stamping on a pile of bodies at a ruck, and Alex Wyllie had a lot -' trouble in timing his detachment from the «cmm in the first half. Later he was a useful dummy half as Canterbury applied the pressure near its rival’s goal-line. But the team had many misfires before scoring three tries in the final quarter to boost the score from the half-time margin of 12-0.

Shane Gibbons had three scoring chances on the right wing, but lacked the subtelty

needed to beat South Canterbury’s able cover defence. Randal Scott was pinned upright by tacklers on one occasion when a hairpin crouch would have brought him a try between the posts, and Ngatai lost the ball as he dived over the goal-line. But Smith made up for these lost chances with some clever runs and quick clearances; in one attack he caught his own lobbed kick and sent Ngatai away swiftly, but Gibbons was caught in the corner. Steve Scott was industrious at half-back, although his passes were not always swift enough and he botched a tap-kick. Gibbons and Ray Teahen had a squabble for the ball over the side-line, which did not do either side any good — Black threw in, anyway — and Richard Wilson had some patchy moments in an otherwise sound display. His entrances into t’ : back-line confused the opposition and he kicked reasonably well to finish the game with 16 points.

South Canterbury never looked like scoring,” and the nearest it "ot was when Tony Kelly put over a dropkicked kick-off from halfway. Ken Tarrant was a busy and tidy half-back, but his fellow backs were never a force.

Canterbury’s points came from tries by Wilson, Randal Scott, Steve Scott and Smith, with Wilson kicking three conversions and two penalty goals.