Canterbury faces hard task in opening match of championship

Press, 18 July 1979, Page 40

Canterbury faces hard task in opening match of championship

Bv

KEVIN McMENAMIN

With the Ranfurly Shield to defend, Norti Auckland is heading towards a memorable rugby season. It might even attach a second string to its bow by making a bid for the national championship as well.

North Auckland certainly looks to have a side capable of retaining the shield through seven challenges — only the last two, by Auckland and Wellington, should prove onerous — and if it can beat Canterbury at Lancaster Park this afternoon it wiil be well in the hunt for championship honours. The game will mark the half-way point in North Auckland’s championship programme and a win would give it the highly satisfactory return of four wins from the five matches. It began with a 13-8 win over Manawatu, then lost, 6-12, to Counties (a side deserving of championship favouritism) and in the last week has beaten Otago, 16-7, and Southland, 15-0.

It is ve./ rare — in fact, it is hard to recall when it was last done — for a North Island side to beat the “big three" South Island unions on a single tour, more especially in mid-winter when heavy grounds make extra demands on stamina. If North Auckland wins today, and the odds must be in its favour, then it will have proved itself a very good side indeed. The fact that it is so far into its representative programme is

undoubtedly a help, but a third hard game in a week 1 will not be easy and there is ■ also the loss of two leading players, Mike Gunson and I Fred Woodman, to the New Zealand Juniors. Nevertheless, the side remains a formidable one. The forwards are well endowered ' ith size, speed and experience and the backs, esr :ially in the inside trio, of Steve Griffin, Eddie Dunn and Joe Morgan, have a wide range of abilities to call on. The game will be Canterbury’s first in the national championship and a good start is most important, particularly as there is a month’s wait until the next and this is a long time for a side to have to live with failure. There is reason to suspect that Canterbury could be facing a difficult season. The performances in the five matches to date have been, at best, patchy and the movement of players through the squad disconcerting. It is obviously a time of some rebuilding. The forwards should come right. Canterbury packs invariably do, and the battle would be more than half ’ on if the speed of the for-

s.ards about the field was increased a metre or two from what it was against South Canterbury last week. The line-outs are the other main cause for concern and the locks, Graeme Higginson and Robert Johns, will undoubtedly take the field today with some stern words from their coach, Stan Hill, ringing in their ears. Higginson, in particular, has been disappointing lately. The new inside-back combination of Steve Scott, Wayne Smith and Kieran Keane shaped promisingly against South Canterbury. The teams are: Canterbury. — Richard Wilson, Randal Scott, Gibbons, Mather, Keane, Smith, Steve Scott, Alex Wyllie, Barney Henderson, Higginson, Johns, Don Hayes, Barry Thompson, John Black, John Ashworth. North Auckland. — David IL-ynes, Grant Mudgway, Charles Going, Lloyd Roberts, Morgan, Dunn, Griffin, Tuck Waaka, Mike Burgoyne, Graeme Phillips, Maiha Mahanga or John Guest, lan Phillips, Tappy Perkinson, Peter Sloane, Wayne Neville.