Thacker Shield goes to Runanga

Press, 1 October 1979, Page 3

Thacker Shield goes to Runanga

Greymouth reporter , t Runanga won the Thacker c ■Shield, symbol of South Is-J land rugby league club su- J premacy, when it beat the t Canterbury champions, Eastern Suburbs Hertz, by 10 f points to six at Wingham !t Park yesterday. T The _ match was decided.' solely bn goal-kicks, no tries;’ being scored in a hard,!' defensive match. ’r Eastern led 6-4 at half-’f time, after playing with a’i strong wind at its back. On I the turn around. Runanga; had not only the wind, butl( also driving rain at its back,!j but failed to use this advan-ic tage to benefit, taking tap’s penalties when metres of ' ground were there for theT grasping. It was a game which J could easily have gone it either way, but a tendency by Eastern Suburbs to fail’s to retire, and a tendency to’i dispute decisions of the ref- t eree (Mr B. P. McKenzie);r cost it both ground and k points, and one forward. Jim Churcher, earned a spell in’r the sin-bin. ,t Runanga gained much of’j the set ball in the early’r Scrums through its young is hooker, Wayne Griffin, up I against Alan Rushton, but r the latter was more asser- c five as the game progressed, giving his scrum-half Mur-’n

ray French the opportunity to punch holes in the defence, with the elusive Kevin Placid constantly moving in from the wing to add penetration to the centres. The hard grafting work up front was handled ably by the player-coach, Grant Findlay, and Danny Carson, while the McWilliam Wines “Player of the Day” award went to the Runanga second rower, Ray Baxendale, who played an assertive game, backed tirelessly by Peter Harris and John Griffin. The Runanga centre, Pel er O’Neill, who reached 200 points- for the season in a club game last week-end. added another 10 to his tally with the five successful goal kicks yesterday. From an unsuccessful kick, Runanga almost scored a try, the ball striking the cross-bar, bouncing back, and a Runanga player grabbed it and dived Over the line, but the referee ruled that it had been knocked forward. The Thacker Shield will now be the centre-piece for the Runanga club’s diamond jubilee celebrations next month. The club’s still sprightly , founder. Mr Lance Hunter, was among those who watched its win yesterday. Mr Hunter called the first meeting tn 1919.

' I Runanga started off at sipace and was hot on attack Si when it was awarded a pen-1 ■ alty two minutes into the >1 first half, and O’Neill goaled. -iThree minutes later, Eastern; !Suburbs equalled when! > Placid goaled from 301 /'metres out. t Baxendale and then Harris! ,’made considerable' ground,! »I after 18 minutes, and when' I-Harris was leg-tripped, I O’Neill goaled again, but ) i less than a minute later I . I Placid levelled the score! r'again. I A concerted effort by Eas-I rjtern was almost successful, )'but the winger, Stephen II Flaus, was pushed out in the .‘corner by the Runanga full/jback, Trevor Crestani. With lithe wind blowing strongly iagainst it, Runanga almost I j committed suicide with I‘kicks which lost ground and iisome wild passes which invariably went astray. t| With five minutes to go /‘to half-time, Placid goaled /'again for Eastern to give it i the half-time lead. ; O’Neill drew Runanga II level five minutes into the r| second half with another 1! penalty goal, and gave it the t.lead at the start of the last 1 quarter, and then kicked his ; I fifth goal with less than 10 > minutes remaining. -I In the curtain-raiser, the I Canterbury 18-year-old team t 'beat its West Coast counterparts, 15-13.