Eastern leads premiership

Press, 24 April 1980, Page 32

Eastern leads premiership

Eastern Subrubs-Hertz displaced Linwood at the top of the Canterbury N.Z.I.G. rugby league premiership points table when it beat Linwood, 26-7, at the Show Grounds last evening. There will, in total, be 128 matches in the competition, but already, after just 10 games, no team has managed to retain a perfect record. Eastern, with two wins and a draw, is likely to be joined in the lead by Maris t-Western Suburbs, which meets Halswell when the third round is completed tonight. In achieving its victory, Eastern ironically adopted the tactics that have been typical of Linwood in most of its best performances — bustling and aggresive defence, strong and straight running, and productive tactical kicking.

Apart from Rex Dalzell in the first half, the Linwood players cotdd make no headway in the face of the forthright Eastern tackling. Jim Ch urc h e r and Derek McLaughlan were outstanding for Eastern in this regard and Linwood’s pattern disintegrated. Only when the premiership points were secure did Eastern seek to produce any frills and Murray

. rench and Peter Klink conspired to send Trevor Philpott across tor a try which capped a magnificent 60m movement. Klink also claimed three fine tires in

the second half to be an obvious choice as "man of the match.”

A disjointed display by Addington in the curtainraiser, when it twice came within range of Hornby after whittling away at large deficits, cost it any chance of a win. But Hornby was not safe until Kelvin Kelly touched down two minutes before full-time to open the' gap up to 28-21.

A brave recovery, led by Bob Jarvis, had provided Addington with three tries in just seven minutes, and Hornby, more consistent over all Was under pressure. The individual highlight of an open match was the solo, swerving and then sprinting run of 70 metres by the Hornby centre, Wayne Mundav.

Eastern 26 (P. G. Klink three, B. Huruwai, T. W. Philpott, D. Young tries; B. R. Edkins two, K. G. Steel two goals) beat Linwood 7 (R. Hudson try; R. Hudson, L. E. Hudson goals). Halftime, 10-2. Scrums, Linwood, 20-13. Penalites, Eastern, 109. Referee, Mr T. Drake. Hornby 28 (W. Munday two. P. Ashton, R. Hallett, S. Wilkie, K. Kelly tries; Ashton five goals) beat Addington 21 (S. Odering, R. J. Jarvis, J. R. Tapiata, B. J. Brown, R. Berryman tries; Tapiata three goals). Halftime, Hornby 17-10. Scrums Addington, 15-13. Penalties, Addington, ’ 15-11. Referee, Mr R. J. A. MacKenzie.