Eastern moves info second place

Press, 12 May 1980, Page 31

Eastern moves info second place

The slender . advantage held by Marist-Westem Suburbs over its rivals in the Canterbury N.Z.I.G. rugby league premiership was extended two competition points on Saturday. Marist, which had kept its unbeaten record intact at the expense of Papanui the previous Wednesday evening, was able to relax on Saturn day while Eastern SuburbsHertz replaced Sydenham in second position. Even Eastern’s most hardened supporters must have been dissatisfied with the manner in which their side bumbled its way to a 22-10 win. Sydenham’s followers had more reason to despair from, the happenings in an error-ridden encounter.

Perhaps it was the balmy weather, z for Linwood and Addington also fell below their potential in the cur-tain-raiser. In this game, however, the frequent fluctuations of fortune and the eventual drawn result, ISIS, ensured that interest was maintained. z As disappointing as were the performances of some of the province’s more highly-rated clubs, there were some fine individual ' efforts. John Taplata more than made up for some hooking lapses for Addington to be the Mennen “man of the match” in the early fixture, and Peter Klink (Eastern) was outstanding in gaining the Jim Beam award later in the day. Bruce Dickison, the Sydenham captain-coach, had some compensatlonfor his team’s loss when he scored a typically spectacular try In the last minute. If still some way behind- Mocky Brereton (Marist, 155) in career aggregates, Dickison took his total to 110, one more than Terry Gillman (Marist), with whom he had shared second place. PREMIERSHIP POINTS

ANXIOUS MOMENTS It seemed that Eastern was - cruising comfortably towards victory over Sydenham when It opened up a nine-point lead within the first 30 minutes. But it was to survive several anxious moments before ( it slipped out of range. The first setbacks for Eastern were injuries which caused Barry Edkins to leave the field with . multi-coloured swelling around his left eye and another which obviously hampered the mobility of Gordon Pritchard. Although he stayed on, Pritchard went to full-back for a time,

entering the fray to lay the foundations for the first of Peter . Klink’s two tries. A fine break by the Sydenham stand-off half, David' Field, cut the margin -to four points, and only a desperate lunging tackle by .Gerrard Stokes prevented Field from placing Sydenham ahead on the call of half-time.

Soon after the resumption Eastem was reduced to 12 men when Pritchard was sent to the Sin-bin for a high tackle. Sydenham had Eastern under pressure, both sides handling poorly in spite of the perfect conditions. But within one

minute the two goal-lines were breached in contrasting circumstances — the Sydenham secondrow forward, Chris Miller,. had his "try” ruled out for not correctly forcing the ball, while Bruce Murphy’s try for Eastern was disputed by the Sydenham' defence. However, Murphy’s try, the

product of a dazzling 30m run, was to stand and Eastern was at last out of danger, if not free from its handling horrors. The attacking instincts of Klink were later to expose tackling troubles in the Sydenham team. For. Sydenham, Field arid! David Vincent had their thrust harnessed to a great extent by a lack of support, although Bruce Diekison. was a constant threat

to Eastern with his iniative and incisiveness. The most effective all. round forward was Jim Churcher,- of Eastern. The match also continued an unusual trend when Sydenham lost', after having received a majority of the penalties. In 15 premiership games oji the oval in which penalty counts have been recorded, the ■winning side has had most only three times. I* TRIES IN TURN The: lead changed or was shared seven times before Lewis •/ Hudson's last-minute field goal attempt swung to the left of the uprights to leave his team, Linwood, and Addington tied at 18-18 in the curtainraiser. The see-sawlng nature of the match kept interest alive to the end, but it was perplexing that neither side’ could maintain any ascendancy, for more than a few minutes. It almost seemed as if there, had been an agreement to take turns at scoring .tries,? There was an unusual tameness to the meeting’ of two potentially powerful forward packs and little of the back-play was constructive. Far too often players passed for the sake of passfome of the tries were well contrived, particularly those by Paul McCone, Keith Henry, and Wally Wilsbn for Linwood, and that of Bob Jarvis for Addington. . McCone was brought in from his accustomed wing position to stand-off half with.-considerable success. He was the most potent attacking player in either team in tlie first half, thriving on the additional work-load. Inside him, Wilson made all of the running for Henry’s.try, and, was later.on hand to capitalise ,on a high punt. ■ < 7 The former Kiwi forward, Eliot Kereopa, returned to his old Linwood pack after 10 years In the North Island. Kereopa, stul appearing very fit, can trace lus representative career back to 1966, when he played for Canterbury against Britain. -■ . Jarvis, also a former mternaItional, gave another courageous display for Addington...He required medical treatment at least twice and had to direct from the wing for a time, but continued to move infield and get into the action. 7: Fine support for Jarivs was given by John Tapiata and Grant Findlay, of the forwards, and the outside back, Bick Odering.

Marist P W D L F A Pts 5 4 1 0 .112 68 9 Eastern 5 3 1 • 1 101 78 7 Sydenham 5 3 0 2 119 86 6 Linwood 4 2 1 1 66 73 5 Papanui 5 2 0 3 119 103 4 Hornby 4 2 0 2 :74 79 4 Add. , 4 1 1 2 75 75 3 Kalapol 4 1 0 3 50 67 2 H’well . 4 0 0 4 48 131 0