S.I. 'lucky to win’

Press, 14 July 1980, Page 25

S.I. 'lucky to win’

Special correspondnt Invited to comment J ter _ his team had succeeded, 19-1, in its opening inter-district rugby match at Huntly on Saturday the first remark of he South island coach. Mr Ceil ciars. was brief: “Lucky tc win. Tha seemed a littletough, but Northern Districts cetainly came doser to victory tha game previews had suggested South traileed, 0-> for of the first quarterafter Gilbert Tana (Northland) opened the scoring in the lef wing corner. The visitors’ 10-f half-time■ advantage had bee extended to 16-6 by the the the centre, Bruce Dickisor (Canterbury), kicked a loos ball through from near half-ay for his try The 2reat»t satisfaction which the Iffthem Districts coach (and fmer Kiwi halfback), GraemeFarrar, expressed after the gamw'as that his team struck back ■ the last quarter. Within eightni’nutes, it added the only tw penalty- goals m the match, ’d the Kiwi right wing. Kevin’isher, scored after repeatedly gating men.

■With the Northerners trailing, 13-16. with six minutes left of piay. and with a boil-over looking' increasingly possible. Mike O’Donnell steamed effectively into a back-line attack again, and sealed the game for the South Island with his third try, scored in a tackle. Mr Farrar, suspecting that O’Donnell was vulnerable on defence, had planned to pressure him, but the pressure was the other way. Giving a brilliant display of attacking full-back play, the Canterbury and New Zealand player also kicked the best goal of the game to convert his first try, and give his team its Initial lead. 5-3. He produced some marvellously long touch-finding kicks when the tackle count was getting high.

“That’s the best game I’ve seen O’Donnell play,” said the Northern Districts hooker and captain. Paul Ravlich, who himself was the outstanding forward on the field, and looked a strng candidate as a utility for the Kiwi tour of Britain and France later this year.

The kindest available remark about the South Island forward performance was contributed by Mr Clark: “Tony (Coll) did his best to rally them.” The South Island was outplayed up front, it had no-one to "match Ravlich, and nothing to equal the way the Northerners ran off the prop, Rick Muru. The shining hour in this area was scarcely’ improved by South giving away six scrum penalties, one of which led via a tap to a clever try, following a run on the diagonal to the left corner, by’ the N.D. loose forward, Steven Dunstan. If there was a southern forward highlight, it came when the hooker, Paul Truscott, scored from a pass which was not intended for him after the target player bobbled the ball backwards. This forward deficiency was not decisive to the result of the match.

Davies Park had recovered characteristically’ well from a wet Waikato week, and so the result did not hinge finally on a

battle of mud-covered forwards with the backs rendered almost superfluous. In the backline, South had a clear-cut superiority. It defended better, successfully cutting out the danger man, Fisher, from most of the play, and it ran relentlessly at and through some feeble N.D. midfield defence.

A serious error which both sides repeatedly made was to pass the ball at or, worse, behind the intended recipient, instead of allowing him to run on to the ball. Mr Clark’s next squad training should be worth watching. “We made basic mistakes,” he said, “and we’ll rectify them.”

Scores.—South Island 19 (O’Donnell, three tries and two conversions; Dickison and Truscott, a try each) beat Northern Districts i 3 (Dunstan, a try and a penalty goal; Fisher and Tana a try each; B. Herangi, a penalty goal).

Half-time: South Island, 10-6. The referee was Mr K. Bailey (Auckland).