Tupaea sparks Central victory

Press, 14 July 1980, Page 25

Tupaea sparks Central victory

Auckland Nola- Tupaea had the look f a Kiwi first fiveeighth at Carlaw Park on Satuny as he steered Central Dtricts to a 22-13 vicIqpv <ver Auckland in the first round of the rugby leagi districts competition. T> 27-year-old Wellingtonplayer gave a brilliant disay of footwork, the like of hich has not been seen at arlaw Park in years. .-tree times he split the Aikland defence easily wh long breaks. The third vs a classic, beating Auck]td’s John Smith head-on

with a smart step. Victor Bracken, a loose forward, backed up and he in turn passed to Bruce Gall for the try which took Central to a 17-13 lead. Central’s other tries were scored by Mark Petersen, Tupaea and Lou Kupa, the test prop, Kevin Tamati, kicked three conversions and two penalties from eight attempts. James Leuluai, Ron O’Regan and Gary Prohm scored for Auckland while Gary Kemble kicked two penalties. Surprisingly Tupaea has never had a Kiwi trial, but

on Saturday’s performance he must get a run in September when the team to tour Britain and France will be selected.

Gall showed with his lively performance that he is also worthy of a trial.

Saturday’s game never reached anv great heights. Both teams made too many mistakes and three of the tries were the result of errors by the opposition. As the Central coach, Mr Alan Marshall .said afterwards: “When you can win and make that many mistakes, it’s bad for the game. We played badly but Auck-

land was just as bad.” Auckland, down 6-9 at half-time, led 13-9 after 54 minutes and appeared to have the game under control. But the Central pack got on top, Tupaea got his feet moving and Auckland was headed for its fourth consecutive loss of the season. The result means Auckland has little chance of playing in the Tooth Cup in Australia next year. It has to hope that South Island beats Central and that it can then beat the South. On Saturday’s form, that does not look ’likely.