History against Sydenham

Press, 30 August 1980, Page 60

History against Sydenham

By

JOHN COFFEY

History might be very much .against his team winning the Canterbury N.Z.I.G. club rugby league champions ship grand final tomorrow, but a pile of ageing statistics do not shake the confidence of the Sydenham captain-coach, Bruce Dickison. Sydenham’s march to within one step of gaining possession of the Pat Smith Challenge Trophy, after having just slipped into the top four, has shown that it is quite capable of upsetting Eastern Suburbs at the Show Grounds tomorrow. . Only Linwood, in 1968,

has previously risen from fourth to first ranking by eliminating in turn the three clubs which qualified ahead of it. For the last six seasons Papanui or Eastern have confirmed premiership successes with victory in the more highly-prized championship grand finals. If rugby league lore is against Sydenham, then more recent history greatly improves its prospects. Sydenham has beaten Eastern twice in three meetings this winter, although the scores of 22-20 and 22-21 jangled the nerves of players and supporters. Dickison, while expressing confidence that Eastern can

be beaten again, expects a tight tussle this time because of the tension associated With cup finals. But that belief has not put him on the defensive. -“We intend to give the ball plenty of air and attack for the whole 80 minutes as we did against Marist last week,” he said. “Marist is just as good a team as EasN ern, and we have the players to cancel out Eastern’s playmakers.” Eastern may. not have the services of its Kiwi forward, Barry Edkins, who had the plaster removed from his broken thumb last Tuesday. Even if not fully match fit, Edkins would undoubtedly

be an asset to his side. The possibility of lining up against Edkins does not furrow Dickison’s brow — “we will have our best team, and have directed our training with the thought that Eastern will play its top side. Good footballers can be cancelled out, too.” It is an intriguing prospect. On the one hand, Eastern, in the red and white of St George, defending its title; pitted against it a Sydenham squad that has progressively magnified in stature and which has learned to roar like a dragon; Myth has it that St George should win such a duel.