Triple crown earned by Mid-Canterbury

Press, 1 September 1980, Page 19

Triple crown earned by Mid-Canterbury

Ashburton can now claim to be the capital of Canterbury rugby. On Saturday Mid-Canterbury took a local triple crown by beating Canterbury B, to go with earlier and perhaps more convincing victories over Canterbury A and South Canterbury 7. • It beat Canterbury only by 13 points to 12, but had a slight edge in an interesting game. Canterbury B’s final six points came only a minute or so before full time. The earnest Mid-Canter-bury eight had its hands full controlling the young Canterbury B forwards, and the backs of both sides showed speed and enterprise. It was a pity a swirling wind made straight throwing to line-outs difficult, and there was little good possession from this source for either side.

Canterbury B’s backs d i d h o w e v e r , put Mid-Canterbury under pressure fairly often, but the tackling and covering were more than adequate. Mid-Canterbury led by seven points to six at the interval, and had a comfortable lead 12 minutes into the second spell, but its task was made more difficult by

the quick loss through injury of three of its backs — Murry Roulston, Craig Green, and Geoff Frew. Green had made a very good impression with his pace and elusiveness. Once he went through four tackles before being taken by Bill Anderson almost at the goalline. Anderson and the other Canterbury B wing, Darryl Park, were able to show their speed and Steve Hansen p.ut thrust into the attack. The All Black hooker, Grant Perry, took a tight-

head from Matt Wilson, but conceded one. The MidCanterbury flanker, Warren Frew, was an outstanding performer, with startling acceleration and keen anticipation. With his side often under pressure the Canterbury B flanker, Adrian Muir, tackled and tidied up industriously. For Mid-Canterbury: W. Frew a try, M. Holmes three penalty goals. For Canterbury B: W. Anderson a try, B. Hunter a dropped goal, S. Hansen a conversion and a penalty goal.