H.S.O.B. pay high price for win over Sydenham

Press, 27 April 1981, Page 21

H.S.O.B. pay high price for win over Sydenham

High School Old Boys paid a high price for their unconvincing win by a flattering margin over Sydenham in the first game on Lancaster Park oval this, season.

Their two champion five-eighths, Simon Brown and Gary Cookson, .suffered serious leg injuries, reducing the available manpower in the ■ backs to six and striking hard at the team's championship chances. Brown, a strong-running Canterbury B player, was carried off on a stretcher with a suspected broken ankle, and Cookson, the side’s ace goal-kicker, has a damaged cartilage.

The gloom felt over their loss was deepened by the patchy play of the forwards arid the side’s relaxed approach. “This was our biggest win over Sydenham in five seasons, but our poorest performance.” said Old Boys' coach, Mr Roley Manning. “Sydenham was unlucky to lose. Our side played as if ft expected Sydenham to lie down and be trampled on.” However, both Mr Manning and his coaching colleague, Mr Paul Davies, paid tribute to the steadiness of the backs in the final quarter, when Old Boys -scored two of their three tries.

In particular, they praised the sturdy defence and spirited running of the McPhail twins, Hamish and Alex, who effectively played the two-centre game after the backline was reshuffled. Both the 23-year-old brothers scored tries, and they thwarted bold thrusts from the opposition.

Sydenham played with considerable spirit, upsetting Old Boys’ rhythm by screwing the scrums, sp'oling lirie-out takes, and harrassing the half-back — an exercise in which Sydenham's Simon Bloomberg, a former Old Boys’ senior, was especially prominent. Allan Edge, the principal object of Bloomberg's attentions, again demonstrated his resilience by capping an Old Boys’ thrust from broken play with a try behind the posts. He became the team’s third first five-eighths in the game after first Cookson and then Brown retired — and handled the task well. But the regular half-back, Phil Thomas, who was in the grip of the ’flu bug, was gasping for air at the end of his 15min on the field. Gavin Fuller and Alan Duffin led several Sydenham forward drives, Peter Doell and Bernie Ryan were strong in support, and Grant Bull iwas a splendid tackler. Indeed, although Old Boys gained many good chances through second phase possession, the Sydenham defence had the final say? Bruising battle An opportunist try by Phil Holstein 12min from the end took New Brighton well clear of Belfast, but there was nothing fortuitous about the seasiders’ victory. I Although Belfast ably demonstrated its pack power by scrummaging strongly and rucking with great intensity. New Brighton produced a much more rounded effort, and its well organised defence earned high marks. The match was low on entertainment ratings but high as far as an absorbing struggle was concerned. New Brighton faced up squarely to the Belfast forwards and fought a cunning campaign, based on Holstein's kicking and Graeme Ellis's dabs around the fringes. The crowning disappontment for Belfast was that its backs were unable to put a wealth of second phase possession to good use. The passing lacked quality, and Bruce Slavell, at second five-eighths exhibited ill-chosen optimism by searching for a non-existent gap in New Brighton's midfield defence.

Stephen Blackler devoured him eagerly. The forward struggle was often fierce, with some indiscretions by Belfast being turned to New Brighton’s use by Dave Bowick. who was in good kicking form. Ellis dropkicked a goal from a tight spot and Holstein wrapped up the win by charging down a kick by Neville Don and scoring between the posts. Earlier, Don had embarrassed Brighton’s close quarter defence by shrugging past several tackles to score after a ruck. But for the more orthodox moves by Belfast, Brighton proved equal to' the challenge, with John Te Amo deploying his men shrewdly.

Garth Samuels and Nga Katae gave New Brighton a handy advantage in line-out possession, while Tony Burrows and Dennis Karatea were prominent in a willing Belfast pack. The biggest pity was that the rival centres, Andrew Cartwright (New Brighton) and Mardy Vincent, both members of last season's national schoolboys’ team, were not given more attacking chances. Goals decisive Four penalty goals from five attempts by Robert Lodge capitalised on Shirley’s marked territorial advantage in the main game at Rugby Park. Linwood scored the only try of the match but could have no complaints about being beaten by Shirley. Linwood was only spasmodically in Shirley’s territory during the match, its forays sparked mainly by backs, the full-back, Alex Stew'a'rt, especially, who were prepared to counter-attack and move the ball swiftly. The left wing, Ned Tamatea, scored Linwood’s try in the corner after a flowing back movement, but there was a definite suspicion that the final transfer was forward. Shirley aso showed a penchant for attacking play, but its lack of finish, and some sure Linwood tackling, prevented it from crossing the line. The two ’ outstanding, and most dangerous, Shirley backs were the young half-back, Alan Lindsay, who was filling in for Steve Scott, and the side-stepping right wing, Brad Stringer. Lindsay looked a highly promising player, especially with his incisive running, and if he had trouble finding his five-eights on occasions, he was not the only one on the field whose passing was astray at times. Shirley had a slight edge in clean possession from line-outs, Stuart Mitchell making the difference with his control at the back. Mitchell injured his back ten minutes from the end but he had done enough to win the player of the day award. . Linwood’s Mike Franson had a great tussle with Kerry Mitchell in the middle of the line-outs and the Linwood man came out marginally on top. Franson was almost solely responsible for his side's supply o'f line-out ball. Roger Smith took on, and handled, a huge work load for Shirley and the flanker, Tamahera, gave Rod Latham and one or two other Linwood backs a torrid time. Hornby excels The “Red Devils” of Hornby were tantalisingly close to causing a big upset in a try-less match against the champion University A side on a well-grassed Denton oval. Hornby took the game to its rival and. aided by impressive goalkicking by the first five-eighths, John Catchpole, appeared to have done enough to win. But his University counterpart, Mark Liddicoat, kicked two penalty goals in the dying stages to give the Maroons a squeaky victory.

Hornby looked decidely good on attack, but too often got carried away in the heat of the moment close to the try-line. Both sides were guilty of fundamental errors, especially'in passing and line-out throwing, and there were too many late tackles, though some were admittedly marginal. In the second half any thoughts University had of overpowering its less illustrious opponent were quickly dispelled. Hornby stuck to its task and pressured a now flagging students’ pack, forcing it and the midfield backs into errors. However, lan Stewart urged on his men, as did the coach. Laurie O’Reilly, stalking the side-line, and the forwards responded by winning more secondary phase ball. Hornby cracked just enough under the pressure to give away two penalties that Liddicoat converted.

For Hornby, Catchpole had a sound game, and Neville Wilson was a principal figure in most attacking moves. He often harrassed his opposite number, Doug Sharland. The Hornby pack showed commendable application and determination. Liddicoat was all class in running and kicking, and the curlybeaded flanker, Mark Meates, tidied up well around the tight exchanges and line-outs and got through much defensive work. Forwards excel The power and skill of Marist’s rucking carried it through a difficult first half against Burnside and then it ran into a purple patch in which 15 points were scored in under lOmin. Terry Peterson scored the green-and-whites’ fourth try a few minutes from the end and although Burnside replied immediately to this with a fine opportunist effort which ended under the posts, Marist ran out a convincing winner. The key to Marist’s success lay in its vigorous but controlled forward play. It took the line-out count at a ratio of two to one but it was at its most convincing with its speed to, and use of, the loose ball. The outstanding player here was the flanker, Kerry Flood, who was very fast and vigorous, especially off the back of the line-out. Flood was highly effective with the ball in hand arid he reached the breakdowns rapidly with Bernie Ryan and Kevin Milne right behind him io set up the ball. The Marist backs were not as sharp as they have been in the past, but Steve Hansen made a couple of clever breaks, one of which split the defence and allowed Bill Anderson to sneak in at the corner.

Burnside, with the easterly breeze in its favour in the first half, kept Marist pinned in its own territory for virtually all of the first 40 minutes and was only a point behind at the interval. There was some stirring forward play in that time from Burnside with Graeme Church, Kevin Johnstone, Darryl Sullivan and Gary Donnelly prominent. Burnide lost Church, the captain, and Sullivan through injury in the second half but it never gave in and it won a lot of friends through its spirited revival after finding itself suddenly 13 points down only 11 minutes after the interval.

Stu Lindsay looked strong at second five-eighths for Burnside and he might have been quite dangerous had he seen more good ball. Dave Farrant played coolly and well at fullback and he was markedly successful with his round the corner kicking. His Marist counterpart, Grant McWhirter, also produced some grand goal kicks, once he had judged the right amount to allow for the swing he put on the ball. Christchurch crumbles Trailing by 0-7 at half-time, Univeristy B mounted a second spell offensive which rocked Christchurch back on its heels and notched 17 points to win an exciting game. The first spell was even with both sides playing an attacking, passing game, but there was only one side in it after the chage-over. The University forwards played outstanding rugby, dominating both the tight and loose while the backs were safe on the tackle and ran with a fine flair.

The architect of the University victory was the half-back, Stuart Griffiths. He continually harried his opposite, cleared the ball cleanlv and his tactical kicking posed continual problems to the Christchurch defence.

Outside him Ross George showed ability both on attack and defence,

John Luscombe was a strong-run-ning wing, and there was much to admire in all the backs’ dedication on defence and willingness to attack.

The University forwards tore into their work with great fire and had clearly the better of the rucks and mauls. George Nikora showed strength in the tight play, Paul Barr got through a tremendous work load, while good support in the loose came from Kevin Truman. Christchurch broke out of its half only once in the second spell when Paul Shannon showed speed to score. The forwards played with little purpose and the backs faded against the tight defence and the sustained University pressure. The centre, Johnny Jones, made the most of his limited opportunities and Mike Cron was the best of a disappointing pack. Better finish Merivale-Papanui started sluggishly, but came with a powerful finish in the second half to beat Albion in a hard-fought forward struggle on Lancaster Park South. It was an ominous sign for Albion when Merivale-Papanui, which had hardly been in Albion’s territory throughout the first half, scored a converted try in the last minute of the spell to trail by only three points at the interval. Albion was ahead 12-9 after 11 minutes of the second half, but Merivale-Papanui stayed the distance the better and an opportunist try by the right wing, Ernie Goodhue, after an interception and 70m run was the incentive his team needed to sustain its effort to the finish.

Both forward packs played with fire and determination and sometimes matters became a little overheated. But some strong words from the referee, Mr Alan Bateman, tempered tempers. Although both back-lines made the most of limited opportunities, strong defence stifled most attacking movements, although Albion was found wanting on one occasion and Lindsay Thorn, up from full-back, gratefully capitalised on the’overlap. John Harwood gave his usual industrious performance in leading the Merivale-Papanui forwards and lan Culpan proved an energetic and fierv flanker.

lan Kennedy was a menacing figure on the side of the Albion scrum and his speed to the breakdowns was to Albion's advantage. Richard Martin was strong in the scrum and mauls.

Tony Manarangi delivered good ball to his backs from half-back and Don Southey impressed at second five-eighths with his ability to spot and take a gap. His little break led to Merivale's first try. The Albion back-line did not have much punch and it made basic errors at crucial times. Danny Romani had a useful game, tackling fiercely and running powerfully. Green shines

The former Mid-Canterbury second five-eighths, Craig Green, demonstrated bis worth to Lincoln College by sparking a second half revival by his side against Suburbs. The college team played a little uncertainly against a bustling Suburbs in the first half, but Green had the back-line buzzing in the second, when two tries were scored to put the result beyond doubt. Suburbs, too, moved the ball well and had its scoring chances, but failed to grasp them as avidly as Lincoln College. For all that, it was not a particularly impressive effort by the students, who took time to settle down and, even then, did not display as much cohesion as usual. But John Holmes, recovered from a shoulder injury, kept the side in front with sound goal-kicking. Neil McKay had a good game for Suburbs, and a Lincoln prop, Brett Aitkenhead, excelled in the tight. The college’s good scrummaging was built on his solid contribution.