New Brighton has fine win

Press, 31 May 1982, Page 17

New Brighton has fine win

Not even an acute shortage of possession could prevent New Brighton from gaining a fine win against Linwood. What ball New Brighton did get- was used shrewdly and this was where the difference in the sides lay.

Things looked grim for New Brighton when Linwood took the first 10 line-outs, and although New Brighton stemmed the flow a little in the middle stages it was still well behind in the final count. 22-8.

But Linwood was never able to achieve much with its wealth of possession. It tried all manner of tactics and towards the finish was whipping the ball straight to the three-quarters in a wild gamble that someone out there might accomplish something. There was never much likelihood. though. New Brighton had its defence carefully organised

and it probably had no complaints about ’the ball being parted company from the Linwood forwards.

It was. as expected, a hard, uncomprising match. The Linwood forwards were clearly superior in the set pieces, but when the ball was loose, or the Linwood backs showed the slightest hesitation, a wave of yellow jerseys was quickly on the spot.

An odd feature, however, was that although the New Brighton pack was often sent sprawling, its hooker. Bob Davison, picked up no fewer than five tight heads, and this was against the Canterbury hooker, John Mills, who took two.

A fine try by the left wing, Andrew Cartwright, put New Brighton ahead 4-0. at half-time and although Linwood continued to dominate possession it seldom

got itself into scoring positions and the last 20 minutes was all New Brighton's.

John Te Amo and Peter McLaren toiled hard in the New Brighton scrum and Pau! Bell capped a solid game when he broke clear late in the game and it was this break that led to New Brighton's second try. scored by Trevor Keats. Graeme Ellis, until he went off injured just before half-time, was a livewire half-back, and his replacement. Alan Hyett, showed a ton of spirit in the way he threw himself at the feet of the big Linwood forwards. Wayne Burleigh wasted none of the' possession he received and he used the high ball well to give his forwards a target. Cartwright showed a lot of class and Ross Gibson, on the other wing, made the most of his few chances.

Mike Fransen was responsible

for Linwood’s line-out dominance and he also had a good game about the field. The whole Linwood pack, in fact, went well, but for once it found that superior strength is not everything. Geoff Hancock and Gary Hogg were very efficient near the back of the line-out and Mills kept active at the front. But it was behind the scrum that Linwood came unstuck, and not because anyone played badly. It was, simply, that whether the ball was passed, run or kicked. New Brighton always had an answer.

Perhaps the biggest mistake Linwood made was trying to use the short-side feed back into the forwards. With a bit of elbowroom the New Brighton forwards were able to play to their strengths.