Winger stars in Canty win over Coast

Press, 17 June 1982, Page 36

Winger stars in Canty win over Coast

By

808 SCHUMACHER

Garry Hooper had a rugby benefit day at Rugby Park, Greymouth, yesterday as the Canterbury right wing scored six of Canterbury’s eight tries in its 38-7 victory against West Coast.

Given a sight of the line and a little space to move, Hooper with his deceptive swerve and speed.glided and jinked through the. remnants of Coasts’s defence on four occasions. The generosity of his fellow backs enabled him to add another two when all he had to do was catch the ball.

.Courage alone was not endught to save West Coast from its resounding defeat. Although the Coast forwards mauled extremely well, the team gained precious little possession from set phases and it spent most of the match trying to stem the red-and-black tide as Canterbury’s other two tries were scored by the centre, Andrew Munro, who was having his first match for the province since 1979. He made the most of his opportunity. Canterbury gained an overwhelming ■ advantage from line-outs -21-5 and Gwynn Williams was able to capture tight-heads—some through his swift strikingand some the result of a hefty heave from his fellow forwards. West Coast resorted to long throw-ins for the second two-thirds of the match after it realised there was no joy from its smaller • forwards trying to compete with Mike Fransen and Kerry Mitchell. But that, too. brought little reward as the speed of Jock Hobbs off the back ,of the line-outs took'him to the ball ahead of the advancing backs. Although it took Canterbury 15 minutes to open its account it seemed inevitable that more points must come with the surfeit of possession it was winning. At half-time Canterbury was ahead 16-3 and the score would have been greater had Andrew McMaster been in kicking form. He missed six shots at goal but he was successful with an angled conversion early in the second half and that brought more confidence into his general play as well as his kicking. Seldom was West Coast in a position to threaten Canterbury’s line, but it did breach the Canterbury defence in the eleventh minute of the second half and it was

fitting that a try was scored by its newly-appointed captain Blair Hopkins. The young bearded flanker had an outstanding game and his powerful surge over 20m on the blind-side caught the Canterbury cover defence unawares. He was the Coast's player of the match and the Canterbury award not unexpectedly was won by 1 Hooper.

The Canterbury half-back Alan Lindsay after being hounded and caught in possession several times early in the match by his opposite, Kevin Ford, settled down to give his back-line good service.

Kieran Keane’s intelligent distribution of the ball enabled his outside backs ample opportunities to test the coast defence.

Warwick Taylor, having his first game for Canterbury at second five-eighths, was content to be the pivot in the first half, but he came into his own in the second spell with aggressive tackling and elusive running. The play seemed to run the way of Munro and especially Hooper The referee, Mr Alan Cooper, allowed play to flow as much as possible and did not always find favour with the home crowd. He received an ironical cheer when Coast was awarded its first penalty after 31 minutes-Cantef-bury received none of the 15 awarded.

The Canterbury coach, Mr Alex Wylie, wanted a good win to erase memories of last year’s nine-all draw but more importantly he wanted a good performance from his team. The players did not let him down.

For Canterbury Hooper scored six tries and Munro two, McMaster added three conversions. West Coast’s points came from a try by Hopkins'and a penalty goal by Gtigich. . ■