University A, Marist in rugby final

Press, 9 August 1982, Page 13

University A, Marist in rugby final

Although they failed to finish first or second in the round-robin competition earlier in the season. Marist and University A will be the teams to fight out the grand final of the senior rugby championship for the C.S.B. Trophy on August 22. They earned this right by winning vital games at the end of section play on Saturday. University A completed a clean sweep in one division by beating its chief rival, New Brighton, runner-up in the C.S.B. Cup contest and the conqueror of University in the first round. Marist clinched success in the second group by beating Shirley in good fashion. This will be the second consecutive final in which Marist has appeared. It lost last winter to Lincoln College. Burnside started the day on terms with Marist. but it was knocked out of contention by the cup winner, Christchurch, for whom Craig Green scored three tries. The Canterbury second five-eighths. played at full-

back in a makeshift team, and only just missed making his tally four for the day. -In spite of its reverse, Bumside still finished second to Marist in the section, which was a good effort for the rapidly improved side. As expected, MerivalePapanui and Albion emerged as the section winners in the D C L Shield competition, and they will play off for the trophy, also on August 22.

Most of the interest dwelt on the Lancaster Park match between New Brighton and University A, which developed into a tough but open encounter. University had planned well for the .game, kept cool throughout, and was purposeful in all it did. New Brighton should have had more points in the first half, when it did most of the attacking, but the tide turned against it in the second half. Thirty years after his father. Kevin, had played test rugby on the same pitch. Mark Meates produced a powerful display which earned him the Cellar Ghost "Player of the Day" award. He was outstanding bn the burst, and covered extremely well.

His University colleague, Victor Simpson, broke more Brighton tackles than probably all other teams have managed this season, and even such a crafty defender as Trevor. Keats was unable to check this ebullient centre.

After missing three penalty shots, the University full-back. Andrew McMaster, converted a try bv Meates and 'kicked a penalty goal early in the second half to break the Christchurch senior scoring record for most points in a season, held by Peter Jellyman. of Linwood. McMaster added a dropped goal, and will go into the grand final with an aggregate of 177, made up from six tries, two dropped goals. 19 penalty goals and a huge number of conversions — 45.

The Canterbury full-back. Robbie Deans, played at first fiveeighths for Christchurch and kicked for goal superbly: one of his penalty efforts succeeded from 55m. But he was edged into third place among the individual scorers by the Merivale-Papanui first five-eighths. Deane McKinnel, who knocked over 19 points for his team to advance to 159, two ahead of Deans. The reliable Bernie Stewart had his trusty goal-kicking boot working well for Marist, outscoring his marker, the prolific

points gatherer Colin Williamson, of Shirley. The big surprise was the domination achieved in the line-outs by Marist’s principal jumpers. Kevin Milne and Mark Connal. over the highly rated Shirley ieapers. Milne was in fine form and won the Rugby Park “Player of the Day" award. Final points in section play were:-

C S B TROPHY: SECTION ONE W L D F A Pt Marist 2 0 1 37 24 5 Bum. 1 1 1 26 42 3 Shir. 1 2 0 36 28 2 Chch 1 2 0 33 38 2 SECTION TWO W L D F A Pt Univ. A 3 0 0 85 16 6 New Bri. 2 1 0 45 28 4 Bell. 1 2 0 24 70 0 Linw. 0 3 0 19 59 0 D C L SHIELD: SECTION ONE. w L D F A Pt Albion . 3 0 0 61 15 6 Lin. Coll. 2 1 0 75 ■ 38 4 ’ Syd. 1 2 0 19 56 2 Horn. 0 3 0 25 70 0 SECTION TWO W L D F A Pt Mer-Pap. 3 0 0 83 42 6 H.S.O.B. 2 1 0 75 53 4 Subs 1 2 0 50 81 2 Univ. B 0 3 0 35 67 0