Canterbury holds on to Shield in another dramatic finish

Press, 27 September 1982, Page 21

Canterbury holds on to Shield in another dramatic finish

By

KEVIN McMENAMIN

The wondrous qualities of the Ranfurly Shield were never better illustrated than at Lancaster Park on Saturday. Canterbury and Counties drew, 15-15, in a match which, if viewed purely as a game of rugby between two of the top teams in New Zealand, was a huge letdown. Not a try was scored and there were errors aplenty by both sides.

But a thrilling sporting event it undoubtedly was and few in the crowd of 36.500 would have been looking for their money back.

Because it was so close and because Canterbury retained the shield with a dramatic penalty goal two minutes from time the match will, no doubt, claim a place among the great shield encounters. Such is the magic of the log of wood. It was Robbie Deans's turn this time to be Canterbury’s special hero. He had kicked two penalty goals.and missed one when he came forward with two minutes showing on the clock to attempt the allimportant goal to tie the match.

The distance was about 32m, inside the distance of his two earlier successes, but outside the mark from which he had missed.

“Nervous? Yes, you could say I was nervous,” said Deans later. “I tried to treat it as just another kick, and from the instant I kicked it I felt it was okay." Those behind the posts gave the rest of the crowd advance notice of the ball’s true flight and for some,

mostly children, it was all too much. Out on to the field they came and the tension was dragged out for an extra minute or two while the playing area was cleared. But Canterbury was still not out of the woods. In those last two desperate minutes Counties played some of the best rugby of the afternoon. They moved the ball in all directions, looking for a way to the Canterbury line.

The Canterbury defence, however, held firm, although there were some heart-stop-ping seconds when Canterbury players looked to be dangerously close to giving away penalties that could have swung the match back to Counties.

But Canterbury survived, and as some of the players slumped to the ground at the final whistle their exhaustion was evident.

"They may not have played wonderfully well, but they gave it all they had and that’s what it takes to keep the shield against a side like Counties,” said the Canterbury coach, Alex Wyllie. Mr Wyllie echoed the thoughts of all Canterbury

supporters when he said he doubted if he could take the strain of many more matches like the last, two. “It's good afterwards though,” he said. Canterbury’s biggest problem on Saturday seemed to be a lack of confidence and this was something it should t have gained in the first 20 * minutes when it made most of the play. A penalty at the first scrum put it three . points in arrears, but dropped goals by Wayne Smith in the seventh and twelfth minutes and then a penalty by Deans in the twentieth took the home side to what appeared to be a commanding position.

But from then on. Canterbury struggled, and was at times in very serious trouble. Only once in the whole match did Canterbury look set for a try. This was whenVictor Simpson-.skipped clear five minutes before half-time and -was brought back for an advantage to Counties which was distant in both time and place. The referee, Mr Kerry Henderson, played the advantage law to the full throughout and while some of his other decisions were open to question he could hardly be criticised on this count. Counties, on the other hand, were close to a try on three occasions. Canterbury was under heavy siege in the few minutes before half-time and the Counties left wing, Glenn Wilcox, was plunging for the line when simultaneous tackles by Garry Hooper and Jock Hobbs shot the ball from his grasp. Craig Green had done well to keep Robert Kururangi, Counties most dangerous attacker, in check through the first half, but nine minutes into the second half Kururangi ' bumped Green off, turned infield, and sent the flanker, Peter Clotworthy, on a dash which really should have ended in a try. Hooper again made the save, deflecting the final pass from Clotworthy to Wilcox. Then 10 minutes from the finish, with points level at 12-12, Warren McLean could not quite get to a pass from Kururangi which, if he had taken, would almost certainly have given him a try in the corner. In . both forwards and the backs Counties held an edge and they may, have done themselves more harm than good by putting so much

reliance on the forwards. Counties came away in the second half to win the lineouts, 16-11, and won more and better second-phase possession than Canterbury. But Counties made only sparing use of their backs and while they did not present too many problems for the Canterbury defence the support play was such that the running and passing game, if pursued, might well have changed matters. The last two minutes alone showed this.

The Canterbury scrum held together better than it had against Wellington the previous week. There were no tight-heads either way. It was at line-outs that Canterbury got into more bother. In the middle. Albert Anderson was overshadowed by Paul Tuoro and at the back Canterbury did not seem to compete at all. The possession returned to the half-back, Bruce Deans, was mostly untidy and much of it over his head.

It was possibly' nervousness that made the Canterbury backs guilty of so many mistakes, simple mistakes that were quite out of character in the case of Wayne Smith. However, his two dropped goals were most valuable, giving points at a time when Canterbury was doing most of the attacking. Warwick Taylor made some crunching runs . at second five-eighths and Simpson not only kept his opposite, Bruce Robertson, but also his team-mates guessing about where he might be heading next. Simpson, however, played an excellent game. But Canterbury made little attempt to vary its attacks with something from its fairly full bag of moves. Caution may be a natural part of defending the shield, and this could explain why no extra men were brought into the line. Both Robbie Deans and the Counties full-back, Warren McLean, were given searching tests under the high ball, and both acquitted themselves well. Deans missed touch a few times, but his final penalty goal brought full redemption, and he won the Cellar Ghost “player of the day” award. In the forwards, Canterbury played solidly if not spectacularly. John Ashworth, Don Hayes, Jock Hobbs and Dale Atkins all

did their allotted tasks capably and Atkins’s running from the back of the scrum was one of Canterbury’s best ploys.

With Kururangi, Joe Harvey, the first five-eighths, was the best of the Counties backs. He kicked extremely well, although he may be wondering now if more ball to the three-quarters might not have brought better results.

Harvey kicked the penalty goal five minutes from the finish " which put Counties ahead 15-12. The four earlier goals were by McLean.

In the Counties forwards, Tuoro and Alan Dawson were an industrious pair, while Murray McLean was often the first forward to the breakdowns.

As it did the previous week when it took the shield from Wellington, Canterbury came from behind in the last few minutes to retain it. Only Wairarapa-Bush on Wednesday can now deny the province a summer tenure.

Another match like Saturday's and it will be supporters, as well as the players, who will be looking for a beach to lie on for the next six months.

For Canterbury, Robbie Deans, three penalty goals and Wayne Smith two dropped goals. For Counties, Warren McLean four penalty goals and Joe Harvey, one.