Canty lucky to salvage victory

Press, 15 June 1983, Page 48

Canty lucky to salvage victory

From

KEVIN MeMENAMIN,

in Blenheim

Canterbury was more than a little lucky to escape with a 16-10 rugby win against Marlborough, at Lansdowne Park yesterday — Marlborough, if anything, played the better football over all and had a try advantage of two to one.

Robbie Deans kicked Canterbury to victory with four penalty goals, but this was not one of Deans’ better kicking days. The four he landed were an from close to the posts, and two of his four misses were from similar positioas, one, in fact, being from right in front Canterbury played well only in patches, and they were nearly all in the first spell when it was unable to turn a sizeable territorial advantage into Mints. Some fierce tackling oy the Marlborough backs was also a telling factor. In the second spell Marlborough had more ball, thanks largely to a huge turn-around in the flow from line-outs, and its backs showed that they could do more than just tackle. The line-out statistics were quite anasing. In the first spell, Canterbury, mainly through Kerry Mitchell, won 13 to six, but in the second half Canterbury gained possession from only five and Marlborough won 14 to finish on terms at 20 apiece. Canterbury led, 6-4, at half-time and a third Deans

penalty three minutes after the resumption made it 9-4. Mid-way through the spell, and right against the run of play at, the time, Canterbury scored its only try. Green grabbed a bouncing ball near his own 22m and was ran down just short of the line by the Marlborough wing, Tony Hawke. The ball came back to Green from a quick throw-in and he scored in the corner. This try, however, was well below the quality of Marlborough’s two. The first, scored by the halfback, Allan de Joux, in the thirty-fifth minute was started when the prop, Richard Loe, made a strong burst up the middle. His forwards got in behind him and carried the ball another five or six metres before Frank Marfell broke away, tossed an overhead pass to Kevin Sutherland, who put de Joux over in the comer. The second, six minutes from the finish, was even more spectacular. Hawke entered the backline from the blindside wing and at such pace that he beat the first and second lines of defence with ease. His final

pass to John Woodhouse was perfectly timed and Woodhouse plunged over in the corner, Sutherland converting this try with the best kick of the afternoon.

Apart from dipping out badly in the second-half line-outs, the Canterbury forwards were efficient enough. It was simply that the Marlborough pack was almost as good. Furthermore, there was not a lot of loose ball for Canterbury to feed off and two tightheads to none was about the only clear advantage Canterbury had. John Mills was the pick of the Canterbury forwards, and not far behind him were John Ashworth and Dale Atkins.

It fell short of being an impressive performance by Canterbury, possibly because it was expected to win comfortably, but to win against a side which played as well as Marlborough did is still not a bad effort for this stage of the season. For Canterbury, Craig Green a try and Robbie Deans four penalty goals. For Marlborough, Alan de Joux and John Woodhouse tries, Kevin Sutherland a conversion.