Deans, Atkins heroes of Canty victory

Press, 29 June 1983, Page 44

Deans, Atkins heroes of Canty victory

By

JOHN BROOKS

Jubilant Canterbury rugby supporters might insist on changing Alex Wyllie’s nick-name from “Grizz” to “Whiz” in recognition of his Ranfurly Shield team’s defeat of the British Lions, by 22-20, at Lancaster Park oval yesterday. If the gravel-voiced coach returns to his farm to find that a duck had laid a golden egg it would not be surprising. In less than a season and a half he has moulded a team to win the log of wood and now beat the Lions. His seemingly magical qualities invested the Canterbury side with a strong will to win, and it carried out its mission purposefully, to the great glee of the majority of spectators in a crowd of 38,000. In the best Canterbury traditions, the victory was secured by a splendid team effort. But there were two

special heroes — Robbie Deans, who scored 18 of the points and gave an assured display at full-back, and Dale Atkins, a dominant, dynamic attacker from the back of line-outs and scrums. The match, played in fine, sunny conditions, produced probably the best contest of the tour, and certainly a good deal more back play than has been the norm in major games. But the Lions failed to match Canterbury for cohesiveness in the forwards and co-operation in the backs. Even at this stage, two-thirds of the way through the tour, some of the players still seem to have communication problems. Canterbury led for most of the match, and was ahead, 12-3, at the changeover. But the third quarter belonged to the Lions. They seized the initiative, scored

13 points to snatch the lead, and held it for 12min before momentarily wilting in the face of Canterbury pressure. Even then, the Lions had a chance of salvaging a draw, for David Irwin scored a try from a second phase move in the final minute. But poor Hugo MacNeill, who had to contend with a cacophony of crowd noise as he teed up the ball, hooked his kick to the left of the posts — as he had been doing most of the match. The Lions paid dearly for their curious decision to spell both Ollie Campbell and Dusty Hare, the touring party’s two match-winning kickers. The side scored three tries to Canterbury’s two, but Mac Neill goaled only twice from seven attempts, and Clive Woodward missed his solitary kick. In contrast, Deans was in fine touch, succeeding with

five kicks out of seven. But not too much blame can be laid at the door of Mac Neill. The Lions did not look an organised team until after half-time, and then, after battling their way back into contention, they finished a little haphazardly. There were distinct problems at half-back, where Roy Laidlaw had a match he would probably rather forget. At one stage he performed so myopically that he twice failed to find his Scottish partner, John Rutherford, and at other times he was caught by his marker, Bruce Deans. Irwin made two serious errors of judgment when the Lions’ backs were in full flight, and the tourists committed two acts of folly deep inside their own territory. Deans made sure that they brought six points to Canterbury.

“I told them at the start I

would not stand for any nonsense,” said the referee, Mr Cliff Dainty. Maurice Colclough was the first culprit, with some back-chat to the referee, and 7min from the end Irwin was penalised for elbowing Warwick Taylor when the ball was dead. At the time Taylor was shadowing Roger Baird as they headed towards the Lions’ 22m mark for a dropout. Deans’s goal meant the winning of the game by Canterbury, but in the first half he struck vital blows for his side with a welltaken blind-side try, a conversion from the side-line, and penalty goals from 38m and 52m. In catching the high ball and kicking with length and accuracy for the side-lines, Deans constantly bestirred his forwards to maintain their bold frontal attack. Atkins was so different from the partially lethargic

figure he sometimes shows in club football, and his aggressive charges had the other Canterbury forwards baying behind him in close order. John Ashworth and Jock Hobbs showed the benefit of their test experience against the tourists, and Albert Anderson gave a notable display for a man who has been out of rugby for about six weeks. There was heady play from the five-eighths, Taylor and Wayne Smith, in spite of rough treatment for both men from the hands and feet of Irwin, and a notable contribution from the younger Deans, Bruce. His sweetly thrown pass from a scrum delivery by Atkins gave his brother, Robbie, the space he needed initially on the way to evading Laidlaw and Peter Winterbottom for his try. Bruce Deans had to con-

tend with a lot of untidy tapped ball from line-outs, with scant protection, but kept bobbing back spiritedly as a reliable distributor. There were several Canterbury flaws. An uncontrolled tap from a line-out near the Canterbury goalline presented lain Paxton, the Lions’ No. 8, with a gift try. And Victor Simpson often appeared to be flatfooted in the Canterbury midfield, causing attacks to hiccup as he sought a suicidal inside path. But, for all that, Canterbury was much more in control of its destiny than the Lions. There was a pattern and purpose to Canterbury’s play which was matched by the Lions only in the third quarter, in spite of the fact they gained an equal share of line-out ball, finished only two rucks down, and had twice the scrum ball that Canterbury gained. Colin Deans, who gave his

Canterbury namesake one of his goal-kicking opportunities through off-side play, gained three tightheads with slick hooking, but the Canterbury scrum generally held up well against the masters. The Lions’ first try was a rousing effort from second phase play, with Rutherford, Woodward, and Irwin moving the ball swiftly to give Baird a clear path to the line. Alas for the Lions, they were unable to put such movements together more than once or twice. For them, this was a pity, because they could have had the winning of the game. For Canterbury: Robbie Deans and Atkins tries; Deans conversion and four penalty goals. For the British Isles: Paxton, Baird and Irwin tries; Mac Neill conversion, penalty goal; Rutherford dropped goal-