Possession Canterbury’s big worry this afternoon

Press, 24 September 1983, Page 72

Possession Canterbury’s big worry this afternoon

By

KEVIN McMENAMIN

Against Wellington last Saturday, the Canterbury rugby team proved itself capable of winning a game in which it was badly beaten for possession.

This is not all that uncommon in rugby and goes only to show that it is what a team does with its possession that matters. But, as any coach knows, winning against the possession count is never easy. Herein lies the key to Canterbury’s eighth Ranfurly Shield challenge of the season by Auckland at Lancaster Park this afternoon. Canterbury might well be capable of winning again with the lesser share of the ball, but it’s a dangerous assumption. Canterbury can reasonably expect to do better in scrums and rucks than it did against Wellington. The area of most concern is line-outs, as they invariably determine which side has more of the ball. Even though his days as an All Black might be over, Andy Haden remains a champion line-out jumper

and it was only three weeks ago that he obliterated his marker today, Albert Anderson in the North-South game. Anderson, with his new status as an All Black should be more competitive this time, but Canterbury might still be wise to vary the length of its throws. Last Saturday it kept on blithely throwing the ball to the middle in the hope that things would come right — which they did, but only after the Wellington jumper, Murray Pierce, who was doing all the damage, had been put out of the game. With steady and quality possession, Canterbury should be up to winning. It has proved its over-all worth through a long and testing season and might even be close to the great game which it surely has in it. To accomplish this,

though, it would have to rid itself of the many simple mistakes, it made, particularly in the backs, last Saturday, Nervousness undoubtedly contributed to many of them, but in this sort of football just one mistake — as Bernie Fraser would testify to — can stand between success and failure. Auckland has an excellent record this season. Like Canterbury it beat the British Lions and it has lost only one of its seven national championship games. Auckland sides are often unpredictable, but when they are good they can be very good. The fact that the game will almost certainly decide the national championship will be an added spur, and the rebuff Auckland received from the All Black selectors last Sunday must

surely motivate the challenger even more. Not to be overlooked either is Auckland's remarkable record in challenging for the shield in the last 27 years. It has not lost one match since 1956, the only setback in its eight since being a drawn game with Hawke’s Bay in 1968. It would be a shame, after such a wonderful season, if Canterbury should stumble now, and if any further motivation is required the team might like to chew on some words by the Wellington coach, lan Upston, this week. Mr Upston made no secret of the fact that he thought Wellington was unlucky, and perhaps it was. But he then went on to tell an Auckland newspaper: “Canterbury were not the side I expected them to be. Stop their loose forwards

and they do not have much to offer.”

Victor Simpson would be just the man to put this argument to, if Canterbury’s actions today are to prove louder than Mr Upston’s words. The teams are.— CANTERBURY: Robbie Deans; Andrew McMaster, Victor Simpson, Craig Green; Warwick Taylor, Wayne Smith; Bruce Deans; Dale Atkins; Jock Hobbs, Albert Anderson, Tony Thorpe, Don Hayes (captain); Murray Davie, John Mills, John Ashworth.

AUCKLAND: Lindsay Harris; Gary Cunningham, Joe Stanley, John Kirwan; John Collinson, Grant Fox; Tim Burcher, Glenn Rich; Alwyn Harvey (captain), Andy Haden, Alan Whetton, Wayne Shelford; John Drake, Kevin Boyle, Greg Burgess.