Praise for Canterbury

Press, 9 December 1983, Page 12

Praise for Canterbury

As was to be expected, there are kind words aplenty about Canterbury in the 1983 “DB Rugby Annual,” which has just come on the market.

Even in a year when the All Blacks made mincemeat of the British Lions, pride of place as the front cover picture goes to Canterbury in action defending the Ranfurly Shield against Auckland.

For the second successive year Robbie Deans is one of the annual’s five players of the year. The other four are Ollie Campbell, the one Lion who distinguished himself, and three All Blacks from the Lions series, Andy Dalton, Andy Haden and Dave Loveridge. It is the fourth consecutive year that Haden has been among the five.

This is the thirteenth edition of the annual, and, as in previous years, it provides a full and entertaining account of all the year’s happenings, plus - coverage of the Maoris’ visit to Wales late in 1982.

Because it dominates the Ranfurly Shield section, Canterbury receives more attention than any other province and unlike its chief rival, the “Rugby Almanack of New Zealand,” the annual does give accounts of all shield games. Although Deans is one of the five players of the year, it is Craig Green who is adjudged Canterbury’s outstanding player. The explanation lies in the fact that choices are made by different writers.

Dale Atkins’s perform-

ance against the Lions is rated as the best individual display of the year, and the other awards of most improved player and most promising player go to

Bruce Deans and Phil Robson, respectively. The annual (Moa Publications; 159 pp; $16.95) is, as always, invaluable to those who want to know who did

what to whom, and how. And a good supply of stories and pictures, especially some superb colour shots, add flesh to these statistical bones.