South Island’s commanding rugby league win

Press, 26 April 1984, Page 27

South Island’s commanding rugby league win

By

JOHN COFFEY

If rugby league administrators on both sides of the Southern Alps ever get into the business of producing promotional bumper stickers they could do worse than choose the slogan, “South Island shines in the dark.”

The 42-10 victory over Northern Districts at the Show Grounds on Tuesday night will never be compared to the last occasion that a full-strength South side played under the floodlights — and beat Australia — but it was a most heartening start to the Travelseekers Super League campaign.

The script devised by the South coach, Ray Haffenden, was not followed in a word perfect fashion, but his players had the resources to compensate for those lines which were muffed. Most importantly, South attained an early control and there was never any prospect of it losing that ascendancy. Northern was certainly not the inept team that the final result might suggest. Had the South cover defence not been so effective, the Waikato, Northland, Midlands and Bay of Plenty combination would at least have doubled its points total.

Quite a few of the Northern players and particularly the halves, Russell Stewart and Neville Ramsay, the centre, Billy Kells, and the forwards, Trevor Clark and Bill Ashurst, proved that they had the foot-work to breach the first line of defenders. But none of the visitors ever managed to get completely clear. The first Northern try came from a 40m sprint by Stewart after he had scooped up a loose ball, and the other, just before full-time, went to a wide-ranging prop, Mark Horo, as two tacklers reached him. Stewart Kells and Ramsay were tantalisingly close to increasing Northern’s try tally in the second half. It

was to the credit of South’s representatives, already ahead 26-4 by the interval, that they did not fall to the temptation of shrugging off their responsibilities. The positive side of South’s display deserved even more commendation. Only occasionally did South, when in possession, suffer from errors which might have suggested too much was being attempted, too soon, too hastily, too early in the first-class season. Those blemishes could be forgiven, if not forgotten when considering harder assignments ahead.

Several of South’s tries earned the generous applause of the biggest crowd to watch an inter-districts game in Christchurch. None more so than the scoring manoeuvre completed by the scrum-half, Glen Gibb.

A quick transfer of possession to the centres, enabled Bernie Green to place his partner, Marty Crequer, into a gap. Crequer stepped confidently off both feet as he moved downfield, and when cornered, he slipped the ball to a rampaging wing, Pomare Connell. After carrying two opponents on his back for a full 10m, Connell flipped a neat pass back to Gibb, who had faithfully followed up the centre of the field for 70m as the movement had flowed towards, along and back from the right flank. That magnificient example of team-work extended the score to 36-4 with 20min remaining, and it seemed that Northern would collapse when Gibb sent Green across for his second try soon afterwards. But Northern was to regroup and halt the one-way traffic.

Green opened South’s scoring, captilising on a charge-down by Wayne Dwyer and David Field’s quick thinking. A decisive break by Russell Tuuta provided Boyd Kilkelly with a try and South had eight points in as many minutes.

The props, Ross Taylor and Dwyer, were to combine twice before half-time for Dwyer to touchdown. The highlight of that spell, however, was Field’s solo effort from a scrum 30m from the Northern tryline. His dummy pass and acceleration left Stewart quite bewildered, and soon after the resumption Field defied the laws of gravity and logic to put Robin Alfeld across for another try.

So often does Field win “man of the match” awards at the Show Grounds that it might have been a recording permanently attached to the public address system announcing that he was the recipient of the ?200 Travelseekers voucher. There were others who also rose above the very commendable over-all standard achieved by South, none more so than the hooker, Wayne Wallace. He denied Northern possession from nine of the first 10 scrums, had the better of the tight heads against Clark, and was utterly tireless in his covering and running.

Dwyer and Taylor, and the second-rower, Russell Tuuta, must rate special mentions. So, also, must the midfield pair, Green for his strength, Crequer for his elusiveness, and the eager wings, Caonnell and Kilkelly.

The West Coasters in the South team had particular reason to return home with pride to prepare for the next match, against Central Districts in Greymouth on May 6. They might have numbered only four, but between them they contributed six tries. Details:— South 34, (W. P. Dwyer two, B. J. Green two, B. Kilkelly, G. Gibb, R. L. Alfeld, D. C. Field tries; B. R. Edkins five goals) beat Northern 10 (R. Stewart, M. Horo tries; R. Campbell goal). Half-time, 26-4. Scrums, South 9-3; Penalties, Northern 13-4. Referee, Mr N. Mallard (Wellington).