Last chance for Hornby, Papanui

Press, 31 August 1984, Page 30

Last chance for Hornby, Papanui

By

JOHN COFFEY

Hornby and Papanui will be filling reversed roles from those of the corresponding match last season when they again meet in the Canterbury rugby league club championship ■ preliminary final at the Show Grounds on Sunday. No doubt Papanui’s supporters will also be hoping that the result is different this time, too — Hornby set a new record winning margin for a preliminary final 12 months ago when it beat Papanui, 35-4, on its way to the title. But on that occasion Hornby was fresh from an equally convincing win over Addington in one semi-final and Papanui was struggling to regain its composure

after a one-point loss in the other.

Now it is Hornby’s turn to put behind it the 5-6 defeat it suffered from Halswell in the major semi-final, and Papanui has the chance to carry on from the strong second half display which enabled it to eliminate Sydenham.

The preliminary final opponents might be the same, but the face of club rugby league has changed considerably in other aspects. Halswell, last in 1983, is already through to the grand final on September 9 and is assured of one of Canterbury’s two places in the national Tusk Cup knock-out tournament.

Hornby and Papanui no longer have any second chance in their bids to join

Halswell in both of those events. Such is the wealth of individual talent in the Hornby line-up that the club is still favoured to retain the Pat Smith Challenge Trophy, at least in the minds of the majority of the code’s supporters whose allegiances do not rest with Halswell or Papanui. But Halswell proved last Sunday that such skills, even when blended together, count for nothing when met by an unflagging defensive effort. Whether Papanui, a side which devotes much of its energy to its own attacking manoeuvres — sometimes at the expense of defensive responsibilities — can emulate Halswell is a matter of debate.