Marist bounces back superbly

Press, 2 May 1985, Page 40

Marist bounces back superbly

Marist bounced back brilliantly from its senior rugby loss to Christchurch last Saturday by beating Sydenham, 38-0, in its night game at Denton Oval last evening. Marist scored eight tries, with the left wing, Richard Smith, getting three of them. There were some superb tries among the eight as the Marist backs ran the ball with style and purpose. Right from the opening minutes, when the flanker, Damian Martin, toed the ball over the line for the first try, Marist was in control. It led, 14-0, at halftime. Although Sydenham came back a little, it was too disorganised in the backs to accomplish much. Marist had the last say, however, with Steve Baker, Richard Connell and Smith

all scoring spectacular tries in the last lOmin.

In the Marist pack, Mike Taylor, Pat O’Gorman and Bernie Ryan all showed out in a fine exhibition of driving forward play.

Brian Martin and Trevor Luke did well to match Marist in the lineouts for a long time, but much of the ball Sydenham did win was wasted on backs who tried to do too much on their own. In the early game Merivale-Papanui came from 6-3 down at half-time to beat Lyttelton, 19-6. It was a well-deserved win as Merivale-Papanui, after resisting an early onslaught was the better side and in the second half played some constructive rugby. Steve Barnden and Andrew Maze had good

games in the MerivalePapanui scrum and the wings, Ross Smith and David Chalken, made some strong runs.

Jeff Geayley served Lyttelton well at full-back, particularly in his taking of high kicks. Victor Simpson at second five-eighths had a game which he will want to forget in a hurry. Scorers.—

Marist 38 (R. Smith 3, J. Freeman 2, D. Marlin, R. Connell, S. Baker tries; Connell three conversions) beat Sydenham 0. Referee: Mr T. M. Hannan.

Merivale-Papanui 19 (D. Chaikin, R. Smith tries; D. Feldwick two penalty goals and one conversion; J. Sherratt dropped goal) beat Lyttelton 6 (D. Couch two penalty goals). Referee: Mr R. D. Rudkin.

Press Cup points: Marist 11, 8, 19; Sydenham 11, 5, 16; Merivale-Papanui 12, 6, 18; Lyttelton 9,4, 13.