Few seize chances in freezing trial

Press, 15 May 1985, Page 72

Few seize chances in freezing trial

PA Invercargill Opportunity knocked, but few players opened All Black doors in a national rugby trial played under water, in icy cold and in spite of protests at Rugby Park in Invercargill yesterday.

The conditions in which the match was played were poles apart from those the All Blacks will encounter in South Africa this year—as different as the opinions of the spectators who came to watch the match and the protesters who came to disrupt it. The quality of play suffered and the match had minimal selection value. For the record, four tries were scored as Dave Kirk’s Probables beat Dave Loveridge’s Possibles 17-10. Yet for the first four minutes yesterday, more eyes followed the activities of protesters who beat a police cordon around the ground than watched rugby. A young woman carrying a scarlet banner which never fully unfurled was led away by police after vaulting advertising hoardings at the northern end shortly after the kick-off. Minutes later a young man ran onto the field some distance from play and dashed towards halfway. He made some ground before he was netted by track-suited policemen and dragged away with his heels carving furrows in the turf. The match carried on without incident and with little real interest until five minutes from fulltime when a third protester attempted to cross the field. Much of yesterday’s match was played in rain, swirling in at the head of a southerly front which plunged temperatures close to freezing. Players were saturated minutes after the kick-off. The Probables wingers Kawhena Woodman and Joe Leota chose to play in gloves. The ball became oval soap and for inside backs the remainder of the day was the stuff of rugby nightmares. The first five-eighths, Matene Love and Mark Cameron, had forgettable games, peppered by inaccurate service from their half-backs and harassed by scavenging loose forwards. Outside them, few players had opportunities to shine. The first five-eighths’ difficulties meant little ball went to the three quarters—it was simply not the day for it. More morose than any sight yesterday, however, was that of Bill Osborne, his comeback foundering, hobbling slowly away from

selection contention. The Rugby Park surface was as good as any could have been in pelting rain but handling was a lottery. The burly bushman took the field with his left hamstring bandaged thickly and bound in thermal strapping. This was to be the crucial moment in Osborne’s comeback to international rugby and he took the field less than fit. His determination to play and play well stood out but his performance was marred by his injury. Three times he summoned medical attention. He finished the match at half pace, favouring his left leg badly. There was an upstart in yesterday’s match, also, who made Osborne’s day more difficult. The Southland flanker, Dennis Kelly, sprung from the mould that produced Ken Stewart, tormented Osborne and Mark Cameron mercilessly. He tackled with ferocity, arriving at the same moment as the ball and crashing the carrier to the ground. There was a suggestion that Kelly occasionally arrived before the ball and that he occasionally arrived after it had left. There were murmurs that he lurked a yard or two offside. Kelly was one of the day’s few successes. It was the forwards who shone yesterday, the loosies especially. Allan Dawson, Wayne Shelford and the King Country youngster, Glynn Meads, made their mark on the trial. Colin Meads was more than proud yesterday of the showing of his son who

played the critical linkman in the Possibles side. The Probables first took the lead 12 minutes into the second spell when Taranaki wing Bryce Robins bagged his first try. The lead increased to seven points 14 minutes later when Robins scored his second try. Meads had earlier given the Possibles a 7-3 lead when he scored the first try of the match after 23 minutes. Kurt Sherlock and Kelvin Farrington failed to tidy up spilled ball and Mark Finlay came up from fullback to cover as Meads toed to the line. But Finlay was caught on the turn and beaten for pace as the tall number eight kicked on to score. Robins’ tries both sprung from blindside play—the first when Wayne Shelford created the overlap and the second when Love and Sherlock combined. The Possibles led 10-3 at halftime with two penalties to Kieran Crowley complementing Meads’ try. The margin narrowed when Dawson bullocked over on the blindside for an unconverted try in the fifth minute of the second half and Kirk’s side led for the first time when Robins opened his account. The Taranaki right wing’s second try was also unconverted and completed the day’s scoring 14 minutes before fulltime. For much of the match the red-shirted Probables were the better side. Their loose trio operated doggedly with Shelford outstanding in the first half. In the second the Possibles slowly improved. They enjoyed a deluge of lineout ball after halftime— the majority emanating from the lanky Waikato lock Michael Speight who gave Wellington’s Gerard Wilkinson a pasting. The problem of Loveridge’s team was maintaining possession after it had achieved it and though it was eventually dominant at set play, its opponent was superior in the loose. Scorers: Probables 17 (Bryce Robins 2. Allan Dawson tries; Mark Finlay penalty goal, conversion). Possibles 10 (Glynn Meads try; Kieran Crowley two penalty goals).