Eastern upsets premiership leader

Press, 27 May 1985, Page 23

Eastern upsets premiership leader

Eastern Suburbs continued its remarkable recovery in the Canterbury rugby league premiership when it tarnished Baisweil's previously perfect record at the Show Grounds on Saturday. Only two weeks ago Eastern had conceded 80 points to Hornby. Some of the memories of that humiliation were removed by victory over the bottom side, Marist-Western Suburbs, but the win over Halswell, 16-12, was quite unexpected. AH of Eastern’s points were contributed by the experienced Bruce Dickison and Bruce Murphy, though a number of youngsters comparatively new to premier football shared in the upset. Harwell’s defeat prevented it from taking an outright lead in the Radio Avon-sponsored competition. It has to be content to share that distinction with Hornby, which had the bye on Saturday. They will meet on June 8. A decisive success at the expense of Sydenham left Linwood handily placed, one point behind the front-runners. Kaiapoi is fourth, thanks to its win over Papanui, and Addington beat Marist to remain in contention for the semi-finals. Steve Dickson, the Kaiapoi full-back, was the top individual scorer with a try and five goals. Dickison scored 12 points for Eastern and Ken O’Brien touched down twice for Linwood. The “player of the match” awards went to Dickison and O’Brien.

Kaiapoi 26, Papanui 18 Kaiapoi: S. Dickson, S. Clarke, C. K. Smith, T. J. Stanley tries; Dickson five goals. Papanui: M. Pfeifer, P. Williams, D. Grant tries; A. J. Wildermoth three goals. Half-time, Kaiapoi, 14-6. Referee, Mr D. Wilson (replaced by Mr K. R. Blackler). Kaiapoi spent the first 20 minutes trying to restrain a seemingly more capable and confident Papanui side in the curtain-raiser on the oval. It had only limited success, conceding one try and struggling to prevent further damage.

The match changed dramatically midway through the first half as Kaiapoi discovered Papanui’s vulnerability when tested with tactical kicks. Steve Clarke almost capitalised on a short punt by Charlie Smith before Steve Dickson raced through to retrieve his own kick and score. Clarke was not to be denied for long. His loose forward, Glen Turton, bumped off defenders along Papanui’s left flank and Clarke was clear in an overlap. Accurate goal-kick-ing by Dickson complemented his side’s positive style of football and Kaiapoi was ahead, 146, at the interval. The margin was increased to 14 points only a few moments after the restart, and it was again the result of good understanding between backs and forwards. This time Smith ranged up to take the vital pass from Warren Wetere. Papanui had an equal share of the second half on a territorial basis. But it was too far in arrears to overhaul Kaiapoi, though the decisive running of Tony Wildermoth and Doug Thompson required concentration from Kaiapoi’s cover-de-fence. It was Wildermoth and Thompson who conspired to provide a try for the full-back, Paul Williams, and the replacement wing, David Grant, stepped inside an opponent for the last try. Between those efforts Tony Stanley had touched down to again make Kaiapoi’s situation safe. The sturdy Kaiapoi backs, Dickson, Clarke, Ben Huriwai and Smith, all made good use of their dual assets of speed and strength. Wetere, Stanley, Turton and Dwayne Little were effective in the Kaiapoi pack, and the forward momentum hardly slackened even when Turton and Kerry Williams had to be replaced because of injuries. It had taken Mark Pfeifer just three minutes to open Papanui’s scoring and John Cleaver was recalled for an earlier knock-on. Wildermoth was proving evasive at standoff and Papanui’s prospects were rosy. But, with rare exceptions, its handling deteriorated and there were too many tackling lapses in mid-match. Linwood 28, Sydenham 4 Linwood: K. 0. O’Brien two, D. A. Perkins, G. Finlayson, J. Rees tries; T. Keepa four goals. Sydenham: T. Maiava try. Half-time, 8-0. Referee, Mr K. R. Blackler. Linwood did not have to achieve the standard of foot-

ball of which it is capable to draw away from an even more disappointing Sydenham in an encounter which failed to justify its main-game rating. The error rates of both teams, and particularly that of Sydenham, were very high. Linwood did manage to put together two or three quite attractive try-scoring movements, but they were well spaced. The co-ordination expected of premier combinations was missing. Slipshod handling and poorly-timed passing caused much loose ball. Amid the general mediocrity, though, Linwood gradually moved out of range.

It was eight points in front by half-time, thanks to tries by David Perkins and Ken O’Brien. They were more alert than most to attacking situations. Perkins accepted a well-judged return pass from his left wing, Lewis Hudson, to score, and O'Brien touched down after Sydenham had actually won a scrum near its own try-line. The ball bobbled about in the in-goal area until O’Brien reached it. O’Brien quickly increased the lead in the third quarter, this time from his own tactical kick. He continued to dart past defenders, benefiting from his acceleration and sudden changes of direction. There was a momentary interruption to the one-way traffic as a decisive break by Paul Kaisa led to Sydenham’s sole try. There was to be no Sydenham revival, though, and Linwood’s second-choice goalkicker, Tere Keepa, played his part in establishing the eventually decisive winning margin. So, too, did the Linwood three-quarters once they were clear of the disorganisation which prevented much positive progress being made in midfield. Gary Finlayson and John Rees added late tries. Linwood also had the more solid forward effort, with Steve Blanchard, Steve Wernham and Craig Todd running forcefully. Sydenham’s pack failed to flatter and, of the backs, only Mark Forsey promised to place himself in positions from which his team might have prospered.

Eastern 16, Halswell 12 Eastern: B. I. Dickison two, B. J. Murphy tries; Dickison two goals. Halswell: C. White, R. F. Rushton tries; P. Prescott two goals. Halftime, Eastern 8-2. Referee: Mr K. Ireland. A spirited fight-back in the final quarter was not enough for Halswell to overhaul Eastern Suburbs. Two fine tries by the former international, Bruce Dickison, who played at loose forward, and generally sound defensive play paved the way for victory. Ten points in arrears with 15 minutes left, Halswell came back with a try to its prop, Robbie Rushton. That was to be ail that Halswell could salvage. Halswell actually should have been about 12 points ahead but poor finishing was just part of its uninspiring display. Harwell's bad habit of running the ball up the middle of the field assisted Dick Ngataki, of Eastern, to have an outstanding game on defence. Superbly marshalled by Dickison, Eastern moved possession freely and Dickison’s own tries came as a result of quick passing along the backline to Willie Stone on the right wing. Tactical kicking, too, played a major part in Eastern's win. At the end it had enough in reserve to hold out a poorlyperforming Halswell.

Addington 18, Marist-Western 10 Addington: H. Tipene, J. R. Tapiata tries; J. J. Green four goals; (Tapiata, M. Woodland field goals). Mar-ist-Western: G. Charlton, P. Robertson tries; G. Brott goal. Half-time, Addington, 9-6. Referee, Mr G. Baxter. Addington came out on top in a scrappy game with Mar-ist-Western Suburbs only because it made more of its share of possession. John Tapiata and the captain, Steve Mather, tested the Marist defence whenever they ran, while the second-rower, John Green, was very solid on defence. Tapiata was the architect of

many a move, but too often his Addington team-mates either retained the ball for too long or spilled it. Marist seemed undisciplined on both attack and defence with a glut of players following the ball rather than positioning themselves better. The Marist prop, Willie Kapea, ran hard throughout, with support from Craig Campbell and the stand-off half, Mike Norman. In the final accounting, though, their support was just not enough, in spite of a concerted last-quarter effort. Midway through the second half Addington moved the ball wide to give Harry Tipene an overlap on the left for the best try of the match. In the closing stages its defence was firm and Addington deserved to take the premiership points.

PREMIER POINTS P W D L F A Pt Hornby 6 5 0 1224 60 10 Halswell 6 5 0 1 135 88 10 Linwood 6 4 1 1110 63 9 Kaiapoi 6 4 0 2134126 6 Adding. 7 3 1 3 97118 7 Papanui 6 2 1 3147121 6 Eastern 7 2 1 4 74 173 5 Syd. 6 1 0 5 87127 2 Marist 6 0 0 6 88220 0