Late penalty secures win for Marlborough

Press, 30 May 1985, Page 34

Late penalty secures win for Marlborough

A penalty four minutes from time was enough to see Marlborough through to victory over Canterbury Sub-Unions in a representative rugby fixture at Rangiora yesterday. The visitors won this tough encounter, 10-9, but only after withstanding a spirited fightback by Country in the second half. Sub-unions was 7-6 down at half-time, but it could have been more since Marlborough’s Ross Wilcock missed two penalties in the dying seconds. Country took a caning in the scrums in the first half and to a lesser extent the line-outs, but with big Greg Sparrow and Steve Dodds putting in some sterling work up front the team fought back. Sparrow’s contribution to the game got better as it wore on and at the end he had the measure of his more experienced opponent, the Marlborough captain, Jim Love. Love had taken early honours winning five line-outs in succession but Sparrow came back well and overhauled him just after the

break. The statistics showed it all. Marlborough headed the line-out count 12-10 at halftime, but at the end of the match it was Country which held the upper hand, 24-18. Butch Byrenhoek and Eddie Kerr gave Sparrow good support in the line-outs while Dodds had a great game at flanker, clearing much loose bail and bursting away from quite a few line-outs. The Country backs, guided well by John Grigg at first five-eighths, looked a lot sharper than in recent games and tried hard to string several moves together. However, it was not a game for running rugby. Both sets of backs fumbled a lot of ball at the crucial moment and the fast following loose forwards often made sure that the ball was tied up effectively in the ruck or maul before play was set up again. Marlborough’s Nigel Henare was probably the most penetrative back on the day and his try early in the first half was just reward for his game. Country’s Richard

McDonald on the wing turned in a fine match and although he did not get much opportunity to show his skills, he was solid on defence and gave the Marlborough defence something to think about. McDonald scored Country’s second points with a well struck penalty from 40m that brought the scores to 7-6 at half-time. The full-back, John Earl, who had several clearing kicks charged down during the match, slotted two penalties from his three attempts for six of his side’s nine points while for Marlborough Wilcock landed only two successful kicks from eight attempts. The closeness of the game reflected on the fine performance by the Country team, especially the forwards who had their bigger Marlborough opponents in all sorts of bother until Marlborough took control with vital scrum ball late in the game. Canterbury Sub-Unions colts won the curtain-raiser over an Ellesmere XV by 22 points to IL