Rugby League Papanui continues its move up points table

Press, 24 June 1985, Page 24

Rugby League Papanui continues its move up points table

Kaiapoi slipped into second position and Papanui continued to progress steadily up the points table when the eleventh round of the Canterbury rugby league premiership began at the Show Grounds on Saturday. A late penalty goal by its full-back, Steve Dixon, enabled Kaiapoi to head off Eastern Suburbs, 14-12, just when a draw appeared to be the probable result of the match on the No. 2 playing field. There were no such doubts as to the outcome of the game on the oval. Addington shared the first-half honours, but Papanui was in command after the interval in spurting away to a 40-12 victory. The competition leader, Hornby, will not be in action until Wednesday evening, when it meets Marist-Western Suburbs. They provide the cur-tain-raiser for Halswell and Linwood. Hornby has a two-point advantage over Kaiapoi, with a similar margin to Halswell. The vital fourth semi-final position is now being disputed by Linwood, which has a match in hand, Papanui and Addington. Mark Broadhurst, a dominant figure for Papanui, and the bustling Kaiapoi outside back, Ben Huriwai, were chosen as recipients of “man of the match” awards on Saturday. PREMIERSHIP POINTS P W D L F A Pt Hornby 9 8 0 1 310 114 16 Kaiapoi 9 7 0 2 198 156 14 Halswell 9 6 0 3 183 142 12 Linwood 9 5 1 3 176 117 11 Papanui 10 5 1 4 239 195 11 Addington 10 5 1 4 147 186 11 Eastern 10 2 1 7 108 229 5 Sydenham 9 1 0 8 146 205 2 Marist 9 1 0 8 156 319 2

Papanui 40, Addington 12 Papanui: B. J. Brown two, M. J. Williams two, T. J. O’Donnell, M. G. Pfeifer, J. D. Cannell, S. Campbell tries; A. J. Wildermoth tliree, P. Williams goals. Addington: S. Mather two tries; M. T. Green two goals. Half-time, 8-8. Referee, Mr D. Wilson. Two spectacular tries by the speedy Addington wing, Steven Mather, promised Papanui a much more severe test than it actually received in the main game. Mather’s finishing skills levelled the scores in the

second quarter after Barry Brown and Mike Williams had claimed tries for Papanui in the opening minutes.

Deceptive running by Steve McCann and alert backing up from Mather perplexed four Papanui cover-defenders when the Addington wing touched down for his first try, and Mather had too much pace after smoothly picking up a loose ball at full stride 45m out a few minutes later.

Those efforts slowed Papanui’s advance for a time. Papanui had begun bubbling with confidence, and Williams made a smart entrance from fullback to give Brown his opportunity. A long and accurate pass from Mark Broadhurst allowed Williams the leeway for his try. Addington had enjoyed its share of the territorial fluctuations and was not flattered by the 8-8 half-time scoreline. But any winning aspirations were quickly shattered, and once again it was a touch-down from Brown which had Papanui prospering. Brown capitalised on an over-lap created by a looped pass from his stand-off half, Paul Williams, to begin a prolific scoring sequence near the right comer flag. Terry O’Donnell determinedly forced his way across in a tackle, and Brown deftly slipped an in-pass to the unmarked Mark Pfeifer as he was about to be forced over the touch-line.

Only two penalty goals by Mark Green interrupted the one-way traffic. Papanui added three more tries in the last quarter, Steve Campbell, who was a replacement centre, completing the scoring with his first try in the premiership.

Broadhurst performed at a level above all others around the play-the-balls, drawing defenders and being ever alert to relay possession to his teammates. No-one backed up more diligently than the secondrower, John Cannell, and his try was a just reward for a fine display. The Papanui inside backs, John Blazey, Paul Williams and Tony Wildermoth, compensated for their comparative lack of size by proving their elusivenesss, and Mike Williams and Brown moved strongly onto the ball.

Addington's better moves were more fragmented, relying largely on individual efforts. Mather, McCann and Harry Tipene were all fine attackers, but the forwards faced an increasingly losing battle trying to restrain Broadhurst and his lieutenants. Kaiapoi 14, Eastern 12 Kaiapoi: B. Huriwai, R. N. Tuuta tries; S. R. Dixon three goals. Eastern: B. J. Murphy, N. K. Hermanson tries,- V. McCue two goals.

Half-time, Kaiapoi, 12-6. Referee, Mr G. Baxter. When Ben Huriwai and Russell Tuuta breached Eastern’s defences early in the second quarter of the match on the No. 2 ground it seemed that Kaiapoi would indeed justify its firm favouritism to win. However, Kaiapoi was eventually to need a penalty goal from a handy position by Steve Dixon to regain the lead three minutes from the end. Even then it did not have both competition points in safekeeping, for Eastern was to miss an opportunity to equalise on the call of full-time. The greater freedom evident in Russell Tuuta’s running since recovering from surgery to a knee injury was very obvious as Kaiapoi surged away to a 12-point advantage—the points being accumulated in only eight minutes. Tuuta ranged out wide to send Huriwai surging for the Eastern try-line. Kaiapoi was soon racing back towards the Eastern try-line, and Tuuta was at his very best in swerving infield to leave the coverdefence in tatters. To Eastern’s credit, it quickly struck back to trail by six points at the break. That margin was wiped out 12 minutes after the resumption when Nigel Hermanson gathered a loose ball, shrugged off one opponent and divedacross to touch down in the ineffective tackles of two other Kaiapoi players. Neither team was able to achieve any more than a temporary ascendancy at any time in the game, a failing to stamp authority that was particularly noticeable in the vital last quarter. Greg Hamburger’s forceful running in the centre of the field, extending Dick Ngataki’s slick distribution, was one of Eastern’s main assets. In the final accounting, though, Tuuta’s two most impressive runs gave Kaiapoi the initial points cushion which saw ii, through against a very deter* mined SV