Favoured Marist faces Shirley and past ghosts

Press, 10 August 1985, Page 80

Favoured Marist faces Shirley and past ghosts

Marist must be favoured to end a frustrating run of near-misses by beating Shirley in the grand final, for the championship Trophy, of the Christchurch senior rugby competition at Lancaster Park tomorrow.

It will be the fourth final that Marist has contested in the last five years, and it must surely be due to win one. It also has a much superior record to Shirley this season, including a 33-9 win when they met in the first round. Furthermore, Shirley has beaten Marist only once in their last seven encounters, a 10-4 result in 1982. But as Marist knows from bitter experience, it is not always the team which has the stronger form that wins finals. Last year it went 18 games without a loss, until it met New Brighton in the final. Both sides will be at full strength and whatever the result it is going to be a successful first season for one coach, if Shirley wins, or two, in Marist’s case. Frank Jack, after a long playing career with the club, took over Shirley this year and he can take a lot of the credit for lifting a team which has seldom played to its potential in recent seasons. Wayne McWhirter and Kevin O’Gorman became the Marist senior coaches this year and while they might have inherited a team which had strength all round, it has certainly not lost ground under their direction. Mr Jack said yesterday that Shirley must be the underdog. “You only have to compare Marist’s record this season with ours to see that, but whatever happens I don’t think that we can lose. Just getting to the final has been wonderful for the club, and it will be a great experience for the players. I doubt if-any of them really

expected it.” Shirley, said Mr Jack, was not beaten by Marist in the first round; it was “whipped.” “But I would like to think that we have come a fair way since then. We know better now what our strengths and weaknesses are and with only one try scored against us in the Trophy rounds our defence is obviously pretty good.” Whatever the ground conditions, he thought that Shirley would give a good account of itself, but if Marist played to its best he seriously doubted whether Shirley could win. As to Marist’s sorry record in finals, he believed that this would act only as a spur to the team to do better. “In finals anything can happen, and much will depend on which side gets that little bit of luck which can be so vital.” Mr McWhirter, for one, does not see Shirley as anything but a very tough opponent. “They have obviously come right at the right time and any side that can beat University, 18-3, on a heavy ground (as Shirley did last Saturday) must be going extra well.” Mr McWhirter said that there was a good attitude in the Marist team and a strong desire to end the finals disappointments of the last four years. “It is tough enough getting to finals, without losing them all the time. However, there are only six in the team who were in the side beaten by New Brighton last year so we are not as experienced as some people seem to think,” said Mr McWhirter.

The big question, though, is whether Shirley can match Marist in the forwards. It never came anywhere near it at their earlier,, meeting this year, but was more than the equal of the University pack last week. Another such display could make it very hard to beat, for with good ball to the inside backs, Allan Lindsay and Colin Williamson, Shirley is very adept at controlling a game. If one man is capable of winning the game through a stroke or two of brillance then Shirley probably has him in its centre, Craig Green. Marist, however, must still start the favourite. It has a pack of proven ball winners and backs who are dangerous from any part of the field. Its chief worry might be that it will tighten up as it did last year, and depart from its usual freeflowing style. The teams are.— Marist: Richard Connell; Bill Anderson, Steven Hansen (captain), Richard Smith; Phil Gibson, Greg Coffey; Steve Baker; Pat O’Gorman, Seph Tijfers, Mark Connell, Bernie Ryan; Tala Kele, Bede Mahoney, Mike Taylor. Shirley: Brad Stringer; Martin Brown, Craig Green, Ken Wells; Wayne Simpson, Colin Williamson; Allan Lindsay; Grant Mickell; Mark Young, Kerry Mitchell (captain), John Mitchell, Paul Rushton; Barry Hammersley, Brett Dixon, Mike Burn. In the curtain-raiser for the D.C.L. Shield, Burnside should be too strong overall, and especially in the backs, for Suburbs.