Champions again after 33 years

Press, 12 August 1985, Page 48

Champions again after 33 years

The waiting finally ended for the Marist Rugby Club at Lancaster Park yesterday. Before a crowd of around 9000, Marist beat Shirley, 8-3, to win the senior championship for the first time since 1952.

Marist also laid to rest the bogy that it could not handle the pressure of finals, having lost three in the last four years.

This time Marist gave a highly competent display, and was more at home in the slippery conditions than Shirley, which at least proved a worthy finalist and gave its big support group some joyous moments as it tried to’ run the ball at Marist in the backs. But Marist had control where it mattered most — in the forwards. From an early stage Marist had an advantage here, and it became more pronounced as the game wore on. It was not until the seventy-third minute that Marist scored its second try to extend its lead to 8-3. But even before then, it was apparent that only some

terrible stroke of bad luck was going to deny Marist the victory that had so long eluded it.

Shirley spent most of the last 20 minutes pinned inside its own 22m, and it was Greg Coffey who scored the try that had seemed inevitable. He found a gap on the short side of a ruck after the Marist forwards had mounted a series of assaults on the Shirley line. The try must have been very sweet for Coffey, who had an off day with his goal-kicking, missing with seven attempts. The Shirley kicker, Colin Williamson, did not have as many chances, but he lost Shirley some useful early points when he missed a fairly simple penalty in the second minute. With only three points yesterday, Williamson finished two

short of 200 for the season.

Shirley adopted a bold approach. It tried to run its backs in conditions that made such tactics perilous. It also tried to mount attacks from inside its own half and although the fullback, Brad Stringer, had to | be admired for his courage his running from the deep brought scant returns. Marist, on the other hand, took few risks. It didn’t really have to with its forwards winning so much ball, especially from line-outs. The final count was 22-9 to Marist, and in the second spell it was 10-2. The first half was fairly even, and the spell had only four minutes to run when Marist opened the scoring with its first try. The scorer was Brian McLean, who as a spare part has served Marist ably for many seasons.

This time he was a late replacement at full-back for Richard Connell, who has a poisoned foot. The half-back, Steve Baker, set McLean on his way when he broke from a scrum, but McLean had to muster a lot of speed to reach the corner ahead of two or three defenders. The best running, though, did come from the Shirley backs. The second fiveeighths, Wayne Simpson, was particularly dangerous and if Shirley was counting on some Craig Green magic to pull it through, it was sadly, disappointed. Green was too ' well marked to accomplish much, and mid-way through the second spell he went down with a knee injury. He was no longer an asset and after 10 minutes he hobbled off.

All the Marist forwards played well, with Pat O’Gorman, perhaps, the most valuable. He won some good possession towards the back of the lineout and was a powerful force in the tight, driving play that was Marist’s hallmark.

The young lock, Seph Pijfers, was even more outstanding in the line-outs, and Mike Taylor, Tala Kele and Adrian Kennedy were the hard grafters which kept Marist on a road to victory. Baker won the Quills “man of the match” award, a tribute to the excellent service he gave his backs and some tidy kicking for his forwards. The Marist backs were not as flowing as they can be, and a number of set moves failed through the extra man coming in too fast. But there was still a fine, controlled game from the captain, Steve Hansen, at centre and the left wing, Richard Smith, was a fast and elusive mover. The win completed a notable double for the Marist club in Mandeville Street this year. The rooms now house the trophies that go to the town senior rugby and cricket champions. But whereas the Marist cricket team won the title at its first attempt, the rugby team has had to endure a long wait.

Providing it recovers from the celebrations in time, Marist should make a strong bid to increase the haul when it meets Culver-den-Waiau at Denton Oval on Wednesday night to find the over-all Canterbury champion.