Young Canty squad

Press, 18 June 1986, Page 68

Young Canty squad

The Canterbury rugby team to play Mid-Canter-bury at Ashburton next Tuesday is likely to be one of the youngest and least experienced sides that the province has fielded in a long time. Absent not only will be the All Blacks (Cavaliers), but there are doubts also about the four players involved in this week’s North-South match and All Black trial. The selector, Alex Wyllie, has not named the four — Bruce Deans, Murray Davie and Andy and Chris Earl — in the training squad, although he does not exclude the possibility that one or two of them could be brought in next week. Dale Atkins has been included, but there are doubts about whether he will be fit to play. The plaster has come off the thumb he shattered more

than a month ago, but he may have to wait another week before he gets a clearance to play again. Of the newcomers, and there are eight who have yet to play for Canterbury, the most interesting is the Burnside colt, Shane Philpott. He has made a big impression in club matches, both at first and second five-eighths this season, and never more so than when Mr Wyllie went to watch him at Lancaster Park last Saturday. The full squad, to train at Rugby Park at 5.30 p.m. tomorrow, is.— Backs: Richard Connell, Joe Leota, Roger Kilpatrick, David Farrant, Steve Hansen, Shane Philpott, Mark McHardy, James Leggat, Stephen Bachop, Allan Lindsay. Forwards: John Buchan, David Reid, Brent Harvey,

Tala Kele, Tony Thorpe, Pat O’Gorman, Grant Mickell, John McCaw, Adrian Kennedy, Don Hayes, Phil Cropper, Dale Atkins. While some, if not all, of Canterbury’s Cavaliers will be available for the match after Mid-Canter-bury, the national championship game against Taranaki on July 2, one who will definitely not be is Jock Hobbs. The N.Z.R.F.U. has decreed that the Cavaliers must have spent a full three weeks back in their unions before they have fulfilled the residential qualification required for representative rugby. Hobbs has been back in New Zealand about two weeks, but he has been staying with his parents in Wellington. He must return to Christchurch before the three weeks countdown begins.