Atkins stars in brilliant Canty victory

Press, 3 July 1986, Page 40

Atkins stars in brilliant Canty victory

By

KEVIN McMENAMIN

Canterbury made a most impressive start to its National Mutual first division rugby programme when it beat Taranaki, 18-9, at Lancaster Park yesterday.

This was the same score by which the All Blacks beat France on the ground last Saturday, and, like the All Blacks, Canterbury had a victory of which it can be extremely proud. The coach, Alex Wyllie, was in a happy mood afterwards — a sure sign that the side had played according to plan.

And for the crowd of less than 2000 which braved a bitterly cold and wet day, it was a game to remember. In fact, given the conditions it would have to rate as one of the best games Canterbury has played in the five seasons that Mr Wyllie has had the side.

Technically it was very nearly perfect. The forwards drove round the field like snow ploughs, sweeping all before them, and the backs did their stuff so well it was hard to believe that they were up to their hocks in water. Canterbury scored three of its four tries in the first half when it had the wind at its back. In the second spell, Taranaki got into the game a little more, although never enough to threaten, and so well did Canterbury play the last quarter it fully deserved another try or two.

Although there was no shortage of fine performances from the Canterbury players, there was still only one candidate for the “player of the day” award. It just had to go to Dale Atkins, who marked his return to representative rugby after a break of almost two months with a tremendous display of strong, straight running. The way he covered the ground at times, Atkins could have been engaging in one of his favourite summer sports of wind surfing.

Atkins gave added life to a pack which was always functioning pretty well. It won the line-outs, 22-12, turned over a lot of quality ruck ball and was at its glorious best in close-quarter passing rushes. Andy Earl, Murray Davie and John Buchan, who took the only tighthead, were the forwards who contributed the most after Atkins, and there was also another encouraging display from Tala Kele, who was a late replacement for Chris Earl. Mr Wyllie chose wisely in putting together the experienced pair of Wayne Burleigh and Warwick Taylor in the fiveeighths. Burleigh’s handling of the greasy ball was superb, while Taylor was as resolute on defence as he was on attack. Despite the treacherous conditions, all the backs ran eagerly, with Roger Kilpatrick the most difficult for the Taranaki defence to pin down. There was another quality game from Richard Connell at full-back. Canterbury opened the scoring with a try to Davie after 12 minutes. It was Davie who started a drive from about 20m out and he came in again after Atkins and Buchan had brought the line within reach. Connell converted this try with a fine kick, but the distance was too great when Joe Leota was put over in the corner four minutes later. Bruce Deans, Earl and Don Hayes did the spade work before Burleigh and Steve Hansen created the overlap for Leota. Against the run of play Kieran Crowley kicked a simple penalty goal for Taranaki in the twentyfifth minute, but a minute later Canterbury had its third try.

Taranaki tried to run itself out of a tight defensive situation and when the centre, Steve Crockett, dropped the ball Hansen was left with an easy pick-up and clear run to the line.

If anything, Canterbury played ever better into the wind in the second half. However, it managed only one more try, Leota getting his second after a lovely swirling movement midway through the spell. Hansen got it rolling and then Atkins, Earl, Kele, Buchan and Davie handled before Taranaki managed to slow things down with a ruck just out from its posts. But the ball came back to Burleigh and Leota had enough pace up when he took Burleigh’s pass to break through the last two tackles. Crowley kicked two more penalty goals, both from about 45m, for Tarankai in the second half, but the side was seldom in an attacking position and its noblest achievement was, perhaps, in denying Canterbury the tries that seemed almost inevitable in the last 15 minutes. Dave Loveridge had an excellent game behind the scrum for Taranaki, while Colin Cooper and Warren Bunn were industrious forwards. But they were only two against eight in fine fettle, and this is what made this performance by Canterbury one worth remembering, long after the chill of the day is forgotten. For Canterbury, Joe Leota (2), Murray Davie, Steve Hansen tries; Richard Connell one conversion. For Taranaki, Kieran Crowley three penalty goals. The referee, Mr Ken Chapman (Otago), awarded Taranaki 12 penalties and Canterbury 10.