Forward power should give Canty victory

Press, 9 July 1986, Page 64

Forward power should give Canty victory

By

KEVIN McMENAMIN

Four more Cavaliers are expected to be reintroduced into the Canterbury rugby team when it plays Marlborough at Lansdowne Park in Blenheim today.

Because of the waterlogged state of Rugby Park, the squad was unable to train on Monday night and the selectorcoach, Alex Wyllie, was not naming his team until after a practice at Seddon on the way north last evening. However, if he sticks with the plans he had last Wednesday Mr Wyllie will play two Cavaliers, Craig Green and Victor Simpson, on the wings, restore

a third, Albert Anderson, at lock, and include a fourth, John Mills, at hooker. A fifth Cavalier, Jock Hobbs, was not available for the trip (David Farrant also withdrew because of a groin injury) and with Warwick Taylor having returned to the side against Taranaki last week, Robbie Deans could be the last of the available South African travellers to get a game. Deans has gone to Blenheim, but Mr Wyllie is expected to stick with

Richard Connell at fullback. Connell has been playing well, and has scored 65 points from his six games. A likely Canterbury team is: Connell; Green, Steve Hansen, Simpson; Wayne Burleigh, James Leggat; Allan Lindsay; Dale Atkins, Don Hayes (captain), Anderson, Andy Earl, Pat O’Gorman; David Reid, Mills, Tala Kele. The Marlborough side is: Peter Martell; Mark Macintosh, Paul Phillips, Tony

Hawke; Paul Karena, Ross Wilcocks; Jamie Saker; Earl Kingi; Mike O’Callaghan, Frank Martell (captain), Lenny Mason, Bob Avery; Ken Hart, Lindsay Meehan, Robert Jones. So far this season Marlborough has lost, 7-15, to Canterbury Country and, in recent weeks, beaten Buller, 22-7, and King Country, 26-13. These wins suggest that it could be in for a successful season in the second division of the national championship. However, it is hard to imagine anything but a Canterbury victory today.

The side, even without its All Blacks, has been most impressive in its last two games and those Cavaliers who do get on to the field will know that they have got to earn their places again. There has been some rain in Blenheim in the last few days, but so long as there is no more — and none is predicted — Lansdowne Park should provide reasonably good footing.

But whatever the going Canterbury should be able to dominate the play through its bigger and stronger forwards. The only worry for the side might be that with one exception — in 1981 — Canterbury has never beaten Marlborough in Blenheim by more than nine points. And Mr Wyllie will well remember the 1975 game, when Marlborough romped home, 41-17. A similar score, but the other way round, might not be far astray today.