Lacklustre Canty lucky to salvage draw

Press, 1 September 1986, Page 21

Lacklustre Canty lucky to salvage draw

From

KEVIN McMENAMIN

in Palmerston North

The sooner the huge new stand being built at the Palmerston North Show Grounds is complete the better, at least so far as the Canterbury rugby team is concerned. Then, perhaps, it might be more comfortable in the surroundings and produce its true form.

It certainly did not on Saturday, when it was lucky to escape with an 18-18 draw with Manawatu ih their National Mutual Championship match. Luckier even than on the last visit two years ago when it was also on the fortunate side of a tied result, 15-15. Some, albeit little, excuse might be found in some late changes Alex Wyllie made to the side. Not unexpectedly, he gave Dale Atkins more time to get over the dislocated thumb he suffered last week and this meant that Andy Earl had to switch to No. 8 and Mike Fransen had to fill in at lock.

Fransen had only had a couple of club games since a lengthy absence through injury and was probably not ready for a game as tough as this one turned out to be.

Mr Wyllie also changed the inside backs after Bruce Deans failed to recover as quickly as expected from a foot injury. Allan Lindsay and Wayne Burleigh were paired together behind the scrum. Manawatu, however, had an even bigger setback. It lost its star lineout forward Murray Rosenbrook, just before the game. Rosenbrook twisted an ankle as the forwards were practising their line-out drills outside their hotel.

This," in-fact, was a big plus for Canterbury as it took the line-outs, 22-11, thanks almost entirely to Andy Earl, who took just about every deep throw. With less ball from this source it is doubtful if Canterbury could have scraped two points from the game. In the first half in particular, Canterbury was very lethargic, the forwards were made to give a lot of ground and the backs never looked like putting matters right, in

spite of some excellent passes from Lindsay.

Given the amount of play Manawatu made in this first 40 minutes Canterbury was fortunate still to be within reach at 12-6 at the interval. Twice it was only desperate defending that stopped Manawatu picking up a second try. The deficit was quickly erased in the second spell when Joe Leota scored in the corner and Robbie Deans kicked an excellent conversion, but still Canterbury struggled to find its feet on going that invited its usual open, attacking style. Two handy penalty goals by Mark Finlay soon gave Manawatu a sixpoint lead again, and it was nearly nine points when the first fiveeighths, Ross McLeod, was only just astray with a drop kick. The game was into its final quarter when finally Canterbury managed to whip up a decent attack, and once again it was the man of the moment, Craig Green, who showed how.

From a ruck, Warwick Taylor and Deans contrived to give Green a little space. He still had three men to beat, but beat them he did and his try under the posts was about the only bright spot , in Canterbury’s ’ whole performance.

Green was playing his fifth game in eight days, and this/was his fifth try in the last four. He might well have scored a sixth and won the game for Canterbury, if the ball had been moved his way in the period immediately after his try.

But for the last 15 minutes it was Manawatu which was striving for the victory. It did all the attacking and there were some tense moments as McLeod and Finlay looked for victory through dropped goals.

Although not overjoyed with either Canterbury’s performance or the result, Mr Wyllie was less critical than he might have been. He congratulated Manawatu for playing well and blamed Canterbury’s almost total lack of rhythm on the game not being allowed to flow. He stopped short of criticising the referee, Murray Dombroski, of Taranaki, but in no way could he be held responsible. Canterbury’s inability to move the ball wide, which Mr Wyllie said he had told it to do, was its own fault.

Finlay was named “man of thd match” and apart from missing the odd touch he did not put a foot wrong, including a perfect record of five goals. However, so bad was Canterbury’s kicking that he was made to look good, never having any pressure put.on him. The young Manawatu backs ran with more zest than their opponents, and with Gary Knight setting a fine example the home side also outplayed Canterbury in the forwards everywhere but the lineouts.

Though his conversion of Leota’s try proved invaluable, Robbie Deans had a dismal day. He missed touch almost as often as he found it, lacked confidence under the high ball, and was slow to react in situations which begged for counterattacks. The other backs were not much better. Victor Simpson seemed more interested in propelling his opposite, lan Wood, into orbit than he was in creating chances for his wings, both of whom were sadly neglected. ,

For Canterbury, Joe Leota and Craig Green tries; Robbie Deans two conversions and two penalty goals. For Manawatu, Chris England a try; Mark Finlay a conversion and four penalty goals.