Canterbury owes debt to Philpott

Press, 3 September 1986, Page 60

Canterbury owes debt to Philpott

By

Kevin McMenamin

in Whangarei

Canterbury set itself up for a top-of-the-table clash with Wellington on Sunday when it won its National Mutual first division rugby match against North Auckland, 21-7, at Okara Park yesterday.

However, while the victory was decisive enough, and never really in doubt, this was a hard and bruising game for Canterbury. It was made to do a lot of defending, especially in the second spell, and it was very much in the debt of its young fullback, Shayne Philpott, for keeping North Auckland at arm’s length. Philpott, aged 20, was playing his first game for Canterbury and it began sensationally for him. Less than two minutes had passed before he had to make a try-saving tackle on the powerful left wing, Fred Woodman. Thirty seconds later Philpott faced another emergency. With the sun in his eyes he had to take a difficult high ball which was swirling in the wind. He took it, on his finger tips, and with a big kick found touch. It was |n the second spell, though, that the nuggety Philpott showed that the confidence Alex Wyllie placed in him was not misjudged. Twice he was a lonely figure as Woodman, again, and then Charles Going, who is no lightweight either, blazed a path towards him. In he came both times and dropped them with copybook tackles. Then, for good measure, he bowled over a forward, Don Stevenson, to kill a dangerous move. Shades, indeed, of Fergie McCormick. There were some other neat touches, too, to Philpott’s game, like when he pulled down a little kick by Woodman, in the clear again, and started a strong counter-attack. Still, he made the odd mistake, although he was not alone in this regard. Canterbury began like it was going to run up 40 points. Apart from the line-outs, where it could not win a ball for nearly 20 minutes, it was most impressive. The forwards

drove and supported each other in fine style, and the backs also had plenty of dash. After nine minutes a set move from a scrum worked perfectly and Warwick Taylor capped it with a huge sidestep which took him inside the full-back and on to the posts. Robbie Deans added the conversion and soon after kicked an easy penalty goal. The Canterbury forwards, who by this time had figured out a way to counter the big North Auckland lock, Michael Speight, in the line-outs, appeared to have the game totally under control and after a string of scrums close to the line Dale Atkins finally managed to force his way over. But with 10 minutes of the first half to go, North Auckland suddenly sprang to life. They started moving the ball through their robust backline and just before the interval Charles Going forced a breach which took him all the way to the line. The try was unconverted, leaving Canterbury reasonably placed at 13-4 up at halftime. The- lead was increased when Craig Green scored his customary try five minutes after the restart. It was a somewhat lucky try, as the movement started when a quick throw-in near half-way went sour on North Auckland. Stephen Bachop ran 40m, with a tattered defence trying to guess when he was going to pass to Green outside him. He did, so some eight metres out, close enough for Green to be unstoppable even though he had to break through a tackle. For the next 30 minutes, though, Canterbury was made to do an awful lot of running after the North Auckland backs, and harder still

was trying to put them down. Philpott saved some red faces among his colleagues, and even class tacklers like Taylor and Victor Simpson were tossed aside ait North Auckland punched hard through the midfield. But all North Auckland managed for its efforts was a penalty goal and Canterbury came back to score its fourth try almost on full-time. Scrum ball was carried close to the line and when it rolled clear Bruce Deans took it the last metre. Unfortunately for Philpott he could not top a memorable debut by kicking the final conversion. Even if the score was acceptable, there were undoubted weaknesses in Canterbury’s game. It faltered badly again in the line-outs in the second spell and at the finish trailed 13-23 in this count. And basic errors, especially in handling, made it doubly difficult for the forwards to regain their early grip. Atkins had an excellent first half, but appeared to run out of steam in the second spell, although he was not the only Canterbury forward who found the pace a bit hot. John Mills, who grabbed the only tighthead, lasted better than most, while John McCaw did what he could to help his shoulder-sore backs. Bachop had a polished game at first five-eighths, and he ran with more confidence than he has in previous games. But the others were fairly ordinary, certainly much inferior to their opposites in the running, passing game. Scorers: Canterbury 21 (D. Atkins, C. Green, W. Taylor, B. Deans tries; Deans, penalty goal, conversion) North Auckland 7 (C. Going try; W. Johnston penalty goal). Half time 13-4.