Canterbury faces tough adversary

Press, 12 May 1987, Page 64

Canterbury faces tough adversary

By

JOHN COFFEY

\ Victory over Wellington at the Addingtyn Show Grounds this evening is vital to Canterbury’s prospects of reaching a third consecutive national rugby league interprovincial championship final. \

But Wellington appears to have, most of the advantages, leading up to a, matcn\which should decide the outcome of the southern tone qualifying series. \ The old ho\je-and-away format has replaced this season by \ series of one-off games \involving Canterbury, Wellington and West Coast Recent form suggests ttat tonight’s successful sid*. will advance to the natioaal final on June 28.

The Canterbury coach, Ray Haffenden, said yesterday he was expecting a big improvement from his team as it seeks to overturn a 14-point loss to Wellington at Lower Hutt last month. Apart from home venue, however, Canterbury does not have much in its favour.

Injuries have cost Mr Haffenden the services of four members of the squad which toured the North Island, and one of his second-row forwards, Gary Leek, will make his first-class debut without having had an opportunity of training with the team. In contrast, Mr Haffendean believes Wellington will be strengthened by the return of James Paikea to stand-off half. Most of the Wellington players are drawn from the powerful Upper Hutt and Randwick clubs which were not required to play competition matches last week-end. “Even with John Green and Ron Simanu out of the forwards I would rate us an even chance,” said Mr Haffenden yesterday. “I feel the attitude is there and that the players can lift themselves suffi-

ciently on their own paddock.” \ ,: I

Mr Haflendean is confident that the youthful Eastern Suburbs centre, Vince McCue, will perform creditably at fullback, and that Leek will adjust to the requirements of a higher level of football.

“McCue played at fullback as a replacement on the northern tour, and has been there at odd times for his club. He is pretty keen to do well, is quick, and is capable of'following the plan to run as often as possible. , “I’ve talked to Gary (Leek) on the phone, and he has a good understanding of what it is all about. We were looking for another forward able to take the ball up and he has been In very good club form,” said Mr Haffenden.

Wellington has won at the Show Grounds only once since 1977, but it must rate its prospects highly on this occasion.

Its coach, Howie Tamati — himself an importfrom Taranaki — has moulded his “united nations Hnto an effective force. At its most recent appearance Wellington severely tested Auckland before falling behind over the last: few minutes.

The New Zealand selectors will be taking a keen interest in the displays of five Kiwi forwards, Adrian Shelford, Barry Harvey and Sam Stewart (Wellington) and Wayne Wallace and Ross Taylor (Canterbury) as they search for talent to rebuild the test pack. ( Young centres have attracted much attention in representative rugby league this winter. Kevin Iro (Auckland) is obviously an exciting prospect, and tonight two other Junior Kiwis, Tony Kemp (Wellington) and Andrew Vincent (Canterbury), are in direct competition for future promotion.

The curtain raiser will be between Hillmorton and Hornby high schools in “The Press” high schools championship.

Teams for the main game are.—-

Canterbury: Vince McCue, Harry Tipene, Steve Campbell, Andrew Vincent, Steve Mather; Phil Bancroft, Brendon Tuuta; Russell Tuuta, Gary McLauchlan, Ross Taylor; Gary Leek, Esene Faimalo; Wayne Wallace. Reserves: Phil Cross, Mark Frame.

...Wellington: George Lajpold; Victor Aramoana, . Tony Kemp, Junior Rea, Mike Stockdill; James Paikea, Geoff Tangira; Kelly Makaore, Barry Harvey, Adrian Shelford; Sam Stewart, lona Sakaria; Mike Kultl. Reserves: Poko Daniels, Cia Pue.