Canty atones for recent failures

Press, 24 September 1987, Page 52

Canty atones for recent failures

Canterbury partly atoned for some recent disappointing performances by easily beating Counties, 32-17, yesterday at Pukekohe.

Canterbury had to show some character before achieving what was to be a comfortable National Mutual first division championship rugby win. It was down, 10-3, after 20 minutes of limp tackling had allowed Counties to set up a try for the vigorous No. 8, Alan Dawson, and the fullback, Lindsay Raki, kicked two penalties. Andy Earl — perhaps Canterbury’s player of the day — then began to dominate the lineouts with some excellent twohanded takes and was helped by Albert Anderson and Grant Mickell. So dominant did these three become that Counties struggled to win

lineout ball for most of the match and the 17-8 lineout count was flattering to Counties because much of its ball was taken in the final quarter when the game was as good as won. Armed with good ball, the Canterbury backs produced a slick try to the winger, Mark Vincent, after the fullback, Shayne Philpott, ran on to a long “miss” pass thrown by Wayne Burleigh. Six minutes later Earl scored a good pushover try and Canterbury was ahead 18-13, at half-time. It sealed the match in the first 15 minutes of the second half when a quick throw-in by the captain, John Buchan, saw Ander-

son crash over from an attacking lineout. The best try of the day came when Canterbury won a defensive ruck deep in its own territory and swung the ball sweetly through the backs. Vincent beat two or three woeful Counties tackles and found Buchan storming up the middle of the field. The chunky hooker scored under the bar to virtually seal the match at 28-13. The teams went on to score a try each in the remaining minutes but it was a pretty forlorn game by then with both sides going through the motions and making errors by the bucketful.

Counties was a big disappointment. Dawson never stopped working and the second fiveeighths, Sean Llneen, made the most of his limited opportunities. But they were always under the thumb of the Canterbury pack after that first 20 minutes. The Canterbury flanker, Stephen Dods, also dominated in the loose and the backs ran without conviction. Canterbury 32 (M. Vincent, A. Earl, A. Anderson, J. Buchan, D. Ellis tries: W. Philpott 3 con. pen: S. Bachop dropped goal), Counties 17 (A. Dawson, M. Moore tries: L. Raki 3 pen). Half-time: Canterbury 18-13.