Otago hands out hiding

Press, 24 August 1988, Page 72

Otago hands out hiding

PA Dunedin Otago put on another fine display of team rugby yesterday, beating Taranaki, 52-20, before a crowd of 7000 at Carisbrook. Otago took a 28-6 lead after the home team showed lessons in good rucking and mauling in the first half. The first try resulted from a pushover scrum by the No. 8, Brent Pope, after just 3min. John Tlmu, the new star wing, was next to score after he brilliantly picked up a wide 8m pass by the second fiveeighths, Arthur Stone. It was Timu’s fourteenth try of the season, one behind the previous record set by Bill Meates 40 years ago. The flanker, Paul Henderson’s, first try really opened the floodgates when he scored in the thirtieth minute. In the next lOmin, 19 points were scored at a furious rate, which included a penalty to Taranaki’s fullback, Kelvin Mahon. Kieran Crowley was unavailable to play owing to a hamstring injury. Pope again opened the scoring when the second half began, giving him 10 for the season. Twelve minutes later Dean Kenny — later named “player of the match” — scored a surprise dropped goal right on Taranaki’s goal line. Henderson made it personal try No. 3 smin later when he crashed over from a maul, which set the crowd alight with the score 39-6. The best try of the match came a few minutes later after a superb driving effort by both backs and forwards found their way 80m up the field. Kenny was the scorer which also gave him 101 points, since he first started with Otago in 1981. Scorers:— Otago 52 (Paul Henderson 2, Noel Pilcher 2, Brent Pope 2, John Tlmu, Dean Kenny tries; Kenny dropped goal, Greg Cooper 4 conversions, 3 penalties). Taranaki 20 (Alan Crowley, Warren Bunn and Lyall Bunn tries; Kelvin Mahon conversion, 1 penalty goal, Chris Sutton dropped goal). Half-time: 286.