Canty seeks morale boosting victory

Press, 24 September 1988, Page 96

Canty seeks morale boosting victory

By

BOB SCHUMACHER

For a stack of reasons, not the least being a confidence-builder for an important engagement at Eden Park on October 1, Canterbury would want to finish its home rugby programme this season with a win against Counties at Lancaster Park today.

Victory would give Canterbury its sixth national championship first division win this season, an improvement of one on last year, and it would guarantee it a final placing in the top five regardless of what happens at Eden Park in the match which the Canterbury coach, Doug Bruce, is hesitant to discuss until after today’s fixture. While a win by whatever margin is very much the priority for Canterbury, a stylish display and a decisive result would be welcome extras in light of the upcoming match against Auckland. Canterbury has had the better of Counties in the last five contests and last year its 32-17 win at Pukekohe represented its best play performance in the national championship series. In 1983 Canterbury won 37-3 at Pukekohe and it had 25 points to spare at Lancaster Park two years ago. For all that, Counties can be extremely hard to hold in check when the mood takes it as Auckland and Wellington discovered earlier this season. Auckland won, 18-7, but Wellington was desperately lucky to squeeze home, 19-18. Counties has an outstanding attacking fullback in Lindsay Raki and the five-eighths, Sean Lineen and the teenager, Carl Murray, have flair if given freedom. But the visiting team will be missing two vastly experienced backs, the wing, Robert Kururangi, and the halfback, Mark Moore, a

enced Counties rearguard easier to penetrate. On the right wing, Mark Vincent, Canterbury’s leading try-scorer, will hope he is not left out in the cold as he was against Otago. The Counties coach, John Hughes, is optimistic of winning one of the two championship matches on the southern tour, but as a player himself on similar trips he is aware of the difficulty in achieving a victory against either Canterbury or Otago. “It will be a good experience and the three or four players who have been down before will lend their knowledge to the newcomers. I am hoping we will be very competitive, we got a bit of a bath at Lancaster Park two years ago.” Mr Hughes said that the team was as well prepared as possible but in the final analysis it was up to the players themselves on the day. “We will be looking for a win but if that is not possible we don’t want to be embarrassed.” For a variety of reasons, Counties has not been able to field the same players consistently and that had proved something of a hiccup according to Mr Hughes. “But we have come together well in the last three weeks, training has been excellent and there is commitment there now which I felt was missing earlier in the season.” Although Counties has experienced rugby’s vicissitudes this season, Mr

Hughes said that there had been only two real disappointments — “losses to Bay of Plenty and Waikato, teams which I thought we might have beaten beforehand.” While admitting it was an exercise of futility, Mr Hughes said that had Counties beaten those two teams it would have been third on the points table at present instead of seventh — “there is only a fine line in it.” Like Canterbury, Counties has suffered through a lack of consistency. “The backs have gone not too badly at times and the forwards have progressed nicely but we have not had the consistency,” Mr Hughes said. “But that is understandable when you realise 10 or 11 of the guys have just earned their blazers. You have got to have 40 or 50 games behind you before you have that experience and consistency which comes with it. We are building towards it.” The teams are: Canterbury: Shayne Philpott; Mark Vincent, Andrew McCormick, Andrew Simcock; Warwick Taylor, Stephen Bachop; Bruce Deans; Andy Earl; Stephen Dods, Albert Anderson (captain), Grant Mickell, Robin Penney; Tala Kele, John Buchan, Brent Harvey. Counties: Lindsay Raki; Grant Nolan, Garry Millington, Richard Cole; Sean Linnen, Carl Murray; Gary Thomas; Errol Brain; Brett Bedwell, Paul Tuoro, Terry Reardon, Te Rau Clarke; Henry Maxwell (captain), John Smythe, Tom Parsons. Referee: Mr Colin Hawke (South Canterbury).

veteran of more than 100 games for his province. Both were not available for the South Island tour and the robust No. 8, Alan Dawson, whose appearances for Counties now number 192, will be among the reserves for today’s game, allowing the promising New Zealand colt, Errol Brain, to pack down at the back of the scrum. The Canterbury forwards have seldom been bettered in line-out play this season and the control in the mauls has been encouraging. The return of Stephen Dods should bring a higher quantity of second-phase ball and gives Canterbury a player to support the thrusts of Andy Earl from scrums. Although Canterbury’s back attacks were thwarted by an Otago defence which was full of fiesty defiance last Saturday, Canterbury might well find the less experi-