Crucial rugby match

Press, 3 June 1989, Page 12

Crucial rugby match

By

BOB SCHUMACHER

Forget what happened in the first round was the message delivered yesterday by the Shirley and Linwood coaches, Graeme Pulley and Ray Southam, respectively, as their teams prepared for a crucial contest in the Trust Bank Cup senior rugby competition at Lancaster Park South this afternoon. The two teams are level at the top of the table going into today’s round and the winner, provided the match does not end in a draw, will assume favouritism for the cup which belongs to Shirley at present. Mr Pulley and the Shirley team will be well aware that Linwood almost denied them the cup last season. Unbeaten

after 13 rounds in the roundrobin competition, Shirley came to grief at Linwood’s hurdle and it was only Linwood’s loss to High School Old Boys in the final round which allowed Shirley to take the cup for the first time. Snirley avenged last season’s loss to Linwood with a comprehensive 49-27 in the first round when both teams were close to full strength as the South Pacific championship had not started. “I think this game could hold the key to the cup,” Mr Pulley said yesterday. "Marist has proved conclusively that first round scores count for nothing (the previously all-conquering Marist has been held to two draws in the

cup rounds) and it is a different ball game now that the South Pacific championship is over.” Mr Pulley said that it was also advantageous to have the first five-eighths, Colin Williamson, back from overseas. “Apart from being a general of the backline he is a top goal-kicker, and when he was away so was our other goal-kicker, Gavin Hill, with the Canterbury team,” Mr Pulley, himself a former stalwart of the Shirley front row, came into his own when winter conditions were at their worst and he joked that he might play at first five-eighths today because of the heavy ground — “it brings us all down to the same speed.”