Coach happy in spite of league loss

Press, 31 July 1989, Page 36

Coach happy in spite of league loss

Special correspondent

Canterbury’s rugby league coach, Frank Endacott, was inspired by the positive aspects which were evident in his team’s 18-20 loss to Wellington at the Basin Reserve yesterday.

“I’m disappointed that we lost the game and I know the guys feel we blew it. However, I was pleased with the amount of scoring opportunities we created. “The good thing was that we attacked — when you do that you tend to make mistakes. This is a young team and I think we showed enough for next year,” Mr Endacott said. “It was actually a bit like fishing. We caught the salmon but didn’t get it on the bank.”. Canterbury’s whole game plan seemed to be based around attack and at one stage it looked like Wellington was going to be blasted off the field. Canterbury was doing the basics with intense commitment. Its props, Russell Tuuta and Stuart Simcott, were making big ground while Logan Edwards, Gary Leek and Wayne Wallace were running wider and linking up with the backs. Edwards’ defensive work was significant while Wallace showed the national selectors who were present that he can slip a pass as well as any second-rower in the country. Wider out Canterbury was giving Wellington numerous problems, especially Jason Williams who beat his marker twice within the first nine minutes. It took only another six minutes for Canterbury to

score with Williams and Mike Doreen combining in a break which started from broken play to put the standoff, Mark Nixon, in for the first of his two tries. Nixon, who was based at Canberra this season on the rookie scheme, showed Wellingtonians just how much he has improved. He teased Wellington’s defensive pattern ’ with deft kicks or crafty switches of play. Although Canterbury scored two more tries in the first half, through Nixon and Doreen, it botched at least another four through dropped passes. And while Canterbury seemed on a roll, it took Wellington 30 minutes to play the ball outside its own half. None of the

Wellington forwards were given any room to run as Canterbury’s tacklers hunted as a pack. The Wellington secondrower, Sonny Whakarau, - grabbed some respectability for his team with a try shortly before half-time. However, Canterbury failed to dominate most phases in the second spell and Wellington lifted its workrate dramatically. Mr Endacott said he could have replaced at least four players at halftime through injuries sustained, and he maintained this was the main reason his team went off the boil in the second spell. “We lost Simcott at half-time — he was the best player on the field in the first half. Then Carl Hall pulled a hamstring, Williams had a knee problem, and Glen Moore suffered a head injury. “We had a lot of passengers out there in the second half and we lost the initiative.” After tries for Wellington by the lock, Kuiti and the wing, Dave Ewe, the score was tied. In the latter stages Wellington’s George Lajpold kicked the winning points when Nixon was penalised for a marginally high tackle on Ewe. Canterbury’s best chance of scoring in the second spell was when Wallace narrowly missed out on touching down from a fumbled kick which bounced into dead ball.