PETONE V. WELLINGTON

Evening Post, Issue 11, 13 July 1936, Page 14

PETONE V. WELLINGTON

~ Although Petone suffered defeat at the hands of Wellington in the first round of the club championship," the tables were turned'on Saturday at the petone Oval. The improvement which petone have shown in their play during the past few weeks was maintained, and Wellington were outplayed back and forward. Playing hard rugged football, with their backs ml traducing plenty of sparkle into their movements. Petone ran up a five-point lead at the interval. Wellington, during the second spell, made desperate efforts to make up the leeway, but the task proved to be)beyond them. The Wellington forwards gave their customary solid display, but their inability to obtain the ball from the set scrummages—at least, not to any appreciable extent—severely handicapped their backs. The teams were:— Petone.—Pollock; McGurk, Hudson: Thomas; A. Edwards, N. EdwardsO'Halloran; Sundgren, Clayton, Martin, Abrim, Carter, Mitchell, Cleland. Wellington. — Morgan; Edwards, Kelly, Patterson; 'Trapp, Veitch; Richardson; Dimes, Bracken, Clay, McLean, Fraser-Smith, Carlyon, Bell, Coupland; : ' Petone, who kicked off with the sun behind them, initiated several strong attacks, and the Wellington defence was subjected to a rigorous test. Early indications were that points would be hard to collect. Kicking for the line with every opportunity the Wellington backs quickly brought relief, and after a period of hard forward play a penalty gave Wellington a chance to open the account. Morgan kicked a good goal. 3-0. Atlhough Wellington were awarded several more penalty kicks they were unable to' improve their position, and just when the game gave promise of ..becoming monotonous a dropped pass by a Wellington back enabled Thomas, playing on the wing for Petone, to stage a sparkling piece of play. He snapped up the leather, and after speeding down the line, passed infield to A.. Edwards, who ran behind the posts for Petone's first score. Pollock. converted.. 5-3. Having gained the lead Petone played with much more confidence. Securing from 'a scrum O'Halloran sent out a long pass, and Pollock, running up fast, gathered the ball in. With McGurk in support, he dummied would-be tacklers and with only the full-back to beat it was expected that he would transfer to McGurk. However, he swerved,

and, passing Morgan, scored in a handy position. He failed with the kick. The naif-time score was 8-3.

After the interval, play was resumed at a fast cli», and once again Wellington found themselves in their own quarter. Deadly tackling, however, averted any immediate score, but the Petone backs seemed determined to break through. Time and again O'Halloran supplied them with the ball, and eventually N. Edwards found an opening. Outpacing his opponents he carried the ball deep into Wellington territory, where O'Halloran and A. Edwards carried on. When within an ace of scoring A. Edwards was strongly tackled, and, as from nowhere. Carter appeared to snap up and touch down practically under the posts. Pollock converted. 13-3. The handling by the Wellington backs was weak, and many likely-chances went astray as a result. However, their forwards battled away, and they were rewarded when Coupland scored. 13-6. The respite was of only temporary duration though, and from a melee on Wellington's line O'Halloran dived across. Pollock again converted. 18-6. Shortly before the final whistle the Wellington backs all handled in a smart movement, and Patterson scored a wellearned try. Morgan, with an excellent kick, converted. In the closing stages Petone hammered away at the defence, but they could not. improve their position, and .the game ended with the score: Petone 18, Wellington 11. The referee was Mr. A. de Clifton.