Runanga Had Close Call: Ngahere’s Good Recovery

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 August 1948, Page 8

Runanga Had Close Call: Ngahere’s Good Recovery

An excellent recovery by Ngahere. when it appeared that Runanga might have an easy victory, was the feature ol the principal match at Wingham Pari; yesterday. After being 10 points down'at the interval, Ngahere fought back gamely and in the end was a little unlucky, on the run of the play, to go under by 10 points to eight. Most of the football was not of a high standard, but it was rugged and fairly fast and the tense struggle in the second spell lilted the game above the mediocre. Runanga disappointed, in that the backs failed to exploit their advantage in pace and combination, but Ngahere, playing more as individuals, did well. If Runanga had not scored two converted tries early in the game, it would have been in a bad position as Ngahere finished on and did most of the attacking in the second spell. Penalties Missed Lack of an accurate, long goalkicker possibly cost Ngahere the game as it had at least half a dozen chances of adding to its tally from penalties but not one was turned to account. Gillman kicked well, but jailed to secure sufficient length. An outstanding game was played by the big Ngahere forward, W. McLennan. He was always on the ball and both on attack and defence it was probably his best game for the season. F. Mulcare showed promise in the forwards until injury caused the retirement of J. Gibson and he was compelled to go out into the backs. D. McVicar also showed up in the hard-working Ngahere pack. The Runanga forwards shortpassed better than their opponents, but in other departments they were well matched by the Ngahere pack. The most effective were probably F. Thompson, R. Baxendale and L. Giles. (J. Higson and A. McTaggart were ,both on the sideline, through injuries). At times, the Runanga backs were excellent, but generally speaking there was too much mishandling and cross-field running. Thomas was less sure in his handling than usual and R. Forrest, though he made several good runs, also lost opportunities through dropped passes. The best; of the backs were probably J. Soster, i G. Menzies, L. Sweetman and J. Cur-i lag’ll, although the last named lost • chances by being prone to get ahead | /of his inside players. As a whole, the Ngahere back line did not impress, but there was some good individualistic work. A. Gibson was a sound lull-back and A. Bernard played a good all-round game. Reid and McLaughlin also got through some useful work but Manson was not up to his best form, apart from his kicking.. 'l’he teams were as follows:—

Runanga: J. Soster: J. Forrest, R. Forrest, J. Curragh; M. Thomas, G. Menzies; L. Sweetman; R. Baxendale, L. Giles, R. Braithwaite, F. Thompson, T. Merriman, J. Newton. Nahere: A. Gibson; P. Richards, A. Bernard, H. Reid; J. Gibson, C. Manson; M. McLaughlin; F. Mulcare, W. McLennan, J. Kirwan, D. McVicar ; J. McLaughlin, D. Gillman. Scoring Movements

After only 10 minutes play, J. Gibson received a cut on the head and was replaced by T. compelling Ngahere to reorganise its team. F. Millcare took the second five-eighths position and McLennan moved from the second row to the back of the scrum and Dillon went into the second row; Not long after this change, J. Forrest opened a Runanga passing movement and when Thompson changed the direction of the attack, backs and forwards joined'in an excellent bout of short-passing, for Newton to touch down in a handy position. Soster converted. The second Runanga try was more spectacular. From a scrum just inside half way, Sweetman sent on to Menzies and the latter cut through cleanly between the fiveeighths. running over 40 yards to score between the posts. Soster again converted, making the half-time score. Runanga 10, Ngahere nil. The complexion of the game changed after a little over 10 minutes in the second spell. A good run by Reid put Ngahere on attack and after McLennan had been held up almost on the goal line, McVicar secured in a ruck and dived over for Ngahere’s first try, which Gillman failed to convert. Ngahere continued to attack and McLennan dived through a five-yard scrum to score a good try well out. Gillman again failed to convert. Ngahere again returned to the attack and when Soster was penalised for a play-the-ball infringement near his own goal,