NEW BACK WAS PIVOT: WIN FOR BLAKETOWN

Greymouth Evening Star, 23 May 1949, Page 8

NEW BACK WAS PIVOT: WIN FOR BLAKETOWN

Though Blaketown failed to broach the Star defence, winning by three penalty goals to two tries, it fully deserved its victory, having a territorial advantage practically throughout. A large share of the credit for Blaketown’s win must go to J. Fraser, a former South Canterbury representative five-eighths, who gave a particularly bright display on making his debut in West Coast football. He filled a need for Blaketown, and with the forwards winning a big proportion of the scrums, he gave his outside backs plenty of opportunities. Selfishness by the three-quarters cost Blaketown scoring chances. The Star forwards gave an improved display against strong opposition, but the backs failed to function as a scoring combination, though solid defence by Blaketown was partly responsible for this. The game lacked pace until the final quarter-hour, when Star launched an all-out attack in an effort to make up the deficit. Spirited, bright, and fast play from then until full-time, with fortunes fluctuating, saved the game from being slightly disappointing as a spectacle.

Blaketown’s J. Fraser was the best back on the field, giving good service as a link on attack, while his backing-up on defence and his linekicking were of a high standard. The half-back, G. Richardson, fell little short of this standard, doing everything correctly from behind the scrum and being dangerous when he elected to go on his own. J. Goodall was an outstanding success as fullback. The Blaketown forwards did not play up to their fisual standard. K. Fisher and T. Malloy were among the best. J. Hagen and A. Panther were prominent on occasions only. Once again J. R. Steel gave a polished display as full-back for Star. Though, in actual full-back play, he had nothing on his opposite, Goodall, his enterprise on attack was a feature.

There was again two re-shuffles of the Star back-line during the game due to a weakness near the

scrum, and few backs played up to standard. N. Hopkins, who scored a brilliant try, arid L. McDougall were the most impressive. H. Dixon and G. Nelson were again the leaders of the Star pack, which played solidly, and’D. Brien and I. Antonievic also played well. s The teams were:—

Blaketown. —J. Goodall; J. Benyon, R. Morgan, K. Walsh; S. Stewart, J. Fraser; G. Richardson; D. McKendry, K. Fisher, T. Malloy, J. Dalgleish, J." Hagen, A. Panther, K. Tomlinson, Hunt/ Star.—J. R. Steel; R. W. Nelson, B. Haytbn, D. Steel; N. Hopkins, R. Scott; L. McDougall; D. Wilson, G. Stokes, J. Bingham, I. Antonievic, D. Brien, M. Wilson, H. H. Dixon, G. "W. Nelson. The referee was Mr A. Fong. Star altered its back-line for the second spell, Scott transferring to the risht wing and Hopkins moving to first five-eighths position. R. Morgan. Blaketown’s centre; changed places with K After S a'few minutes’ play Blaketown opened its account, Fraser goalmg from a penalty awarded about 30 yards out. The scores were evened, when Dixon dribbled through to the line where G. Nelson touched down only to miss an easy kick. Handling of the ball in a ruck gave Blaketown a chance in front of the posts and Goodall goaled, bringing the half time score to Blaketown 6, Star 3. Blaketown went further ahead in the second half when Hopkins was penalised for offside play and Goodall succeeded with an easy kick. An exciting try by Hopkins—one of the highlights of the match—brought Star’s score closer. He intercepted a pass to Fraser about half way, and, sprinting down the side-line, kicked over Goodall’s head to dive on the ball in the corner. G. Nelson’s kick missed. Star was unlucky not to score again in succeeding play, but Blaketown gradually repelled the attack and the game ended with the score: Blaketown 9, Star 6.

UNITED WAS NOT EQUAL TO TASK OF HOLDING COBDEN After the Cobden and United forward packs had shown themselves to be clearly superior to the other seven in the competition, keen interest was attached to their meeting in the second game at Rugby Park on Saturday. This interest was justified, as there was little between the packs, but the United backs failed to function at any stage like match-winners. The United backs were well fed with the ball, J. Moar more than holding his own with the West Coast hooker, B. Mettrick, though the extra solidity of the United pack gave him an advantage. The Cobden i side did not pack a well-balanced scrum. United, however, failed to show any thrust in the rearguard and much good work by the forwards went unrewarded.

Though they were beaten in certain sections of play, the Cobden forwards were dangerous throughout, and out-rucked United. The three “loose” forwards, M. Herrick, R. Thompson and A. McCone, all played outstanding games, and on their display would disgrace no representative pack. Herrick, in particular, showed top-class form. Besides J. Lindbom, who was again at the top of his form, R. Olsen and J. Steel played well in the Cobden backs, both breaking through the defence on occasions. Olsen’s try was a clever one. The young United breakaway, T. Mathieson, again played an outstanding game, and added to his tally by kicking a penalty goal that gave his side its only points. A. Glen, L. Richardson and F. Holmes were also prominent, the first two showing up particularly in line-out work. J. Gillan gave the United backs their thrust in the first half, but he failed to show up in the second half, when it was obvious that his condition was not equal to the demands of 80 minutes of play. D. McCarthy also gave good service at half-back.

The teams were: — United.—D. Tucker; J. Anderson, B. Welsh, W. Leitch; J. Gillan, J. Robertson; D. McCarthy; L. Richardson, J. Moar, F. Holmes; W. Hill, G. Paul, A. Glen, T. Mathieson, J. Thompson. T , T Cobden. —J. Lindbom; J. Steel, J. McKenzie, N. Parker; J. De Goldi, R. Olsen; E. Colville; T. Williams, B. Mettrick, A. -Krakosky, M. Herrick, R. Harrington, H. Mettrick, A. McCone, T. Thompson. The referee was Mr J. B. Hogarth. Though the United forwards did the better in the first half, Cobden scored its only three tries in this period, N. Parker, R. Olsen and J. McKenzie touching down, for Lindbom to convert two. Mathieson kicked a penalty for United, bringing the half-time score to Cobden 13, United 3. In the second spell, Lindbom kicked two penalty goals for Cobden, to advance its score to Cobden 19, United 3, which was the final total.

HOKITIKA TEAMS HAVE FIRST WINS

The only teams in the :senior chamricnshin competition which had tailed to record a success this year, Kiwi and Kokatahi won on Saturday at the expense of Excelsior and St Mary s respectively. Though Excelsior had not been a strong force this season St Mary’s had shown distinct promise. These reverses now place the four Hokitika teams at the bottom of the P °ln S the d pTiiicipal match, Kiwi beat Excelsior by 13 points to nine. R. Stoop scored 10 of the points with a try, a goal from a penalty and two conversions. The other try was scored by A. Thomas. J. Smith scored a try for Excelsior and A. Wallace kicked two match, Kokatahi showed in its first game away from home that its forwards were a force to be contended with. St Mary’s was decisively beaten by 17 points to six. W. Amberger scored two tries for Kokatahi H. Deidrichs and R. Moore scoring others while L. Cron converted one and kicked a goal from a penalty. P. Nutting kicked two penalty goals for St Mary’s. INANGAHUA MATCHES

Matches played in the Inangahua Rugby Sub-union competition yesterday, resulted as follows: —Cronadun 14, Waiuta 9; Junction 14, Combined 9; Ikamatua A 6, Ikamatua B 3.