RUGBY LEAGUE Knock-out Final Was An Outstanding Game

Greymouth Evening Star, 30 September 1949, Page 4 (Supplement)

RUGBY LEAGUE Knock-out Final Was An Outstanding Game

Although many of the players are showing signs of staleness after a long and strenuous season, the final of. the senior knock-out competition at Wingham Park last Sunday was in many ways an outstanding game.

In the first spell there was no hint of the good things to come and it appeared that it, was to be just another average club fixture' on a bad ground. After the interval, however, tactics and the whole tenor of the game underwent a complete change, and not only did it provide the most exciting finish of the season, but also some of the best wet-ground football.

From one viewpoint, the drawn result was a good one, as Runanga’s advantage in the first spell was just as marked as Blackkball’s later but it was just sheer bad luck which robbed Blackball of an outright win during the extra time which was played.\All of the three field goals which were attempted by Blackball, in desperation when both teams were tired out, were good ones and young J. Oliver was most unlucky to have the ball bounce back infield after striking the upright above the bar. Had the ball bounced the other way, Oliver would have been the hero of the match and for a young player he certainly showed commendable initiative in attempting to break the stalemate. Newton’s Big Week The real hero of the game, however, was the Runanga captain, J. Newton —not so much for the game which he played but for the fact that he was there at all. It was his fourth game in eight days, including a Test and two international fixtures, and as a result of this gruelling, coupled with the hard ground experienced in Christchurch last Saturday, he was liberally covered with sticking plaster, from ankles to thighs. It was a sporting gesture on his part to take the field under the circumstances and he was one player who could not be blamed for declining to face the ad-., ditional ten minutes of extra time which had been decreed. I Both teams drew heavily on substitutes for the match and one pleasing feature was the good displays put up by some of the promoted players.

R. Gibb (on the wing for Runanga), and J. Oliver (in a similar position for Blackball) were two who did well with limited opportunities. T. Menzies. Prominent There is no more improved player in the senior grade this season than the Runanga winger, T. Menzies, who is a brother of the South Island back, G. Menzies. He is rather lightly built but he infuses plenty of dash into his play and the two tries which he scored on Sunday were excellent efforts. The manner in which he scooped up a “dead” ball for the second was, in fact, one of the highlights of the game. After a bright start, the Runanga team faded but the change in the complexion, of the game came more from the decision of the Blackball team to throw the ball about and over the last half hour, it kept Runanga “on the run.” There was an object lesson for all teams in the resuit of this policy.