RUGBY FOOTBALL

Grey River Argus, 30 August 1937, Page 2

RUGBY FOOTBALL

STARS DEFEAT UNITED Blaketown and Cobden Win Weather conditions were ideal for the continuation of the West Coast Rugby Union’s competition on Saturday. ‘ Keen interest centred in the match between Stars ana United (the competition leaders), the principal game at Rugby Park. Stars proved too strong for United, winning convincingly by 15 points to three. Blaketown improved their position on the senior ladder by defeating Celtic. Cobden defeated Kiwis at Hokitika, and Pirates easily accounted for Excelsiors. Kumara defaulted to Ross.

RESULTS AT A GLANCE. Senior: Star 15 United 3. Blaketown 11 Celtic 3. cobden 16 Kiwi 7. Pirates 19 Excelsiors 3. Kumara defaulted to Ross. Junior: Celtic 5 Blaketown 0. Star- defaulted to Te Kinga. United defaulted to Cobden. Third Grade: Star 17 United 3. Cobden 6 Blaketown 6. Technical defaulted to Celtic. POSITION OF TEAMS.

STAR v. UNITED. There was a good attendance at Rugby Park to witness the clash between Star and United seniors, in what was virtually the final of the West Coast Rugby Union’s senior championship. The weather was fine and sunny, and the ground was in good order. Stars recorded a comfortable victory, in lowering the colours of the competition leaders to take the lead by one point, from United. The score, 15 to 3, was a good indication of the respective merits of the two teams. The play in the first spell was fairly even, and the score at the interval was 6 to 3 in favour of Stars. The forwards were evenly matched, and it was in the backs that Stars showed a definite superiority. But for the occasional bright passing' movement of the Star backs, the game would have simply been a dour forward tussle. Outstanding as an attacking force and also on defence,’ was W. Mann, Star second five-eighth, but he was well supported by all the other Star backs. L. Martyn played a great game at full-back for Stars. His handling, kicking and positional play was most impressive, whilst he also kicked a penalty and scored. His try, although a lucky one, was tne result of fast following up, and when he smothered the opposing full-back’s clearing kick it rebounded off him, and he had a clear field ahead to go over and score. B. Stuart was the pick of the Star was best supported by H. Bailey and R. Peggie. A. Glen, United lock, was the outstanding forward on the field. W. Vincent played a sound game at centre for United, as did J. Costello, at five-eighth. United were without the services 01 G. Gilbert and S. Hendry’s retirement early in the game through injury was a keen loss. The teams lined out as follows:— Star: L., Martyn; R. Logie, J. Noonan, M. Connolly; W. Mann, A. Murphy; D. Innes; H. Bailey, W. Buchanan, R. Peggie, H. Dowling, B. Stuart, J. Hammond, G. Long, T. Learmont.

United: P. Garde; E. Kibble, W. Vincent, D. Caldwell; J. Costello, S. Hendry; N. Adams; Whibley, Grooby, Daly, Hopkinson, Rose, Dixon, Blair. Play had been in progress for about ten minutes with Sfcirs on attack for the greater part, when Martyn landed a neat penalty from near the sideline. —Star 3; United 0.

United equalised shortly afterwards when from a serum at Stars’ 25 Adams worked the blina side. He passed to Hendry, to Vincent, and he sent Caldwell crashing over at the corner after a determined run down the sideline. Adams failed to convert. —United 3; Star 3. Hendry was compelled to retire with an injury to his knee and was replacea by D. Rathbun, who went to full-back and Garde was shifted up to Hendry’s position. Star backs handled in a fine passing movement, but Vincent nipped in with an intercept near the line and cleareai From a line-out near the United 25 Innes despatched Connolly and Mann. When tackled Mann handed on to Noonan, who was over for a good try wide out. Martyn failed to goal.—Star 6; United 3.

Rathbun injured his shoulder in tackling Stuart, and was replaced by Leitch, who went to five-eighth, and Garde came back to the fullback position. Half-time was soon after sounded. Early in the second spell Long went off and was replaced by Hynes. When Martyn followed up a high kick through to Garde, the clearing kick struck him and re-bounded, and he diver over the line for a simple try, but failed to convert. —Star 9; United 3.

From a line-out at United’s 25 a few minutes later, Innes sent out to Murphy, to Mann, and then to Connolly, and the winger clapped on a remarkable turn oi speed to score at the corner. Martyn’s kick went wide. —Star 12; United 3. When Garde failed to gatner the ball in, Bailey and Connolly were .away in a dash to the line, but Vincent nipped in cleverly and saved. Soon after a kick by Murphy rebounoed into Noonan’s arms of a United player and he clapped on the pace to score a second try near the corner. Dowling’s kick was just wide. The final whistle sounded soon afterward*. Mr C. H. Hoskins was referee. BLAKETOWN v. CELTIC. Blaketown and Celtic seniors met on the No. 2 ground at Rugby Park, and after a hard-fought and even game, Blaketown ran out winners by 11 points to 3. It was mainly a forward game, but the Celtic backs staged several snappy back movements, which were deserving of better re-

suits. Blaketown led by eight points to nil at half-time. M. Olsen scored two tries for Blaketown, whilst Pascoe converted one and kicked a penalty. J. O’Connell scored for Celtic. Mr W. Rapley was referee. COBDEN DEFEAT KIWI. A moderate attendance at Cass Square on Saturday was treated to an interesting game by Cobden and Kiwi teams, but the visitors’ forwards had an ascendancy whicn gave them victory by 16 to 7. Kiwis were early on attack, Garden making an opening for Roberts to score after seven minutes. Cobden then came away, out McHugh started a passing run. Staines relieved. More Kiwi passing, in which Roberts knocked on, followed, until it was intercepted. F. West stayed Cobden’s progress. When they came on again, McHugh got in a useful kick. Good forward work was being done by Matterson. Kiely dodged clean through Kiwis, but nobody supported him. Cobden pressed, until Kiely, securing from a scrum, beat a man, passing to Lindbom, whose pass Vaughan did not cleanly take, though ne recovered the ball to score near the posts, Kiely converting. Kiwis soon after were relieved by a penalty for obstruction on their line. Then Lindbom put over a fine goal from tne side line from a penalty. Kiwis attacked hard, but Staines cleared. Cobden backs passed accurately to go from half-way to the Kiwi line, F. Lindbom scoring and Kiely converting. J. West put in a dash, which Staines stopped, and R. Roberts and Stapleton failed with penalty shots at goal. Cobden led by 13 to 3 at naiftime. Soon after resuming, Kiely cut through, but was again unsupported. Kirkwood and Keith were noticeable in midfield play, which continued for some time. Kiwi backs staged a passing movement, going close, but Staines cleared. Kiwis came again, Wieblitz and later McHugh being almost over. Staines again cleared. Kirkwood, who was now playing very prominently, scored a spectacular try in the latter stages, receiving at halfway and running near to the posts, but Kiely failed to convert. Just before the end, Stapleton potted a nice goal, making the final scores: Cobden 16, Kiwis 7.

For Cobden, Kiely, Lindbom (2) and Staines played good back games, while Kirkwood, Matterson, King, and Spencer showed up in a good pack. Roberts, McHugh, F. West, and Stapleton played well in Kiwi backs, while Garden, Wieblitz, Diedrich, and Buckingham were prominent in the forwards. Mr Staines was referee.

PIRATES BEAT EXCELSIORS. Shrunk to a side not much better than junior, Excelsiors were beaten 19/3 by Pirates on Saturday. Agnew scored most of the points for the winners, other try-getters being Harrison, Stoop, and Thorpe, k. King did not play for the losers, nor M. Davidson. In the junior grade, Arahura beat Pirates by 19 to 11, while Ross defaulted to Excelsior B. LOWER GRADE MATCHES. Celtic juniors and Blaketown looked like playing a scoreless draw at Rugby Park until just a few minutes before full-time, when G. Kennedy, the Celtic winger, secured beyond halfway, and with a brilliant run, outstripped the opposition to run round and score under the posts. D. Clancy converted. Mr R. Bunt was referee.

Te Kinga juniors won by default from Stars and United- juniors defaulted to Cobden,

Technical third graders defaulted to Celtic. Star thirds defeated United by 17 points to three at Rugby Park. Scorers for Stars were Watson, D. Wilson, McLennan and Zampesi (2), whilst Zampesi also convened one try. Dewar kicked a penalty for United. A drawn game was played by Cob*

den and Blaketown third graders in their match at Cobden. Straker scored and Harrington kicked a penalty for Blaketown and Vaughan scored and Devlin kicked a penalty for Cobden. FRIENDLY MATCHES. Rugby matches played yesterday at the Cobden Domain resulted: — Tira Shield: Dispatch Foundry (holders) 7, Railways 6. Grey Motors 8, J. Hart’s 6. WELLINGTON B. BEAT BLENHEIM. BLENHEIM, August 28.

By 15 points to 8, tne Wellington B. representatives defeated Marlborough here this afternoon in the home province’s last inter-provincial fixture for the season. The visitors showed superiority for the major part of the game, particularly in the first spell, in which they lea 12 to 8, but in tne second half the home team rallied well and brought off many dangerous looking forward rushes which had Wellington hard pressed. Towards the end of the game Wellington again had the better of play, adding a try just as time was called. The football was generally not up to good inter-provincial standard, although the conditions were almost perfect, the weather and ground being ideal after heavy rain during the previous night. Wellington’s first try came ten minutes after the game had started, when Gillespie, on the wing, evaded two tackles and sent in a pass to Todd for the latter to score. Shortly afterwards Mellish succeeded with a penalty kick for Marlborough, but Wellington were ahead again when Gillespie ran round to pass to his other wing, Burns, who had a clear run in. Wellington’s next try came when the backs handled from a scrum, and Love cut in nicely to pass on to Burns, who scored in the corner. Marlborough brought the score to within a point difference when O’Rourke cut in after a passing rush by the backs and made an opening for Bartlett to run round for a try which Mellish converted. Just before half-time Gillespie completed another, rush by the Wellington backs with a score in the corner, and the jpell ended in Wellington’s favour by 12 to 8, none of their attempts at conversion having succeeded.

The second spell was much more evenly contested, and for a long time Marlborough were pressing near the visitors’ lines, but were unable to produce the necessary finishing touch. Just on time Sargisson, who had replaced Gillespie, when the latter was injured, received the ball at the end of a passing rush started in the Marlborough 25. Again the kick missed, and the game enaed with Wellington victorious by 15 points to 8. WELLINGTON 12 OTAGO 8. WELLINGTON, August 28. In a mediocre match, much below the usual New Zealand standard ol inter-provincial Rugby football, Wellington beat Otago on a hard, dry ground at Athletic Park to-day by 12 points to 6. About 8,000 spectators attended. . Otago scored within a minute of the kick-off, when Taylor kicked a penalty goal. Only a few minutes later, the Wellington half-back, O’Halloran, set the score even, and it remained so until half-time, Wellington attacking consistently with the advantage in both scrums and line-outs. Early in the second half, O’Halloran potted a pretty goal for Wellington, whose backs launched a vigorous offensive, and made a series of wellconcerted movements. Finally, Thurston scored a try, and Crisp converted. When Wellington were penalised tor lifting feet in the’ scrum, Taylor again scored, but the game ended with Wellington still comfortably leading.

P W L D F A Pts Star 12 9 3 — 130 47 18 United 12 8 3 1 185 111 17 Blaketown 13 8 4 1 109 82 17 Cobden 13 7 5 1 137 82 15 Ross 13 G 3 4 64 60 16 Excelsiors 13 5 6 2 110 95 12 Kiwi 13 5 7 2 118 119 12 Pirates 13 5 7 1 95 116 11 Celtic 13 4 9 — 78 176 8 Kumara 13 1 12 — 61 186 2