TARANAKI RUGBY

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 9 August 1928, Page 10

TARANAKI RUGBY

CHAMPIONSHIP PLAY-OFF.

STRATFORD y. .OKAIAWA. Given a dry ground and iball, the play-oif tor tfie piovincial championship at Eltham on Saturday .between j Stratford and Okaiawa- may have Raid quits a different ending, to tire: eight points to nil victory ' achieved. by Shrut•lord. it seems ais though the element® are in league 'against OJsaiawa’s clever back® and eomparnbive’-y light forwards, a,s for .the second season in succession this team has been called upon to contest the South v. North play-off against Strait! Ol d on a heavy ground, which on each occasion favoured the northerner Jn addition to. thair • ill-luck in this, direction, Okaiawa. were unfortunate in losing tile services of Murdoch, the club’s regular full-back. !10. make, matters still worse. 1. Crawford, who played in Murdoch’s puree, suffered from the effect®, of a (previous injury, and, in the early stages of the.' game it was. fea red that he, too, would require a substitute. Many “ifs” and “what might have beens” may be advanced to aoeouiut for almost ’any drafeat in Rugby, but it must be admited that- the luck of the game has been against Okaiawa for the past two seasons. In 1927. .after playing a six-point draw with Stratford under most discouraging ground and weather conditions, the final was won by the latter only on the conversion of a try. Each team .sconed two tries, Stratford! securing two conversions, while C. Paterson, who had been place-kicking consistently well throughout the season, con’d manage to get only one of his kicks over the bar for Okaiawa. However, all this does not detract one iota from the merit of Stratford’s win. The northerners had no easy job on hand, their fine forward team and solid, if not over-brilliant, backs having to play all they knew to. notch a victory. , , . ■The personnel of. either team -showed little variation from that of the previous

season. For Stratford. Carter, a promoted junior, replaced A 1 gar among the backs, otherwise Saturday’s team was identical with that of the previous year. Replacements for C. Paterson. A. llirchail, Griffen and J. Purvis were made on the part of Okaiawa. As regards Saturday’s match, little can be said in favour of the standard of play, which only on rare occasions rose above the commonplace and not infrequently descended to. monotonous drabness. With the exception of the Latter part of the game, when Okaiawa looked likely scorers, the diisp’.av of either team failed to. arouse the enthusiasm of the large aiql quite fair-mind-ed crowd.

The few “bright lights” in action among the backs were Garter and Collins’(Stratford) and Johnston and Caimeron (Okaiawa). .Collins was never surer in taking an elusive ball or in tackling and his kicking, as usual, was of a high order. Hie maintained his reputation -afei the soundest. full-back in the province. Carter’s reception of the greasy ball from Owen and Lightning dash through the opposing team was the one bright instance of individual smartness during the whole match and was worthy of Stratford’s most elusive back. Owen and, Songster combined well, and strove to open up the game against climatic odds. Owen was solid in tackling and kicking. Roy Pemiiall was the best of a far from brilliant’ three-quarter line. It seems odd that his club dives him so few opportunities of showing lii.s worth, As .rover, E.ryclay was an admirable, shield to Songster; his job was no. sinecure with a handful like Rangi Ruru to contend with. Fry day was very useful in initiating a number of tlm -limited passing moven 1,21 its of the day. The pack was much too hard a proposition for Okaiawa and consequently gave the backs more opportunities of inaugurating aggressive movements. The pack’d strength Lay in playing together and not striving for individual pr.illiance.

Johnston (first live-eighth) and Ike (lock) were the outstanding performers in a team, disorganised by a re-shuffle of positions and a failure to- adapt themselves to prevailing conditions. Sq- far nfs defence eyas concerned, the whole, team is deserving of commendation standing up well to the repeated stabsi of Songster, Owen, Carter and Fryda-y. and to the -so-'ad combined work of the" Stratford vanguard. With a limited supply of the ball, Cameron and Johnston did -as well as could ho expected tq reproduce the fine combination b.v this pair in recent matches.

Simons and Ngaia (promoted 1 juniors) in the three-quarter line, were erratic in their kicking and showed signs of indecision in the early stages, but impioved as the game progresised. Behind the scrum, Lynskey -had few opportunities of sending his ba.cks away to shoiv what they could do, even though the day clid not suit them. Rangi- Rum, a-s rove) - , was inclined to waste- his energies in man-handling the crafty Fryday. His weight was sorely missed from -the pack, but his defection therefrom, being included in the reshuffle of potsitions, owing chiefly to Mwrdodh’-S absence, was unavoidable. . Under adverse conditions, the Okaiiawal -scrummagers did as well as could Ip expected against their weighty opponents, who did not on the other hand show any superiority in line-out and open-order work.