Whangarei .Wins Sooth Zone Final,

Northern Advocate, 6 August 1949, Page 5

Whangarei .Wins Sooth Zone Final,

HARDING SHIELD . . .

DARGAVILLE, Sat. (Sp.)—Whangarei beat Northern Wairoa S—6 in the south-zone final of the Harding Shield competition at Dargaville today.

The match was a triumph for the Whangarei forwards, who outplayed their opponents in all tight play, and more or less controlled the game.

Thanks to the domination of the pack the Whangarei inside backs had the advantage and the team as a whole was superior in every department. Whangarei held a decisive territorial advantage for threequarters of the game. Rain then set in and with the ball getting greasy the Wairoa forwards found conditions more suitable for their spoiling type of play. Sound defence by the backs, with M. Macnay at first five-eighths and Dunn at fullback outstanding, held the Wairoa onslaught at bay. The last 15 minutes were fought out practically entirely in the Whangarei twenty-five. Wairoa drew first blood six minutes after the start, when Berridge kicked a penalty goal. Later in the first spell the Whangarei backs fanned out and, after Langdon and L. Murphy had handled twice to make a breach in the defence, Beazley took the final pass from Langdon, to score under the bar. Dunn goaled. B—3 HALF TIME Whangarei was continually dangerous. Beazley and then Macnay made great openings, but promising movements were stifled at the last second. Before the interval a scrum went down on the Wairoa line. Whangarei hooked and pushed, and Pat Murphy went down on the ball for a try to make it 3—3 at half time. With the Whangarei scrum packing better and no shiners apparent—a contrast to the efforts of the Wairoa pack—lrvine outhooked Te Haara. Marinkovic, Baker and Fraser were a strong trio in the line-outs, and Richardson received a plentiful supply of the ball, which was well delivered, and enabled him to feed his backs w4th excellent protection.

The pattern of play was based on this set-up and only strong tackling by the .Wairoa backs kept the Whangarei line at bay.

Ten minutes before the end Wairoa reaped the reward of a concentrated forward attack backed up by Adolph and Bowmar, when Berridge landed a second penalty goal. Just prior to this, Adolph was almost over in a blind-side dash. The last five minutes were exciting .with Wairoa pressing strongly. Its forwards were bustling effectively but they could not pass Macnay and Dunn. DESERVED WIN. Whangarei played well as a team and thoroughly deserved its win. All the forwards stuck to their task, binding in the tight and nullifying the loose play of the Wairoa breakaways. Bourne played a grand forward game for Wairoa. The Whangarei backs had everything in their favour and were definitely superior. Richardson played well at halfback and ■ lie and Macnay combined much better than against Otamatea. Adolph was behind a losing pdek most of the game, but showed his ability in the last quarter, when his forwards had the edge on th'e Whangarei pack. Mr H. Mabbett (Warkworth) refereed.

The game was watched by a large crowd, which included a big percentage of Whangarei supporters.