Eltham Give Opunake Hard Game

NZ Truth, Issue 1274, 1 May 1930, Page 12

Eltham Give Opunake Hard Game

(From "K.Z. Truth's" Taranaki Rep.) TN weather suitable for summer games ■«• the Taranaki senior Rugby competitions opened on Saturday. The stimulus given by the early visit of the British team and the keenness of players to don the amber-and-biack jersey m that x struggle has resulted m most players getting fit early. Consequently, they saw. out the two fortyf-fives better than is usually the case for the opening matches. Early indications point to a strenuous series of games before Stratford become the northern champions, whilst Hawera, Okaiawa and Opunake will have a great triangular struggle m the south. The matches resulted, Stratford 3 v. Inglewood nil. Tukapa G v. Clifton nil. Star 14 v. Celtic 9. Old Boys 37 v. Okato 8/ Opunake 3 v. Eltham nil. Hawera 11 v. Okiawa 3. "Waimate 9 v. Kaponga 6. Patea 16 v. Athletic 3. PJayers have not yet got into the kick-into-touch. rule. In some cases It was overdone and there was a succession of line-outs whilst In some others the backs did not know what to do. Opunake, last season's champions, received a severe shaking when they just scraped home. from the Ijttle-thought-of Eltham team by a try. Eltham were unlucky not to. : even up. McDonald, formerly of Manaia, played a' useful game as full-back for Opunake. He replaces Harrison, who has gone into the scrum and is very valuable on the line-put by reason of his height. A hard game, with an occasional fist shot home when the referee was not looking, characterised the OkaiawaHawera game In which Hawera won by 11 to 3. Darky Robinson played a hard game and so did brother "Snowy" until injury compelled his retirement. The bright spots of the game were the tries by Ekdahl (Hawera), the ex-New Plymouth High School lad running half the length of the field, and Crawford, of Okiawa. Stratford with their heavy forwards bringing all artillery to bear, and with Bob Fryday also going well, could only scrape home from Inglewood by a penalty. The lighter Inglewood pack hung on bravely and asked no quarter. Kiyell Walter,, and Bond shone for Stratford on the line.