DECISIVE WIN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26216, 29 July 1946, Page 6

DECISIVE WIN

KIWIS BEAT CANTERBURY SCOTT IN BRILLIANT FORM (P.A.) CHRISTCHURCH, July 28.. Spectacular moves in the best tradition of fast, open Rugby gave the Kiwis a decisive, and thrilling victory over Canterbury at Lancaster Park yesterday by 36 points to 11. The conditions were perfect and a crowd of over 15,000 cheered excitedly from start to finish. Canterbury certainly put up a stout fight at many stages, but they could pot cope with the speed and quick diversions of the Kiwis. They had polish and finesse where Canterbury merely had vim. A typical Kiwi move followed a breakaway by W. Argus in the first spell. He fended off his opposite number, McHugh, who landed on the flat of his back, and raced on down the middle of the field to pass in to his supporting forwards, although, he could have scored himself. The teams were as follows: Kiwis.—Full-back: R. H, W. Scott. Three-quarters: J. R. Sherratt, R. L. Dobson, W. Argus. Five-eighths: I. Proctor, F. R. Allen. C. K. Saxton. Forwards: N: J. McPhail, F. N. Haigh, J. G. Bond, K. Arnold, A. W. Blake, L. A. Grant, J. Finlay, N. H. Thornton.

Canterbury.—Full-back: P. Callanan. Three-quarters: R. S. Thomson, P. Kearney, W. McHugh. Five-eighths: J. E. Roach, J. Morton. Half-back: R. Monigatti. Forwards: S. O’Neill, A. Lee, B. G. Miles, D. Herman, P. Carroll. K. Bain, F. Hobbs, M. Henderson. Sherratt Immobilised

A feature of the game was the way the giant-striding Kiwi winger, Sherratt, was bottled up by Thomson. Thomson’s tackling was one of the best things seen on Lancaster Park this season, and at no stage did Sherratt succeed in getting anything like a break on him. Argus, On the other wing, was probably the principal scoring machine in the Kiwi back line Scott, the Kiwi full-back, was right at the top of his form.. His tricky footwork, speed and feinting tactics frequently baffled the onrushing Canterbury forwards. More than once he feinted cleverly even when his back was towards the Canterbury men. He polished off a brilliant display with a try that brought the crowd to its feet. Right on the stroke of time he attempted a field goal, but the ball was charged down. He raced through at full speed, gathered in the rolling ball, and scored practically under the posts. The ground was in fair order, perhaps a trifle heavy, but at no stage did it appreciably slow down play or interfere with handling. The first back movement of the Kiwis, machine-like in its precision, gave the spectators a glimpse of things to come. Fielding from the Canterbury kick off, Allen kicked out. From the line out, the ball shot out to Saxton and the Kiwi backs were away like the wind. • It was the same story from the first three or four scrums. Then the Canterbury forwards settlled down to work in earnest. One thing, however, stood out. From the scrums, line outs, tight scrummages and loose rucks the ball would rocket out to Proctor or Allen, and they always would be ready. Time and again Saxton’s job was done for him in this fashion. Swift Retaliation Canterbury was the first to score in each half. On each occasion their tries acted like a spur to the Kiwis, who retaliated swiftly. As far as the two hard-working packs were concerned, it would have been difficult to select individual players for special mention. There was no doubt, however, about the solid type of football played by Thornton for the Kiwis, and Bain for Canterbury. The Kiwis’ eight tries were scored by Argus,' Thornton, Grant, Finlay (2), Allen, Arnold and Scott, and Scott converted six of them. Miles and Henderson scored for Canterbury. ' Morton converted one try and kicked a penalty goal.