RUGBY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16452, 14 June 1921, Page 3

RUGBY.

JUNIOR NOTES.

(By

"WING-FORWARD."

liast Saturday's play fiuished the first round of the Junior competition. [bo Rugbv Union will decide tins evening whether a full second round will he plaved or not. Lyttelton have at last been ousted from the lead, being uow half a. point behind Old Boys and half a. point ahead of Christchurch- Tbe posit ion is a. very interesting one because all three of the leading teams have had to fight tooth and nail for their wins during the last three weeks, and if- the ’ competition goes ou for another round anything might happen. There were, two easy wins on Saturday, Merivale beating Atarists by 20 points to 0 and North Canterbury beating Lin wood by 32 points to C The other two games were very close. ; Old Boys won on the call of time against ; ’Varsity A by 8 points to 3 aud Christchurch * defeated Lyttelton by 6 points to 3, wipuing in the last fifteen minutes. The following are the positions of the teams rts. Ftp. Com.

The Port team took the field one short, and this handicap was particularly felt in the last quarter of an hour. The teams were very evenly matched in the forwards* and both sets of backs showed flashes of good passing rushes. At half-time neither side had scored, and with Moir, the Port captain, retiring with leg trouble, the game looker! bright for the local team. Lyttelton scored first from a forward scramble and with fifteen minutes to go Richards for Christchurch evened ; with a. fine penalty kick. At this stage : the game became very interesting, both j sides attacking in turn. Christchurch j pressed hard, .aud from a scrum near the Lyttelton line Webber dashed over but was called back. From the ensuing scrum Spooner forced through and scored. For the winners G. Richards was a good custodian- A feature was Ids kicking. It. Webber was prominent among the three-quarters. Robilliard wa-s a good five-eighth and took every opportunity of setting his outside hacks going. J- Mayo played a fine game at half. Fleming, Scott and Spooner were the best of a good bunch o.f forwards.

For Port, Hewstone as full-back was a distinct success. His kicking and defence left little to be desired. He should certainly find a position in the Junior representatives. Gealey on the wing put in some good work with PL Lester (centre). Collins, who usually plavs in the pack, acquitted himself well at five-eighth. Porteous lost little time getting his backs, away. Of the forwards. Bamford, M’Gill aud Maulden were the pick. Air Gerald Gray was referee. NORTH CANTERBURY (32) v. LINAVOOD (5). Both teams took the field short, auci in addition Linwood played six third grade * players. The game was a scramble and was played to tbo accompaniment of a deal of good-natured barracking from the line. The. country team dominated play in the second spoil. They threw the ball round freely among the backs, the wing and centre threequarters scoring all the tries. Linwood seem to be going from had to worse as each Saturday comes round. They only fielded a, team up to (bird grade standard on Saturday, and it is high time that the club officials looked at the position seriously. For the winners, W. Fleming and W. Hume, wing and centre three-quar-ter respectively, are fine scoring backs. Fleming has a very cunning side-step which seems to let him through whenever he desires. Heap and Stewart Baird also played well. Of the forwards, Rowland Young and Leech pi a yed p rorn in en fly. S. .and L. Elvy were the pick of the Linwood backs, and Turpin and Prudence shone out iri the forwards. Air F- O. Schmidt was referee. OLD BOYS (S) v. ’VARSITY A (31 Playing at 'Varsity ground Old Boys beat. ’Varsity A by $ points to 3For Old Boys- Tench and Corbett scor-ed-tries. one of. which Tench converted. For ’Varsity A Penlington scored a

The game was von iri the last minute. Old Boys had the best of the first half bur ’Varsity livened up considerably in the second spell and the game, was a great tussle during the last i-wenty minutes 'Both teams tossed the ball about, but the handling of the AY bites was superior to that of ’Varsity. Olci Boys, however, made the mistake of **’ working the blind ” far too often. They hare scored a big number of tries this season with this move but on Saturday the ball was going out to a blind side that was watched, whilst the other AY bite backs were in good positions lor dangerous passing rushes. There was little to choose between the two macks, ’A'arsity .being, if anything, slightly better than Old Boys. They packed, together better in tight work. The packs had each an equal share of hooking the ball from the scrum. For Old Boys Forsyth. F. AYalker and Buekhurst and for ’A'arsity Smith, Archer and Page were noticeable. Both packs played a good hard game right to the finish. The Old Boys backs again went well. J. Harris ou one wing and R- Ford on the other are both speedy and dangerous whenever they get the ball. Tench .also played a good game, though be was apparently out of training. Co-bett. at half, should stand a good chance of representative honours- He scored the second try securing the ball from a seffum about five yards from the line'and dashing over in the last minute. Bell, half-back for 'Varsity, handled the ball well and sent out some good passes but the handling by the Reds sometimes left much to lie desired. T. Bell, on the right wing played a. solid game throughout and Dunn was also very useful, though he did not get many chances. Twenty minutes before time the game looked like being a drawn one and ’A'arsity .were quite, bolding their own. but Old Boys sent home some very solid attacks which tested their opponents’ defence to the utmost. They were battering the Red line for a quarter of an hour before they finally got through. MERIVALE (20) v. MARISTS (6). This game, on the Alerivale ground, looked like being a very close thing at half-time just previous to which Alerivaje had scored two tries, one oi which was converted, giving them a five point lead on Alarists. In the second half, however, Alerivale rattled ou twelve move points whilst Alai ists were getting three and towards tiie end of the game they were the only team.

in it. The game throughout was hard and fast and very willing. Up till hglf-time Alarists quite held their own, but they were well-beaten after that. Their forwards played hard against a better pack, and O’Connell was generally in the lead. Alerivale forwards are a fast hefty crowd who take a lot of stopping when they get up a loose rush. Partridge and Bro snail an were prominent amongst them. In the Alarist’s backs Delaney, who has previously played in the forwards went well on the left wing. He lias plenty of dash aud speed and played bard throughout- Macdonald again played well and Kyle nt half-back worked hard. The Merivale backs do not yet work well together. Dickie at five-eighths played his usual heady game., aud J. Yates made a solid centrc-firee-qual-ter. The others are fast and with more combination would be hard to beat.

Old Bot3 - t 7 ‘ ' livttolton Christchurch 0 ft 6G 59 Marists 5 4 O 78 97 X. Canterbury 0 4 •t 3 109 60 -1J. 9 4 1 83 74 4 | ’Varsity B . 9 Albion a fi ft 37 101 Linwood 8 1 50 93 n 1 OHBTSTGH RCH (6) (3). V. LYTTELTON