WANGANUI JUNIORS BEATEN 8—3 IN KAGGED GAME

Wanganui Chronicle, 21 August 1950, Page 6

WANGANUI JUNIORS BEATEN 8—3 IN KAGGED GAME

In a fairly ragged game marred by haphazard rusnes that lucked penetration, Manawatu juniors beat vVanganui juniors B—3 in the curtainraiser to Saturday’s senior representative match in Wanganui. Wanganui improved greatly in the last tew minutes of tne game, but were kept out after scoring one try. Of the two teams, Manawatu had the most thrust, but uncertain handling and the inside backs; penchant tor kicking lost them many opportunities. Centre three-quarter Niccol carved up the defence with some bright runs, but slowed down in the second spell. An almost laultless performance was put up by the fullback, Sinclair. His line-kicking repeatedly gained useful territory. Wanganui winger, Penn, rocked the opposition with some of his runs, but generally he and Rasmussen were crowded out of play. Close switching gave none oi tne three-quarters much time to overcome the lagging passing from closer to the scrum. Thirteen penalties were awarded during the game, many of them from scrum infringements. Neither pack settled down really well. Manawatu side-row man, Wood, was a constant source of danger to the Wanganui backs, and one of the most tireless workers in the Wanganui scrum was the fast-moving Upchurch. Too many forwards over-ran the . ball to make either pack’s loose play impressive.

Manawatu drew first blood late in the second spell. Given a poor pass, Lambeth lost possession when he had an open line ahead of him, but a fewminutes later he made no mistake about a similar opportunity and gathered the ball in to streak through Stent's tackle for a try. O’Grady missed a long conversion attempt. Manawatu 3, Wanganui 0. Just before the interval, Wanganui made one of their most determined efforts to score, A. Aitken actually forcing his way behind the Manawatu line before losing the ball in a jumble of defenders. Steadily driven back to their home territory, Wanganui suffered a further setback when the Manawatu first five-eighth, O’Donnell, changed direction to catch the defence on the wrong foot. His run ended under the posts and Sinclair had an easy conversion.— Manawatu 8, Wanganui 0. Straggling in the face of . determined attacking and a strong defence, Wanganui made a good recovery three minutes before full time. The backs received the ball from a scrum .co to the Manawatu line and Bradley shot through a gap to hand the ball to A. Strachan, who scored wide. Sinnett missed the goal.— Manawatu 8, Wanganui 3. In the last minutes of hectic play, the Wanganui forwards over-ran the ball within yards of the Manawatu line, then Sinnett missed another of his numerous attempts at goal from penalties, but Wanganui could not pull the game out of the fire and the score remained unchanged o the end. The teams were:— Manawatu. Sinclair; Turnwald, Niccol, Lambeth; Kereama, O’Donnell; Sandilands; O’Grady, Rowan, Turvey, Haines, Wood; Richardson, Petersen, MacDonald. Wanganui.—Stent; D. Penn, A. Strachan, D. Rasmussen; O. Bradley, R. Smith; N. Aitken; W. Sinnett, B. McLean, T. Clarke; J. Upchurch, J. Johnstone; K. Salter, A. Aitken, L. Strachan. Referee.—Mr. J. Caradus.