TAURANGA FINISH ONE POINT AHEAD OF WHAKATANE REPS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 58, 21 June 1948, Page 5

TAURANGA FINISH ONE POINT AHEAD OF WHAKATANE REPS

Though soundly beaten in the first half of the Rugby Representative match against Tauranga at the Domain on Saturday, Whakatane made a surprising recovery and showed real winning form in the second half that nearly cost Tauranga the game. With a 10 to three score at half time Whakatane. played hard and fast to bring the final score to’ls—l4 in Tauranga’s favour. Teams were:— Whakatane Welch McGougan, Cave, Laurie De Lacey, Riini R. Crapp L. Stewart Gardiner, Ratahi, Ranapia, Ball Jensen, Merito, Hona. Tauranga N. Smith B. Ngatia, Nepia, Tata Kohatea, Te Kani K. Raymond , Neiderer Williams, Carson, T. Te Kani, Hara- , wira J. Raymond, T., P. and E: Murray, H. Lennox. Tauranga turned on fast forward combination and fast and tricky back work in the first half, talking the Whakatane side on the hop, and beating them in the scrums and loose. Playing under the shelter of a safe full back, the backs - were able to go on a lot of sallies and simply cut through the Whakatane side. Welch, in the face of these rushes, was very sure and though he was a little rusty on tackling, his clearing was reliable. The first two tries by Tauranga, by Tata and H. Lennox, (a forward) were all through exceptionally fast play with plenty of throwing the ball about. Towards the end of the first half, Whakatane started to wake up and use the forwards with good results. Whakatane’s back line in the first half was not up to standard. When they got the ball they were either solidly tackled or muffed in passing. Cave tried to do too much on his own. i From the beginning of the second half Whakatane- played harder and faster and rather surprised the opposition. A slight change had been made in the team, with Cave replacing Laurie on the wing and McCready going in to centre. This change seemed to alter the performance of the line for the good, and a few more back runs resulted. T. Riini excelled himself with really solid tackling that often stopped the opposing back line. B. Te Kani, Kahotea and Tata were the pick of the Tauranga backs. Te Kani converted all the Tauranga tries. Whakatane in the latter part of the spell appeared to be all- over the Tauranga team, tackling well and passing better than before though not as well as they could have done. Anybody could have taken the game towards the last with Whakatane just beaten by time. Scorers: Tauranga (15. points): A. Tata, H. Lennox, Kahotea a try each, B. Te Kani three conversions. Whakatane (14 points): H.' Ranapia, R. Crapp, K. Merito a try each, McGougan a conversion and a penalty goal.