WAIRAKA STILL AT HEAD OF SENIOR RUGBY COMPETITION

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 76, 2 August 1948, Page 5

WAIRAKA STILL AT HEAD OF SENIOR RUGBY COMPETITION

' Defeated by Paroa by 19 points to 5 on Saturday, the United Rugby Club now stands little chance in the Whakatane Sub-Union’s championship, for which Paroa now lies second to Wairaka which retained the lead by scraping home to a 3—o win over Poroporo. Interest will now centre on the future progress of Wairaka and Paroa. Saturday’s play gave the impression that Wairaka will have to put up a much better show to hold the lead. United’s Backs Not Good Enough To Stave Off Solid Paroa Attacks The story of United’s convincing defeat is a story of poor handling and worse tackling, principally amongst the inside backs. Paroa played a better grade of Rugby altogether, attacking consistently and varying their play with marked-ef-fect. As a team, United seemed to lack the high standard of fitness that characterised them in their earlier matches. Teams:— Paroa: R. Laurie; C. Hakopa, A. Martin, K. Wana; M. Harawira, J. Forbes; Joe Dodd; J. Lafferty, T. Hona, A. Nathan, M. Jensen, P. Awa, R. Hakopa, R. Cleland, ,B. Ruru. * United: R. Goodall; B. McGougan, R. Cave, W. Rutherford; D. Morpeth, T. De Lacey; D. Debreceny; J. Rolfe, L. Stewart, G. Goodall, M. Crofskey, P. Gardiner, S. .Ruffles, G. Dines, A. Mundy. With the advantage of a strong wind in the first half, United used the line to good effect, McGougan’s long kicks in particular making plenty of ground when rightly placed and Goodall defending soundly. The forwards worked hard, but,

though Dines had the better of the hooking by a fair margin, the ball was inclined to hang on the way out, often giving Hona a chance to get around on it before Debreceny could get his passes away. Debrenceny played one of his best games of the season, t showing himself absolutely fearless and a very useful man in a tight corner. He got fair but rather patchy support from De Lacey at first five-eighths, but both Morpeth and Cave handled and passed badly. Tackling all through was weak, with Rutherford the only consistent low, hard tackier in the team. McGougan, on the other wing, made the most of his attacking opportunities that came his way, but preferred pushing and bumping to real tackling in-defence. Rolfe, Ruffles and Gardner were leaders of the pack in the loose work! Paroa, leading B—o at half-time, clapped on the pace in the second half and ran the tally up to 16 points before United scored. Then De Lacey got a beautiful runaway try which McGougan converted. Paroa’s backs had the better of it on the day, with Dodd and Forbes combining well at half and “first” respectively and with Laurie’s absolutely safe defence at full-back. Of the forwards Lafferty, Ratahi, Hona and Cleland were frequently in the picture. Lafferty in particular shone as an opportunist, who collected a snappy little field 'goal as well as a try. Scorers:— Paroa (19 points): Cleland,.Forbes and Hona, a try each; Lafferty, a try and a field goal; Dodd, 2 conversions. United (5 points): De Lacey, a try, conyerted by McGougan. Mr J. Keepa was the referee.