LIONS GIVEN RUGBY LESSON

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31084, 13 June 1966, Page 3

LIONS GIVEN RUGBY LESSON

Outplayed In All Game’s Phases [From Our Rugby Reporter] INVERCARGILL. The 31-0 test win over Australia must have seemed a very distant memory to the 15 weary British Lions who trudged off Rugby Park after facing 80 minutes of Rugby truth from a superb Southland pack.

The 14-8 defeat was so decisive, the big Lions’ forwards were so comprehensively outplayed and the diffidence of the backs so obvious that they must call for a stern reappraisal by the Lions if they are to match other strong provincial teams.

The crowd of 20,200 who rejoiced in Southland’s splendid win must have been bitterly disappointed with the display of the Lions.

The tourists were buffeted and bruised in the forwards, outrucked and smashed open in the line-outs, while their backs looked nowhere as competent as their opposites.

B. J. Cullen, the tall Southland full-back, scored 11 points for his team with a try, two nenalties and a conversion of G. Hay’s try. S. Wilson kicked a penalty for the British Isles and A. R. Lewis scored a try which was converted by Wilson. A holding ground perhaps helped Southland but it was firm enough for the backs to be used. The Lions just did not use them. Because most of the match was confined to the forwards, it was a bruising and sometimes bitter game. There were some unpleasant moments in the first half when a few late tackles, and then the frantic rucking of Southland, provoked retaliation from the Lions. Mcßride, McLoughlin and Murphy, three Irishmen, were involved in spats with Southland forwards when punches were thrown, but matters came to a head when Murphy was raked back out of a ruck with more vigour than was necessary. The referee, Mr C. Robson, called the captains aside for a talk and after that there was less nonsense. But there were still some stupid punches thrown. A penalty by Wilson gave the Lions a 3-0 lead after five minutes but, except for an occasional burst, the Lions were never in command and spent a great deal of time defending against the spirited rushes by the Southland pack.

If not much can be said in favour of the Lions, no praise is too much- for the Southland pack. Its cohesion, toughness, and fitness was the outstanding feature of the match. Wherever the ball went, it was attended by eight rampaging forwards and even though the pack was giving away height and weight it finished the match far better than the Lions’ pack. No Answer The Lions collectively and individually had no answer to the Southland rucking and driving game. As the forwards faltered under the intense pressure exerted in the lineouts by Hazlett, Lindsay, Millar and Soper, so the Lions backs—the only possible match winners for them—became more and more out of the game.

Lewis, at half-back, was time and again swampel by a cloud of black jerseys. Watkins’s reputation at first five-eighths suffered badly. He is obviously a player of some brilliance but much of it is misdirected. To try to escape the swarm of Southland forwards he ran back, twisted, side-stepped and often would cover about 30 erratic yards before kicking and usually finished up in the same place as he started. Also, his line-kicking was woefully inaccurate —a factqr which placed more pressure on his forwards. The Lions three-quarters were never in evidence. Jones made some darts in broken play but was not very convincing and his handling and passing were indifferent. McFadyean made one lovely break but spoiled it by a bad pass. The main occupation of the wings, Bebb and Hinshelwood, was to throw the ball into the line-out and tackle. Wilson played soundly and never flinched from the barrage of up-and-unders directed at him. If the backs’ attacking brilliance was not much in evidence, neither was there great resolution shown on defence. Three times Archer, who played extremely well, strode past Watkins, while Thompson and Welsh with their hard, straight running quite often went through tackles. Sorry Tale The British Isles backs had some excuses for their relatively poor performance —only rarely did they receive good possession. But for the forwards it was a sorry tale. Neither collectively nor individually could they match Southland. Twice when they began short passing rushes they looked most impressive, and a final spurt in the last few minutes when

McLoughlin started some stirring rushes, were about the only times that they ever rattled the Southland defence. Thomas, Campbell-Lamer-ton and Mcßride showed that they were high jumpers in the line-outs but far too often they were tipped over or robbed of the ball. Rarely did the Lions try to drive from the Tine-outs. Instead, they concentrated on passing back to the half-back and Lewis could have been forgiven for cursing at some of the ill-directed tapping of the ball which presented the Southland pack with more chances to burst through in storming foot-rushes. Murphy and Prothero were fast loose forwards but they

were too embroiled In the hectic forward play to be much of a threat to the Southland backs or even start off passing movements. The Lions front row, McLoughlin, Laidlaw and Norris, was not very impressive. Laidlaw won three tight heads to two, but the two he conceded were vital. From one, Hay scored his try to make Southland 14-8. The other came when the Lions were on desperate attack. McLoughlin, a very strong player looked good when running with the ball but his and Norris’s blocking in the lineouts was ineffective.

Over-riding the whole of the Lions weak performance was the lack of tactical appreciation by the captain, Campbell-Lamerton. It must have been obvious in the first half that the Lions would have to win through their backs but never was there a concerted effort to run with the ball, even from loose play. In the first half, when Southland was playing into the sun, the ball was never put into the air—it was a different story in the second half when W. R. Archer fully

tested the Lion’s defence with his lobbed up-and-unders. Also, Campbell-Lamerton kept using the front of the line-out from which to pass back to the half-back, thus keeping the game close to the side-line which was playing to Southland’s strength, instead of trying to move the ball away as quickly as possible from the forwards. The trend of the match became apparent after 15 minutes when the Southland forwards began driving through from line-outs and the Southland backs, without Tooking particularly dangerous, at least could penetrate the advantage line to allow the forwards to continue their guerrilla warfare with the Lions’ backs.

Archer, standing flat-footed, would pass straight to the centre, Welsh, who usually made a few yards. Then, taking the tackle, he and any Lions who were in the vicinity would be swamped by the Southland pack.

There would be more lineouts, more thrusts by the Southland pack. Quick rucks, probing kicks by Archer or Hay and the Lions would be reeling back in desperate and often disorganised defence. Great Play The half-time score of 3-3 gave no recognition to the great play by Hazlett, Miliar, Lindsay, and Soper. A penalty two minutes after half-time by Cullen put Southland in the lead and two minutes later Cullen made the game almost won when he scored on the blind-side. The try was perfectly executed. Archer kicked a high up-and-under which came down in to Wilson’s arms at the same time as the Southland pack was there. After a hectic ruck, Hay worked the blind-side and Cullen, joining in, stumbled two yards and then lunged at the touch-line to score in a belated tackle. Brilliant Try A brilliant try by Lewis when he worked a dummy scissors with Watkins and then scuttled through a bewildered defence brought the score to 9-8. Southland then rallied. The forwards summoned up new vigour and the harder they played the more rattled the Lions became. Hay scored his try under the posts, Savage crossed the line but was called back for a forward pass, Hazlett and Miller were inches from scoring. The Lions did come back led by McLoughlin, bit at the final whistle it was Southland again on attack. Surprisingly, the Southland team finished better some of the Lions forwards were almost down to a walk at the en 1. The Rugby Park mud had again proved a great leveller.