Wellington Power Too Great For Taranaki

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31087, 16 June 1966, Page 17

Wellington Power Too Great For Taranaki

(.New Zealand Press Association)

NEW PLYMOUTH. A more purposeful Wellington fifteen had too much power and control in the forwards for a disappointing Taranaki team and won by 11 points to nil in a representative Rugby match at New Plymouth yesterday.

Wellington scored two tries (B. A. Coulter and B. L. Hill), a conversion and a penalty goal (M. Williment), and led, 8-0, at half-time. Because of a strong, blustery wind, the play was very scrappy, mostly confined to the forwards and with the inside backs forced to kick more often than not. The Wellington forwards, even without I. N. Mac Ewan, won a superiority in the lineouts and rucks and combined with a fiery display in the loose to give Taranaki no chance to settle into its stride. Taranaki had few chances to attack, and one of the only times the ball was passed along its back-tine a dropped pass allowed Wellington to run 50 yards for a try. Weak Taranaki tackling was also re-

sponsible for much of Wellington’s advantage. Coulter had a good day, always looking for work and, with Williment, was Wellington’s best back. Williment, although tricked occasionally by the wind. Was in good form in spite of playing his second match in two days. His positional play was outstanding and was made to look much better by the Taranaki players failing to find the line. UNBEATEN AGAIN Waikato preserved its unbeaten record for the season, but only just, when it beat Thames Valley, 16-14, in a scrappy match at Hamilton. There was a lot of untidy forward play, with the result the backs were often hardpressed when they tried to push home attacks. However, Waikato managed to score four tries against one by Thames. Valley. Thames Valley’s main con-

tributor was the full-back, T. E. Shaw, who with a conversion, dropped goal and two penalty goals, scored 11 Of his team’s points. The other three came from a try by E. Aislabie. Tries for Waikato were scored by R. J. Wells (2), J. L. Cresswell and P. Billing, and D. JTavell converted two. ENCOURAGING WIN A combined Marlborough-Nelson-Golden Bay-Motueka team beat West Coast-Buller, 34-9, at Motueka. It was an encouraging performance by the Marlborough combined team, two weeks before its match against the British Lions. For Marlborough combined, T. Morris (2), A. Sutherland, R. Bowater, R. Sutherland, P. Fry and P. Clark scored tries; M. Delany kicked five conversions and a field goal. For West Coast-Buller, tries were scored by M. Gray, J. Halsall and L. Everett.