Otago thrashed by Canterbury B

Press, 23 April 1979, Page 23

Otago thrashed by Canterbury B

By

JOHN COFFEY

It was virtually impossible to gauge Canterbury’s reserve rugby league strength as the provincial B team thrashed Otago-Southland, 68-5, at the Show Grounds on Saturday. The frailty of the Otago defence was evident from the start and the Canterbury players were required to do no more than to run and pass purposefully to keep the scoreboard attendant deserving of overtime rates. Canterbury accumulated four tries in the opening lOmin and the longest period that it was held scoreless was 13min, The outside backs thrived on the frequent attacking chances given them, with Kevin Steel crossing for five tries on the left wing and Michael Kelly, a replacement, touching down three times on the other flank.

Steel and Kelly both proved that they are fine finishers of movements, but they also created opportunities for their team-mates by switching the direction of

attacks back infield when overlaps were not left by Otago’s extremely loose cover.

To complete a profitable afternoon for the outside backs, one of the centres, Bruce Murphy, claimed four tries, and the other, Lewis Hudson, finished with a try and 10 goals. Hudson switched to stand-off half when Murray French was injured, and Hal October obviously relished his move from the right wing to midfield.

The pack, a well-balanced unit, was not extended to dominate proceedings around the play-the-balls, and John Tapiata had a 15-7 hooking advantage in the scrums. Mark Lowe and Danny Millward had control of the tight exchanges, David Baxter distributed possession skilfully, Wayne Jeffs backed up intelligently for his two tries, and Mutu Stone was efficient in his varied tasks at loose forward. , . If the opening match ot the South Island second division championship could hardly be regarded as a true test of their talents, several

of the Canterbury B players must have enchancea their prospects of being chosen for the Rest of South Island XIII to meet Canterbury A in June. Steel, selected as the “man of the match," Murphy and Hudson must be regarded as prime contenders for back-line positions, and all of the forwards suggested that they would not be out of place in first-class football.

On very few occasions did Otago threaten Canterbury’s try-line. The one try that it did gain was something of an anti-climax when the sec-ond-row forward, Malcolm Quinn, ran through without being challenged, the Canterbury defenders believing that they were being penalised by the referee (Mr D. Jones, of West Coast) for standing off-side at the preceding tap-kick. Steel (five), Murphy (four), Kelly (three), Jeffs (two), Hudson and Stone shared Canterbury’s tries and Hudson kicked 10 goals from 19 attempts. Otago’s try was scored by Quinn and Bernie Fitzell kicked a goal.