Impressive league opening

Press, 26 April 1979, Page 44

Impressive league opening

Special Correspondent Wellington Canterburj' made its most impressive start to a representative rugby league programme for several seasons when it beat Wellington, 2912, under the Hutt Recreation Ground floodlights on Tuesday evening. After being nine points in front at half-time, Canterbury resisted a typically strong Wellington revival shortly after the resumption and added another four tries in cruising to its comfortable win.

Perhaps the most heartening feature of the game was the outstanding performances of the newcomers to firstclass football, Mark Vincent, Cliff Leney, Rick Odering and Derek McLaughlan.

The Canterbury coach (Mr Trevor Bisman) singled Vincent out for special praise. Vincent was an ideal link at stand-off half, ensuring that the outside backs received a

smooth flow of possession, I and backing up for a fine try. ; Vincent suffered from . cramp lOmin from the finish, . causing a reshuffle in the ; side. Kerry Corkran was the . replacement hooker, Paul . Truscott was switched to rhe i second-row, Wayne Wallace moved to loose forward, and i Barry Edkins reverted to ■ stand-off half. ; The try scored by Odering ’ in the opening spell was desI cribed by Mr Bisman as one i of the best team efforts dur- ' ing his three years as coach. The movement started with the forwards drawing the i Wellington cover-defence out of position and the ball was then relayed swiftly across field for Mocky Brereton to perfectly time the final pass to Odering. There was a characteristic coolness about Leney’s goalkicking, who had seven successes from nine attempts. McLaughlan had 25 tackles; another youngster in the

pack, Wallace, made 19 effective tackles, and the other forwards had 12 each. Canterbury’s decisive win was gained in spite of conceding an 18-9 penalty count. Twelve of the infringements were around the scrums, but the Linwood combination of Truscott at hooker and Wally Wilson at scrum-half still had a vital 9-4 advantage in set play. “Thp forwards wnrkpd '

“The forwards worked together throughout, combining even better than when Canterbury beat West Coast by a record margin at Greymouth last year,” Mr Bisman said. “One would have thought that it was mid-season, not our first game, and it is unfortunate that we could not have had

an Amco Cup bid this year. “Wellington’s more I experienced players. John Whittaker, Warren Collicoat and Steve Brewster, were

impressed with the Canterbury performance and 1 there is promise that we

will do well against Britain and in the Rothmans tournament,” he said. “The build-up work by the forwards was exceptional and the backs, with Brereton, especially, and Kevin Franklin standing out in midfield, gave their wings, Leney and Odering, more chances to run than has sometimes been the case in the past)” Mr Bisman said.

“Wilson’s captaincy was excellent, and he had a fine game behind the pack. It was no fault of his that his marker, Huka Love, scored from a grubber kick, but I rated the full-back, Alan Brookes, as Wellington’s best player,” Mr Bisman said.

Canterbury’s tries were scored by Odering, Wallace, Vincent, Michael O’Donnell and Rex Dalzell. Leney kicked seven goals.

Love and Brookes contributed tries for Wellington and Collicoat kicked three goals.