‘Ugly duckling’ team beats Marist

Press, 26 April 1979, Page 3

‘Ugly duckling’ team beats Marist

The former AU Black hooker and University coach. John Creighton, will probably be regarded as a rugby wonderworker as the result of his MerivalePapanui team’s surprise but well-earned victory over Marist in the C.S.B. cup senior competition at Lancaster Park oval yesterday.

Only four days before. Marist had produced an exhilarating performance to romp away from the highly regarded University A side, scoring five tries. But the team plunged from the heights to the depths yesterday, and a tenacious and resourceful Merivale combination, well led by the former English county player, John Harwood, came home in style.

Merivale-Papanui has often languished near the bottom of the rugby table in recent seasons, and has not won a trophy since 1962, when the club was known purely as Merivale. But since Mr Creighton took over the coaching this year, the seniors have won three matches in as many matches, and are one of four teams unbeaten, Merivale-Papanui was not the only side to upset a more fancied opponent yesterday. Hornby had its first win of the season, at the expense of Suburbs, ana a weakened New Brighton side overshadowed Linwood, in spite of conceding SO per cent of the ball to its opponent. Big wins were scored by Christchurch, Old Boys, Shirley and University A. Randall Scott scored four tries for the latter team, and Gary Cookson contributed 20 of Old Boys’ 28 points. Results were:—

New Brighton 6, Linwood 3. Merivale-Papanui 15, Marist 7, Old Boys 28, Albion 0. Christchurch 35, Sydenham 0, University A 37, Burnside 0. Belfast 13, University B 4. Hornby 16, Suburbs 15. Shirley 31, Lincoln College 0. Points are: —

SUCCESS FROM SCRAPS New Brighton's zealous cover defending and its skirmishing ability enabled it to beat Linwood in spite of having only 20 per cent of the ball to play with. From the manner to which the Linwood pack heaved New Brighton off the ball for two early tight-heads, it seemed that the C.S.B. Trophy holder was heading for its third consecutive defeat. But the team survived the strong pressure exerted by Linwood in the first quarter, and then struck the game’s decisive blow in the twenty-sixth minute when Graeme Ellis fastened on to a loose ball and flipped a pass to Ross Gibson, who scored in the corner. Although Linwood brought Murray Le Compte into the line frequently from full-back, the New Brighton cover was always adequate, and Ellis once again accomplished excellent work in this regard. John Te Amo was an industrious forward for New Brighton, and Paul Bell and Peter McLaren were the best of the skirmishers.

Shalie Gibbons and John Phillips raised Linwood’s hopes by breaching the first line of defence a few times, but a try was never a possibility. Johns brought Linwood some consolation by scraping a penalty kick over the cross-bar from close range. UNTIDY GAME

After an excellent start, during which it looked capable of some heavy scoring, Old Boys lost ground, although not points, against an Albion side which was always struggling. Individually the Old Boys backs looked very smart and the tries scored by Grant Cookson, from a fine solo break, and Mark Wheeler, were impressive. But for the most part the line lacked rhythm and the main sufferer was the pacy wing, lan Mather, who barely saw the ball. Cookson also kicked well for 16 points, giving him 20 in all. Notwithstanding the heavy dependence on Cookson’s boot, this was not a game Old Boys ever looked like losing. But It was not a particularly Impressive performance by a side which is clearly capable of better. BRAVE EFFORT Sydenham put no points on the board, but it earned a few for effort by the manner in which it kept bouncing back against Christchurch. Sydenham contributed to a bright and breezy game by making what use it could of its backs and with a little more luck the try that no-one would have begrudged it could have come. A bad bounce was responsible on one occasion.

Barry Thomas, playing at second five-eighths so that Robbie Deans could have a Tun at first five-eighths, was to sparkling form.

Graham Sims added to his long history of injuries when he left the field with a suspected broken ankle atid the line lost nothing when John Collinson took his place. The wigs, Tony Murdoch and Don Humphries, were just as enterprising. Neil Porter had an outstanding game in the Christchurch front row and Ray Waghorn and Jerry Rowberry were not far behind him, Rowberry displaying the range of his skills by twice filling in as an extra back. Steve Papps was a lively halfback for Sydenham and while all those outside him were willing to probe for gaps it was the wing, Brent Oetgen, who broke through the most often. Allan Duffin gave his forwards a spirited lead, with Tom Chandler and Roger Higgs providing earnest support. BIG IMPROVEMENT Merivale-Papanui gave perhaps its best perfortnance for several seasons in beating Marist in a fluid match at Lancaster Park. For a side which has often lacked cohesion and imagination, Merivale’s play was a revelation. The stalwart forwards played with marked dedication, the backs made good use of the hall, and the side as a whole demonstrated a refreshingly objective approach.

Although John Harwood, Denis Skipper and lan Culpan were as conscientious as ever for Merivale, the pick of the pack was Steve Barnden, the long striding No. 8. who scored two tries. He ran 20m for the first, after charging down a kick by Adrian Young, and later came off the back of the- scrum with the ball and handed off two defenders on Ills way to the goalline.

Tony Manarangi was cool and skilful at half-back for the winner, and Lindsay Thorne, the full-back, did not miss one high ball. Merivale showed no little ability in its back moves, with Ngatahi looking particularly quick on his feet. LATE VICTORY Overcoming a 12-point deficit at half-time, Hornby deservedly beat Suburbs in an exciting, hard fought game, with the winning points coming four minutes from the finish.

The strong wind blew directly down the field and as Suburbs, playing with it, spent almost the entire first spell to Hornby’s half, so did Hornby have control in the second. The game was played to an excellent spirit, being free of bad temper and pettiness. Hornby mounted a sustained attack in the first 20min of the second half and two fine tries by the wing. Bill Anderson, helped the team to a one-point lead. Suburbs then managed to break Hornby’s grip when it moved into Hornby’s half for the first time, but Hornby came back to score the deciding points. The fine play of the Hornby forwards was responsible for the side’s win. Gordon Gossett and Don Calder were the pick of a very even bunch and in the second spell they out-rucked Suburbs, had an edge in the line-outs, and were more purposeful in the loose. This appeared to give the backs confidence and they in turn became a more potent force than Suburbs.

Lyn Davis played his usual solid game at half for Suburbs, but the outside backs were uncertain under pressure and poor handling, particularly in the second spell, spelt the end of promising movements. The Suburbs forwards began well, with George Humm and Barry White prominent in the loose, but too many penalties were conceded to the rucks and mauls. SCOTT SHINES

Although University's determination and drive seemed to lapse at times, it had not the slightest difficulty in running up a large score against Burnside, thanks largely to a big helping of rugby expertise from Randall Scott.

Apart from Scott, the students played with far too much assurance and confidence, especially in the backs, to give Burnside a chance. Although it won a fair percentage of possession, especially from set play, Burnside’s backline showed few positive features. Too often the passing was sluggish and laboured while chances were wasted by players attempting to cut back inside while going at half-pace. Alan Double, Burnside’s experienced No. 8, gave a tireless display and won some useful line-out ball. University made plenty of mistakes,

but it was always given time to recover because of the despondency among the Burnside ranks. University would certainly have reached the half-century mark had Doug Heffernan been in better kicking form. As it was, he had trouble contending with the strong wind, landing only two out of 11 attempts. In spite of the ease of victory, the students will have to tighten up their play to match the top sides. SHIRLEY SUPERIOR In a free-flowing and entertaining match at the Denton Oval, Shirley soundly beat Lincoln College by 31 points. Playing with the wind in the first half, Shirley kept pressure on the Lincoln line through long kicks by its half-back and captain, Steve Scott, and gradually accumulated points. Nigel Image, with two, and Gary Shearer kicked penalties before the winger, Tawhai Taite, scored in the corner. Shirley won a series of rucks, the ball was moved to image and he ran strongly into the gap, drawing two or three defenders before slipping the ball to Taite at the last moment.

Twenty minutes into the second spell, Shirley was rewarded for its sustained pressure on the Lincoln line when Frank Jack dropped a goal from a 5m scrum to front of the posts.

From then on it was all Shirley. Scott scored from a scrum close to the line and Image converted magnificently, into the wind, from the side-line. Then, after two attempts at a pushover try, Shirley scored again, through their number eight,

Robert Hammersley, who had a fine, all-round game. Image capped off the Shirley scoring with a penalty after 78 min. and the game ended in a flurry of attacking movement from both sides, but mistakes were rife.

Shirley’s win was gained through a sustained forward effort and enterprising ancillary work by the backs. Bill Boyd, Kerry Mitchell and Tony Kreft dominated the line-outs and the first five-eighths, Smith, showed out with a couple of dazzling bie SPIRITED UNIVERSITY B Belfast was far from impressive in scoring its third win In as many matches, but the relatively inexperienced University B team gave a sprited display. Had its players been able to hold more passes, the result might have been closer. The students showed a willingness to move the ball through the backline whenever the occasion arose. The attacking potential was at times marred By some poor handling, particularly by the first five-eighths, Phillip Murray. The students did make amends for this by some tenacious tackling and dogged defence.

In the opening stages University won some clean ball in the line-outs with Mike Burke prominent. With the wind at their backs m the first half the students caused problems for the usually resolute Belfast defence.

In the closing stages of play Belfast achieved ascendency in the tight. In this phase of play prop Murray Fink was prominent.

p w L D F A Pts Chch .. 4 4 0 0 108 10 8 Old Boys 3 3 0 0 - '> 13 6 Belfast ., 3 9 0 0 50 25 6 Mer-Pap. 3 3 0 0 45 15 6 Shirl. 4 2 1 1 68 50 5 Univ. A 3 2 1 0 74 4 Lin. 3 2 1 0 62 12 4 Marlst .. 4 2 9 0 57 42 4 Subs. .. 4 2 2 0 46 45 4 Hornby’ 4 1 2 1 35 3 Lin. Coll 3 1 2 0 13 58 2 Bumside 4 1 •? 0 36 105 2 New Bri. 3 1 2 0 33 39 2 Syd. 4 0 4 0 23 102 0 Albion .. 4 0 4 0 27 67 0 Univ. B 3 0 3 0 12 47 0