1939 CHAMPIONS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20007, 4 August 1939, Page 4

1939 CHAMPIONS

HONOURS TO MARIST LONG UPHILL FIGHT CLEAR-OUT MAJORITY O’BKIEN'fS CONTRIBUTION' I>y “Emergency” Leaving the issue seldom in doubt, Marist convincingly won the Gisborne 1939 senior grade championship when they defeated Old Boys toy 16 points to 9 in the principal attraction at the Oval last Saturday. Marist were seldom in trouble and their backs played with plenty of dash and abandon. They were, perhaps, unfortunate that *Hoy was suffering .from an injury sustained while on tour iwith the representatives, as the play favoured Hoy’s wing, but the winger lacked his usual punch. A point worthy of mention is that Marist’s points came from four tries, two of which were converted by Matt O'Brien, whereas Littler gained all the points for his side with three penalty goals. O’Brien was again prominent, scoring a try and two conversions, to bring his total in club games for the season to 59 and his tally for tne season, including representative matches, to 83. There can be little doubt that O’Brien is the greatest match-winning goal-kicker seen in Gisborne Rugby for many years—perhaps in the history of the code in the Bay. One-third of Points Including last Saturday, Marist so far have scored 177 points in the senior grade. Of these, O’Brien had scored 59, with all but six points—gained from two tries—coming oh his boot. On several occasions he has pulled (the game out of the fire for his team, and he is entitled to a large portion of the credit due to the new champions. Marist lost three fewer games than the runners-up, Old Boys, each team in the grade having two drawn matches. Old Boys were thought to be the most dangerous threat to the championship claims of the blues. The teams met on five occasions, Marist taking the winning honours on three occasions, Old Boy s on one, and one game was drawn. Paradoxically, the game whicTi Marist lost to the whites was one which they were expected to win comfortably. This was the race-day fixture, played on a day when Old Boys were unable to Held a strong team, but on this occasion the whites rose nobly to the occasion and scored a fine ■win.

Few Rugby patrons will begrudge Marist their championship win. Two seasons ago the side was searching for men to fill the ranks of the senior fifteen. The side had not won a game for two years and prospects were of the darkest. On the eve of the opening of the championship series, a player who had been a key man in their rearguard for several seasons transferred to Old Boys. It is somewhat ironic that the defensive weakness of this player ,in the Old Boys’ rearguard was one of the contributing factors towards tile fine win scored by Marist. Two Hard Years After struggling through a season of near disaster, Marist had their reward. In two seasons they have won the Brennan Cup at the Spillane Cup tournament, the Premier Cup, a one-round series in the local senior grade series, and now the senior championship. The defensive work of the Old Boys’ inside backs last Saturday was a negligible quantity and Tom Smiler, the Marist centre, made the most of bis many opportunities. Taken all round, Marist had the best of things, although for one period just before half-time Old Boys were on top, their forwards and backs throwing the ball about in great style. Marist, however, came back to the attack and won a convincing victory. Good Forward Lost This game marked what was probably the final appearance for Marist of that splendid forward, Joe Anderson, who has been transferred to Tuai.

Marist owe a lot to Anderson, who has been a keen member of the senior side for the past few seasons. He has worthily represented both his club and his district. It was thought that the premiers also would lose Christ Anderson and Wrightson after this game, but Anderson will remain in Gisborne until the end of the season, when he will join his brother Joe at Tuai. Wrightson, one of tile most promising forwards

seen locally for several seasons, probr ably will be back in Wairoa before the end of the season. Reverting to the game last Saturday, a word of praise is due to George Phillips, who led the white forwards most of the day. Phillips is a big man, but lie has a great turn of speed and a fair eye for an opening. Given better support from the rest of the forwards, Phillips .might have brought his side closer to victory in this game As it was, the few occasions on which Old ißoys looked like scoring were when Phillips made solo onslaughts on the blue line. Moughan also is deserving of praise for a good display at full-back for Marist. His handling and kicking hardly could be faulted. In the latte stages of the game he made a strong run up the right wing to place his side on the offensive. Marist will make a strong effort to bring off the double by winning the Premier Cup, of which they are now the holders, but they will find that all other teams in the grade will be anxious to up-end them, more especially now that they are the premiers for the 1939 season.