Athletic takes 1 point lead in Garrett Shield

Taupo Times, Volume 23, Issue 52, 2 July 1974, Page 14

Athletic takes 1 point lead in Garrett Shield

Athletic — which had the bye — is the clear leader in the Garrett Shield Rugby competition as a result of Taupo drawing with C.O.B. in a thrilling match on Saturday.

In another close game, Tihoi, playing at home, staved off United 23-21. Athletic has 8 points, Taupo 7, Tihoi 6, C.O.B. 5 and United 2. The last, quarter of the Taupo — C.O.B. game produced the most tense and exciting Rugby seen on the domain this year. With the score locked at 3-all both sides could claim to be unlucky. Both had chances to score tries which were either stopped by good solid defence or by mishandling errors. C.O.B. could perhaps be deemed the unluckier as it had territorial advantage, especially in the first half, and its kicker missed five attempts at penalties, three of which were simple shots. Taupo had a dominance of the scrums and, with the number of tight heads it won, it was most surprising that it could not take control of the game. C.O.B. showed, however, that it was not unduly worried by lack of possession and players would launch themselves into the Taupo backripe causing

constant breakdowns to Taupo's efforts to turn clean ball possession to good use. It was from these breakdowns that one saw the C.O.B. forwards at their very best. They often made 40 to 50 metres with concerted driving, bustling play. These moves often stopped just short of Taupo's goal line. Unfortunately for C.O.B., Taupo would inevitably gain possession from the ensuing scrums and its first-five K. Darlington would once again kick downfield where this pattern of play would begin all over agaim Points for both teams were scored in the first half when.R. Flavell for C.O.B. and K. Darlington for Taupo both kicked penalties to make the half-time and final score 3-all. For Taupo, K. Darlington looked the best back, while E. Harawira, T. Carter and C. Crowther stood out in the forwards. For C.O.B., C. Broughton played outstandingly well in the backs and G. Wall, J. Tawera and D. Evans were the pick of a very solid forward pack.

TIHOI v UNITED If poor goal kicking was the order of the day in the C.O.B. — Taupo clash, it was very much the same in the Tihoi — United game. Of the nine tries scored, only one was converted — a try away out in the corner. The others were near enough to the uprights to be converted with a minimum of effort. Both the kickers, however, notched one penalty each in this game. Tihoi beat United 23-21 after leading 15-7 at halftime. As the score indicated, the game was close, but Tihoi looked a far better team in both the forwards and backs. It dominated play in the first half by gaining cleaner possession and the Tihoi backs were always dangerous when moving the ball. TheTJnited backs are all young and their inexperieflce in not marking and moving up more quickly on to their more experienced and faster opponents allowed Tihoi to run in three good tries in this spell. The United forwards, too, were working once again as individuals and not as a unit — with the

result that its possession to its backs was often untidy and slow. This allowed the Tihoi loose forwards to move through and upset the United midfield attack. In the second half many of these mistakes by United disappeared as the side improved. The Tihoi allround play, in contrast, began to slump, with the result that United was able to score 14 points to Tihoi's eight. Of the Tihoi forwards P. Tahere, L. Latimer and K. Reweti stood out in the tight and J. Stewart was in excellent form in the loose. In the backs B. Albert, N. Kydd and J. Brown all had good games. K. Palmer, S. Dewes and P. Hickey were the pick of the United forwards, and S. Broughton, C. Rameka and R. Habib looked promising in the backs. Reweti, P. Tahere, B. Albert and Brown scored tries and M. Rata kicked a penalty. For United, K. Hurae, Dewes (2) and P. Kahu scored tries and Broughton kicked a conversion and a penalty.