Big effort by Taupo falls just two points short

Taupo Times, Volume 23, Issue 57, 18 July 1974, Page 12

Big effort by Taupo falls just two points short

The Taupo-Athletic Rugby match last Saturday developed into a real ten-sion-packed thriller — especially in the final quarter when Taupo kept launching assault after assault on a very tenacious and desperately defended Athletic goal line. The bid was not good enough, however, and Athletic won 10-8 — and took the Garrett Shield. In the final quarter, Taupo scored two excellent tries — one near enough to the upright for a simple conversion — but kicker M. Wood was well astray with his attempt, as he was with several other attempts to notch points from penalties. Taupo threw the game away in the first half and its backs must have broken their forwards hearts as time after time they mishandled, threw wild passes, i or ran most undecidedly and aimlessly into a strong cover defence which immediately took the initiative by turning defence into attack. The tackling of the Taupo backs too was almost non-existent and this failure led to an excellent try by Murphy the Athletic centre after an

excellent midfield break by Daly. Murphy also kicked a good penalty goal in the early stages for Athletic to lead 7-0 at half-time. Murphy, incidentally must be the only reliable goal kicker in Taupo — he has his fair share of misses but rarely misses when points are needed. In the second half, much of Taupo's errors disappeared and it was then that Athletic was able to show the quality of its defensive play. The cover defence of its loose forward trio of Kuggeleijn, Van der Leden and Marriner was determined and at times desperately fantastic. Time and again they were able to nullify the efforts of Carter as he crashed into the back line, making a score look almost certain — only to have these three arrive on the spot to wrap up man and ball. Others to show out for Athletic were McGill, Story and Dagger in the forwards. P. Whatt, who kicked a neat field goal in the second half, proved the back of the match for the way he dictated much of the trend of the game with judicious kicking. For Taupo, all the forwards played well with Rickard, Harawira and Carter especially prominent. The game was well controlled by referee B. ' Choat, who also showed by his refereeing again on Sunday that he is really back in top form. In an under 19 fixture, Taupo defeated Whakarewarewa 19-15. In the curtain-raiser, a depleted C.O.B. side was soundly beaten 32-4 by Tihoi. For C.O.B. the big lock D. Evans signalled his return to Rugby by playing an outstanding game. Others to show good form were C. Carrington in the forwards and J. Simon and C. Broughton in the backs. For Tihoi, P. Tahere and

B. Andrews were in excellent form in the forwards, while J. Brown and T. Albert showed out in a much superior back line. Points for Tihoi were tries by T. Albert (2), Hepi, Andrews, Wilson and Skiffipgton. M. Rata and R. Skiffington each kicked two conversions. M. John scored a try for C.O.B.