WAIRARAPA BEATEN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 August 1938, Page 7

WAIRARAPA BEATEN

WIN FOR BUSH RUGBY HOME TEAM GIVES POOR DISPLAY MATCH AT MEMORIAL PARK The Bush Rugby representatives defeated Wairarapa 19-13 at Memorial Park on Saturday afternoon. It was a bright, but for the most part, ragged and uninteresting game. There was little to choose between the teams, but Wairarapa lost, and deserved to, simply because they would not tackle and would not, or could not, turn to account the many scoring opportunities that came their way. Wairarapa completely dominated the issue in the first twenty minutes, and with any sort of enterprise would have put on ten or fifteen points. At the interval the score stood at 5-all, but towards the close of the second spell the Bush forwards took charge, and the homesters had no effective counter for their virile bustling tactics. It was easily Wairarapa’s most disappointing display of the season. In the first ten minutes there was only one team in the picture and Reiri, Thompson and then Denbee went within inches of scoring. Poor backing up and erratic handling, however, saw golden scoring chances go west. The Bush rallied and their forwards broke through and surged to attack. The Wairarapa backs were all out of position when Luke* snapped up and dived across to open Bush’s account. Staples converted. Wairarapa were winning the ball • from the line-outs and set scrums, but their backs failed to make any use of this advantage. After Peterson had missed a pass with the gate wide open, Hatton cut through to score a nice try, which O’Callaghan converted. Early in the second spell, Lett went through a gap to send Connell across. Brown missed. Wairarapa made it honours easy when Reiri slipped round the side of scrum to score. O’Callaghan missed the kick. Wairarapa increased their lead when Peterson raced across for O’Callaghan to convert. Bush then came with a late run and they made up some of the leeway when Luke scored an unconverted try. Wairarapa began to tire badly and Bush took the lead when McSherry made an opening for Hunt to score. Lett converted. Near the close of the spell Bush were playing all over Wairarapa, and they went further into the lead when Connell scored an unconverted try. Mr H. J. Matson was the referee.