facebook   twitter   mail  

The Nelson Photo News

 

34

Combined "12" - Lions "8"

Let s be parochial and forget about the first half. It was in that spell that the Lions ran up 23 points to lead 23-0 at the interval. So, let's forget it.

What a game fullback Trevor Morris would have had. Morris, out of rugby because of a broken leg, had the knack of rising to the occasion and his normally accurate boot would have been handy. During the first half the Combined Nelson Bays-Marlborough men let the Lions look good. In the second half they discovered that solid tackling gained results; incisive running opened gaps; powerful barging scored tries. And the result was that, at the time of writing, Combined scored more tries against the Lions than any other team.

True the tendency to relax after such a lead must have had its effect on the British Lions and their effort in the second spell might have had more purpose if Combined had scored from all kicking chances. If that had happened, and the Lions' performance was the same, the final score would have been in the vicinity of 41-31 to Combined instead of 31-12 to the Lions.

×

This is what Combined needed - an accurate kicker of the calibre of England's Bob Hitler, here converting a try by Alastair Biggar

×

Graeme Ross, Combined winger, hurls himself onto Alastair Biggar but too late to prevent the flying Scotsman from scoring his third try

×

Leaping high to win the line-out is Combined lock Russell Dickson but judging by the looks of the other players the ball has gone over his head. Others in the line, from right are: Tom Forrest (No.2), Sean Lynch, Bruce Smith (No.3), Richard May (No.9), Jimmy Joseph, Gordon Brown, Ian McLauchlan (the "Mighty Mouse" who scored the only try in the first test), Bevan Grant, Ray Sutherland and Derek Quinnell