Memorable tackles
highlight defiant
display of defence
Scotland 6, New Zealand 13
COURAGE personified, Scotland fought a rearguard action for 77 minutes
at Cardiff yesterday, but with only injury time left their resistance
broke. Walter Little ran over for the only try of the Rugby World Cup's
third-place play-off, and New Zealand secured the silver medals.
Finlay Calder and John Jeffrey thus bowed out of international rugby
without the consolation of Scotland's first win in 16 matches against
New Zealand. Calder has tasted defeat in four of those games, Jeffrey in
three.
Some of us have seen more of the All Blacks' 14 wins as well as the
two draws, but at the end of the Cardiff match the feeling was not of
abject disappointment, as it had been after Scotland's defeat by England
on Saturday. Partly yesterday it was resignation that Scotland are fated
against New Zealand: partly it was that Scotland had bravely kept
themselves in the contest.
Here was a rugby match, even if it was peppered with mistakes. The
fervour of the competition on a sunny afternoon could not be denied.
Neither team played as if for consolation. Even third place was a prize
worth winning.
Before Little scored the try, the margin was only 9-6. Jon Preston had
kicked three penalty goals for New Zealand, Gavin Hastings had had two,
and the Scots were threatening. The last quarter was Scotland's best
spell, even though they lost the try in that time.
Yet, based on set-piece possession alone, Scotland should not have
been that close that late. Gary Whetton and Zinzan Brooke exerted heavy
command on the lineout for an hour, and at times the New Zealand
scrummage, if not always legal, wrecked the Scottish platform. Only
three times in the first half did Scotland have attacking scrums, and
twice they were driven off the ball. Twice, too, the All Blacks were
penalised for pushing the scrum before the ball was in.
Scotland's outer game, however, was more productive. They occasionally
sparked rucking close to New Zealand's old class, Gary Armstrong was a
typical terrier on the forwards' heels, and the game that Calder and
Jeffrey played was a heart-rending reminder of what Scotland will miss
now that they have gone from international rugby. The flankers played
with honour to the end, though Calder was once penalised for an apparent
head-butt.
It was a contest without rancour. Rugby was the object, and the one
serious penalty was when Fred Howard, touch judge on the press-box side,
spotted a severe kick on Armstrong by Richard Loe. Steve Hilditch, the
Irish referee, spoke severely to the prop.
When viewed in defensive terms, the Scots were magnificent. At least
half a dozen tackles were memorable, each in its own right. Only
Armstrong's retreating cover denied Terry Wright and Va'aiga Tuigamala
in the first half, Scott Hastings twice thwarted Wright, Doddie Weir
appeared from nowhere to haul Preston into touch at the left corner, and
Jeffrey swept back to save from a John Kirwan kick up the right
touchline.
Tony Stanger and Tuigamala especially felt the weight of the
first-half battle. The New Zealand wing retired at half-time with a torn
hamstring in his left leg, and his opposite number left seven minutes
into the second half with a pulled muscle in his left hip.
Scotland signalled their intentions when they stood up to the All
Blacks' haka before the kick-off. Weir stared Tuigamala down so closely
that the New Zealand wing almost bumped into the Scot on the final leap
of the dance.
With only three minutes gone in the match the Scots had their sign on
the scoreboard. Gavin Hastings kicked the opening penalty goal from 42
metres after New Zealand had strayed offside at a ruck induced by an
Armstrong probe.
Gavin Hastings finished with a striking rate of two out of three, his
second penalty goal pulling the All Blacks back to
9-6 in 73 minutes after the omnipresent Michael Jones had tackled Sean
Lineen high. That score was also reward for a stirring run by Scott
Hastings out of his own twenty-two, prompted by his brother and
supported by Calder.
Preston had seven kicks at the posts and scored with three. He
equalised in 12 minutes after a ruck infringement, his second goal
penalised Calder's reputed head-butt, giving New Zealand the half-time
lead, and his third, like the first, from more than 40 metres, came from
Weir's lineout obstruction on Ian Jones.
Soon afterwards Gavin Hastings, running at full tilt, gathered a
Shayne Philpott kick and countered strongly up the right touchline.
Suddenly, the Scots were in the attacking groove, and they had the
lineout provisions to do it from Jeffrey, Chris Gray, Derek White, and
Weir. Until then White, now the only survivor of the back-row
musketeers, had been the main source of Scotland's limited touchline
possession.
Throughout the last quarter the Scots played their most forceful
rugby. The Hastings brothers, Iwan Tukalo, and Armstrong were the
principals. John Allan and Gray chipped in notable back-up in liaison
with the breakaway trio.
Briefly, after Craig Chalmers had trapped Wright in the New Zealand
twenty-two, the Scots camped on the All Blacks' goal-line. White and the
sniping Armstrong were held there.
Most of the threats, however, were from longer range, and when the
Scots tried once too often to run out of defence Armstrong was clobbered
by Michael Jones. The loose ball eluded Chalmers, the All Blacks swept
it away, and Wright put Little over on the left, though too far out for
Preston to convert.
Scotland -- A G Hastings (Watsonians); A G Stanger (Hawick), S
Hastings (Watsonians), S R P Lineen (Boroughmuir),
I Tukalo (Selkirk); C M Chalmers (Melrose), G Armstrong (Jed-Forest);
D M B Sole, captain, J Allan (both Edinburgh Academicals), A P Burnell
(London Scottish), C A Gray (Nottingham), G W Weir (Melrose), J Jeffrey
(Kelso), D B White (London Scottish), F Calder (Stewart's Melville FP).
Replacement -- P W Dods (Gala) for Stanger (47 minutes).
New Zealand -- T J Wright; J J Kirwan, C R Innes (all Auckland), W K
Little (North Harbour), V Tuigamala (Auckland);
J Preston, G T M Bachop (both Canterbury); S C McDowell, S B T
Fitzpatrick (both Auckland), R W Loe (Waikato), I D Jones (North
Auckland), G W Whetton (Auckland), captain, A T Earl (Canterbury), Z V
Brooke, M Jones (both Auckland). Replacement -- S J Philpott
(Canterbury) for Tuigamala (half-time).
Referee -- S R Hilditch (Ireland).
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