Canes take Carisbrook bore-a-thon
Fri, 07 Mar 2008 10:39
The Hurricanes recorded their third win when they edged the Highlanders 10-6 in what is officially the most boring Super 14 game of the season, at Carisbrook in Dunedin on Friday.
The only try of the match was scored by Jerry Collins in the 10th minute and the last point was scored in the 26th minute - with the poor level of skill on show making a mockery of the attempts to use the Experimental Law Variations (ELVs) to make the game more entertaining.
Drab! It really was drab. Apart from a golden moment from the Hurricanes and a burst after the final siren, it was uniformly drab.
The Highlanders enjoyed a vast majority of possession and territory but never, never looked like scoring a try. Not even when they had got to four metres from the Hurricanes line did they look like scoring.
The Highlanders were the major contributors to the dullness of this Dunedin match. Not that the Hurricanes did not contribute.
The handling was poor. At one stage in successive movements, one by each side, the final pass went into touch. Knock followed knock. Even at the end and with a new scrumhalf on the field the Highlanders passed the ball at the opponents' feat. The Highlanders ran across the field and then in desperation tried diagonal kicks. Their kicks led to four easy marks. They also led to drop-outs. It was poor. The goal-kicking was poor - two goaled and three simple ones missed. This led to kicking for the line-out but these, kicks, too, were short. The Hurricanes kicking out of hand was no better.
Scruffy scrums and inaccurate line-outs also did not help the flow of the game. The Hurricanes were penalised four times at scrums. In fact they were penalised 13 times to the Highlanders four. 13 penalties, not free kicks. There were another nine of those.
In other words it was a match of many, many errors of all possible kinds. There were more than a hundred stoppages in the match. That is a lot, and there was no bad weather to blame.
Drab!
No points were scored in the whole of the second half. No points were scored for 55 minutes.
No wonder there were empty seats at Carisbrook.
The Highlanders dominated early territory and possession but the Hurricanes scored the ten points which turned out to be enough.
First Jimmy Gopperth kicked a penalty goal when Jimmy Cowan was off-side at a scrum. 3-0 after six minutes. Then came the golden moment of the try, the sparkling jewel on a dull background.
James Wilson was tackled and Rodney So'oialo won the turn-over at the tackle. Jason Eaton flicked the ball to Piri Weepu and the Hurricanes went left with by far the best bit of running and passing of the match. They ran straight and passed short, in front and waist high. They went wide to the touch-line where Gopperth passed inside. Two more passes and Jerry Collins was running clear to the line. It was a moment of simple beauty - never to be repeated in the match.
Gopperth converted. 10-0 after 9 minutes. That was the end of Hurricanes' scoring in the match. They did not again look like scoring.
When aggressive John Schwalger was penalised at a scrum James Wilson goaled. He missed one when Tim Fairbrother was penalised at a scrum but then goaled a when Andrew Hore was penalised for a high tackle. 10-6 after 25 minutes.
Here endeth the scoring.
Wilson missed another kick at goal and in the second half Daniel Bowden was way wide with a simple kick, after which the Highlanders gave up kicking at goal.
That missed kick was for a gross high tackle by Ma'a Nonu which earned the erratic wing ten minutes in the sin bin and in fact ended his game as when his time was up Tane Tu'ipulotu took his place. It was a tackle gross enough to attract some citing commissioners.
At the death, Johnny Leota knocked on a dipping pass from Toby Morland who was on for Jimmy Cowan who had left the field. Cowan had produced the best Highlanders break of the day but was mowed down and suffered a nose bleed.
There was a scrum but the determined Highlanders turned Hurricane possession into a maul and a free kick when the ball did not emerge. Siren gone, they went through 14 phases. Twice they got to within four metres of the Hurricanes' line, but eventually they capitulated and kicked a diagonal which Gopperth caught, marked and kicked out.
Man of the Match: The candidates are probably Jimmy Cowan of the Highlanders, Rodney So'oialo and Jerry Collins of the Hurricanes. Our vote goes to Rodney So'oialo for his great contribution on defence. He was even his team's best line-out forwqard.
Moment of the Match: Jerry Collins's try and all that made it.\
Villain of the Match: Ma'a Nonu. Not for the first time.
The scorers:
For the
Highlanders:
Pens: Wilson 2
For the Hurricanes:
Try: Collins
Con: Gopperth
Pen: Gopperth
Yellow card: Ma'a Nonu (Hurricanes, 55 - foul play, dangerous tackle)
Teams:
Highlanders: 15 James Wilson, 14 Paul Williams, 13 Niva Ta'auso, 12 Johnny Leota, 11 Fetu'u Vainikolo, 10 Daniel Bowden, 9 Jimmy Cowan, 8 Steven Setephano, 7 Tim Boys, 6 Craig Newby (captain), 5 Tom Donnelly, 4 Isaac Ross, 3 Clint Newland, 2 Jason Macdonald, 1 Jamie Mackintosh.
Replacements: 16 David Hall, 17 Keith Cameron, 18 Hoani MacDonald, 19 Adam Thomson, 20 Toby Morland, 21 Michael Delany, 22 Brett Mather.
Hurricanes: 15 Shannon Paku, 14 Ma'a Nonu, 13 Conrad Smith, 12 Tamati Ellison, 11 Hosea Gear, 10 Jimmy Gopperth, 9 Piri Weepu, 8 Rodney So'oialo (captain), 7 Scott Waldrom, 6 Jerry Collins, 5 Jason
Eaton, 4 Craig Clarke, 3 Tim Fairbrother, 2 Andrew Hore, 1 John Schwalger.
Replacements: 16 Hikawera Elliot, 17 Jacob Ellison, 18 Jeremy Thrush, 19 Thomas Waldrom, 20 Alby Mathewson, 21 Willie Ripia, 22 Tane Tu'ipulotu.
Referee: Bryce Lawrence (New Zealand)
Touch judges: Keith Brown (New Zealand), Vinny Munro (New Zealand)
Television match official: Shane McDermott (New Zealand)
Assessor: Alan Riley (New Zealand)
