Cantabs flying high (and more...)

September 26, 2005

The Red Terror was getting in some downtime bracing surf and storms on Cape Breton Island for a couple weeks -- no internet, no TV, beyond cell phone range, but with his trusted shortwave radio -- and trying to keep tabs on the world of rugby. Right now I'm still awaiting some weeks old NPC tapes, but the catching up has been fun.

Last week Canterbury turned aside Waikato's Ranfurly Shield challenge at Jade Stadium in Christchurch. The final score of 23-15 doesn't tell how close the game actually was: up until the games' final minute, Canterbury were leading by a slim point. The Mooloo Men of Waikato were leading the contest 15-13 until the 74th minute, when Cantab fullback Ben Blair lined up a penalty goal from the sideline and casually slotted it to give his team a one-point lead. Waikato was panic-stations during the last minute, and threw the ball around only for Canterbury replacement winger Vilimoni Delasau to soccer the loose ball over the Waikato line, pounce and dot the ball to seal the deal at the game's final whistle.

Waikato's Byron Kelleher made a return to rugby following his prolonged injury spell after he was flatlined by Springbok Victor Matfield in the All Blacks test in the first week of September. One might have expected rust from Kelleher, but the feisty scrumhalf was at the top of his game, and scored one of the most electrifying tries of his career. Kelleher was flying wide toward the wing, collected a sweet bounce from a wipers kick, brushed off a pair of defenders, got ankle-tapped, somehow kept his balance and feet moving, then fought off two-defenders to power at the line. In all, he left four reds either strewn on the ground or clutching his jersey in his wake. Awesome stuff! Byron is no doubt eager to regain the black jersey that's been sitting a little too comfortably upon the shoulders of his replacement Piri Weepu.

Player of the game was Waikato's immense flanker Sione Lauaki who was a one-man wrecking crew. Lauaki was in storming form, and certainly played with a lot more confidence and muscle than he did while replacing Jerry Collins for the All Blacks' final Tri-Nations test against the Wallabies. Lauaki made several highlight plays during the game, but the abiding memories were his wasting of Cameron McIntyre in a bone-jarring tackle, and later his fine retrieval of a kicked ball, where he collected and ran overtop of diminutive Ben Blair. Pity the little guys!

But in the end, and despite the red & blacks missing All Black stalwarts like Dan Carter, Richie McCaw, Chris Jack, Leon McDonald and Aaron Mauger, the Cantabrians experience, talent and patience won them the day. This is a team with so much self-belief in their colours and home fans, I can only tip my hat in admiration at how consistently this team suits up and wins with players that don't look up to it. Somehow, they jump into telephone boxes wearing nerdy glasses, pull red and black jersey onto their backs, and then leap back out and might as well be wearing capes.

This past weekend, these same Cantabs again repelled Wellington's challenge. The Red Terror has not seen the game yet -- there's still another day before TV up here televises the tape-delay -- but early reports say the game, despite only one try in its entirety, was a classic.

In other news, Anton Oliver made a huge return to Otago after his long lay-off, and even scored two rare tries in his teams 26-10 win over Taranaki. The former All Black captain has always been one of the Red Terror's favorite athletes -- and would like to direct your attention to a nice recent feature story of him here -- and hopes he can exert pressure on Keven Mealamu and get back into a black jersey (hopefully) for the Northern tours this November. Carl Hoeft departs Otago for Castres in France; Waikato captain Jono Gibbes is out for the rest of the year; and England's Jason Robinson has dropped a bombshell and announced his retirement from the international scene. I suppose a lot of us will always remember the bustling try Robinson scored against the Wallabies in the 2003 Rugby World Cup final, but during his time with the Lions tour this past season in New Zealand, it looked as if the formerly scary winger/fullback was playing the Invisible Man.

Back soon with more updates...