Canterbury poised to canter home

By CHRIS LAIDLAW

There doesn't seem to be the slightest doubt that Canterbury will take this year's championship at a canter.

Having disposed of Wellington a fortnight ago, they have effectively leapt the last hurdle.

Only Wellington among all the contenders are really capable of beating this Canterbury side, and their chance to do so has come and gone.

It seems a pity, because the competition from now will be a one-horse race no matter how vigorously the Canterbury management will protest otherwise.

All that Canterbury have to do from here on is to play to the level they have set in the second half of the competition, a level that is quite simply beyond the reach of all the other likely semifinalists.

Why do Canterbury have this competitive edge? It is partly a question of the overall quality of their squad and its extraordinary depth.

But it is more than that. The team have a resilience that is born of absolute faith in the cause and in each other.

The comeback against Wellington was as complete a demonstration of patience, intelligence and composure as we have seen in this country for a decade or more.

They deserved to win that match if for no other reason than their ability to hold their nerve, while Wellington comprehensively lost theirs.

And they showed New Zealanders that at least some teams don't crumble when the heat comes on.

Most media attention has focused on the stars - Marshall, Mehrtens, Blair and Vunibaka - expecting them to perform miracles, but they have to a large extent simply been cogs in a bigger machine.

It is the grafters who have pulled Canterbury through. Hewitt, Somerville, Sexton, Feek and Blackadder have each in their own way been outstanding over the past month, doing the basics better and getting to the breakdowns more cohesively than their opponents, more consistently and with more telling effect.

The Canterbury backs have become masters of the instant movement of the ball to create space, even deep on defence.

This depends crucially on players' confidence in each other. It is exhilarating to watch and extremely difficult to counter.

The only other team in the competition who are vaguely competitive in this area are Counties Manukau, but they have simply not had enough ball to get away with it.

Marshall and Mehrtens have begun to concentrate on providing the hinge rather than trying to win matches singlehandedly, and as a result the Canterbury machine is humming.

We haven't yet seen the best of the Mauger brothers, or of Leon Macdonald, but each is a game-breaker in his own right, and with Caleb Ralph constantly threatening, Canterbury can create openings even if two or three of their backs have a relatively off-day.

It was this mix of qualities that made the Auckland team in the late 1980s so irresistible, and we may be in for a similar dynastic era. Let's hope it rubs off on the All Blacks.

Wayne Smith laid the foundation for it and John Mitchell would be very foolish not to build on this nucleus of genuine resilience.