Rugby: Foxes flattened by Mooloo steamroller

By Chris Rattue

HAMILTON - There will be no singing in the Valley.

Brave as the Swamp Foxes' Ranfurly Shield challenge was, they were run over by a rolling maul at Rugby Park in Hamilton yesterday.

After holding Waikato to 3-8 in the first half, second-division Thames Valley were beaten 37-8 in the Mooloos' second defence of the season.

A crowd of 3500, many of them supporting the visitors, witnessed a large body mass of black, red and yellow - namely the Waikato forwards - rumbling around Rugby Park in a reminder of how the best teams like Auckland played the game before the lawmakers tried to break up endless rolling mauls.

There was often brave and very successful Thames Valley defence which met this creature from the past. Inevitably though, enough of the tryline became visible for Waikato to score three of their five tries using this ancient weapon of destruction.

The first went to prop David Briggs, who charged over in the third minute but it took another 44 minutes before the ploy worked again, when hooker Greg Smith got the first of his two tries.

It was a tribute to the unfancied challengers that they kept Waikato at bay so many times.

Thames Valley came to Hamilton hoping to test Waikato by moving the ball and would not have expected such a forward-oriented defence of the shield. Even Waikato coach Kiwi Searancke was surprised by the ploy.

"We might have overused it. I think it's one of those things where you've got to sit down with the forwards afterwards and find out why they went that way," he said.

Waikato's reliance on the forward drive eventually worked, and it was probably the end result of what Searancke described as a tough couple of weeks.

Many of the Waikato players have been involved in major club games, others have been coming and going through representative commitments, and the holders had lost around a dozen players to injury and the Maori tour to Fiji.

When in doubt, go back to what you know - and Waikato have a great tradition of rumbling sides back through forward power. The score would have been higher if Matthew Cooper had managed better than five out of 10 kicks for goal.

The only time Waikato really broke free was in the 50th minute,when they produced a superb team try finished by first five-eighths Michael Blank.

Valley coach Norm Pratt praised his side's defence, and their "guts," which brought them the game's final try, to hooker Roger Wilton. But he had hoped they would protect the ball-carrier more, and the backline needed plenty of work.

Their challenge was led by a superb Josh Kronfeld-type performance from openside flanker Simon McKearney, and powerful defence from their midfield backs Steven Hill and Sheldon Waetford.

Waikato will now regroup. Searancke names his NPC squad on Monday, and hopes to have the Maori players back for the next shield defence, against Hawkes Bay on August 7.

Waikato 37 (Greg Smith 2, David Briggs, Michael Blank, Isaac Boss tries; Matthew Cooper 3 con, 2 pen), Thames Valley 8 (Roger Wilton try; Teri Rahui pen). Halftime: 8-3.