Fifty Years Ago - Round 12, 1971

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George Peterson's weekly review of all the action from fifty years ago this week - all the way back in 1971 - continues!

Since 1967 when Cronulla and Penrith were invited to join the NSWRL competition the ‘Home and Away' system has seen each team play 11 opponents twice and after 22 matches the top four teams meet in the finals series.   

After the first half of the ‘Home and Away' matches for 1971  led the competition on 20 points (10 wins).  were second on 18 points (9 wins).  were St George fourth on 14.  The next three teams were, 12 points,11 andwith 10.  Wests Magpies with one win and Norths Bears with two are already planning for next year.  

St George (14) defeated Souths (12) in a match that lived up to its billing, as Match of the Round.  27,854 fans headed to the SCG and they were not to be disappointed.   

St George dominated the first half, (to lead 12 - 6) after tries to forward's Barry Cox and Barry Beath while fullback Graeme Langlands converted both tries and kicked a penalty goal.  Rabbitohs centre Ray Branigan potted three penalties. (Regular goal kicker Eric Simms did not play and his absence might have cost the Redfern team the match, as both 2^nd half tries went unconverted.)  

The turning point came ten minutes into the 2^nd half when South's prop John O'Neill was sent off by the referee for a "deliberate knee to the face of an opponent".  Langlands again converted the penalty stretching Saints lead out to eight. Barry Beath the recipient of the knee left the field and later had seven stitches inserted in a wound just above his nose.  The loss of O'Neill would be felt later as his remaining teammates struggled to win possession from scrums against the experienced St George front row.  However, reduced to twelve players, the extra space seemed to spark Souths into life as they ran in tries to centre Bob Honan and winger Keith Edwards setting up a spine tingling last 15 minutes.  The Rabbitohs were starved of possession as Saints' hooker Col Rasmussen dominated the scrums, winning five out of the last six, set pieces.  Despite being leg weary St George held on. Players from both teams collapsed to the turf at the final siren.   

On Sunday 8,190 fans turned up at Penrith Park and went away happy as their team sprang an upset win over Balmain, a team hoping to play semi-final football.  Penrith 21 defeated Balmain 17 with both teams scoring three tries and only ill-discipline and penalty goals proving the difference.  9 - 9 at half time and based on form the Tigers were expected to prove too strong in the 2^nd half.  It was not to be.   Penrith Surged to a 19 - 9 lead, after two converted tries. The try that changed the flow of the match, came after an intercept by Dave Applebee which led to winger Reg Hatton scoring on the end of an 80-yard charge.   Balmain fought back with two tries of their own, but accuracy in goal kicking proved the difference. 

Goal kicking was also a critical factor in the match between the Bears and Sharks at North Sydney Oval. Cronulla (17)defeated North Sydney (16) in a match that the home team should have won.  The smallest home crowd on a sunny Sunday (4,602) became frustrated as their team outplayed the visitors scoring 4 tries to 3 but were unable to add the extras.  Goal kickers are rarely mentioned in match reports but today Norths John Booby, kicking just 2 goals from 7 attempts had his name up in lights.  Bears  should also take some blame, as he watched his kicker miss from in front (twice) but still gave him the ball to attempt goals as the game started slipping away.  Sadly, this match added to the narrative I grew up with, the ‘poor old' Bears seemed to find ways to lose matches rather than the reverse.   

Over at Henson Park Newtown (6) lost to Easts (19) in a one-sided affair.   (writing for SMH) dedicated his column to discussing the leadership of the Roosters, praising reserve grade captain Les Hayes and suggesting that his work filling in for injured players in the last two weeks, should be made permanent and he should lead the first-grade team as well.   As for the match, Pearce did note that the Newtown team spent much of the first quarter attacking the Roosters line, but failed to score.  That opportunity would not come again as the visitors ran in three tries to nil.  Les Hayes was one of the try scorers alongside Johnny Mayes and Kevin Goldspink.  

Canterbury-Bankstown (26) defeated wooden spoon candidates Wests Magpies (6) at Belmore Oval. Canterbury, after losing to Wests by 43 points in round one, were bent on revenge.  The ‘Dogs' played a dour and defence orientated first half with three penalty goals to Club Legend , the only action on the scoreboard.  The 2^nd half was different as Wests scored their first try to trail 3 - 6, but the home team ran in four tries in the last 18 minutes to shut out the Lidcombe boys.  A 79th

A public holiday Monday gave the NSWRL a chance to showcase two of the top four teams, (Manly and Parramatta) but round 12 results have already created a gulf between the best and the rest.  This gap might also be the reason why 55,000 less paying customers have attended the first half of 1971. Like last year the top four at the half-way mark have cleared out.  With both Balmain and Newtown losing this weekend, the top four are already four points clear of the rest.   

34,859 arrived at the SCG to support their heroes.  Those who crossed the ‘Bridge' would have returned very satisfied, indeed.  Manly (31) defeated Parramatta (14). Alan Clarkson, at the Herald wrote, "Taking control in the first 10 minutes of the game, Manly trounced Parramatta seven tries to two and won a one-sided match".  Parramatta had been expected to stretch the ‘Brookvale Millionaires' but they never went close.   

After a first half goal by Parramatta's Keith Campbell, the Sea Eagles English forward Malcolm Reilly took the kick-off, broke open the Eels defence and passed to Bob Fulton who raced away to score. Next the Eels defence took a ‘dummy' from Peter Peters who scored untouched and soon after, Ken Irvine swooped on a Parramatta dropped ball and raced 80 yards to score.  With three tries in 8 minutes, Manly surged to an 11 - 2 lead. Parramatta fought back twice, first reaching 9 - 16 and later 14 - 21, but each time Manly scored again to put the match out of reach.   

Later on Monday evening, Bob O'Reilly and Keith Campbell from Parramatta would join Bob Fulton from Manly in being selected for the three match tour of NZ.  A further 7 players were provided by Souths (4) and St George (3).