TOO CLOSE: ABET Matt Hauraki from HMNZS Te Kaha fends off an impassioned tackle from a HMAS Canberra player while contesting the Lou Smith Cup which the Kiwis won.

Photo: ABPH Brenton Freind

By Michael Brooke

The RAN’s ‘rugby warriors’ from HMAS Canberra have failed in a valiant bid to tear the coveted Lou Smith Cup from the clutches of the RNZN.

The RNZN retained the cup after HMNZS Te Kaha defeated HMAS Canberra 53-12 in a bruising rugby battle played out in pouring rain at the Navy oval at Randwick on July 15.

The sting of defeat was particularly bitter for the crew of Canberra who tackled themselves to a standstill to hold the Kiwis to 12-12 at half time, only to be steam-rolled in the second half after losing several key players to injury.

The match was a very physical encounter played in the fighting spirit of Anzac that has come to typify Lou Smith matches since the first game in 1933.

The Canberra team were under no illusions about the difficulty of the task before them.

Team coach CPO Tony Doherty told his charges before kick-off that the Lou Smith Cup is the navy equivalent of the Bledisloe Cup and that they would probably never play in a harder, more physical game.

Determined Australian faces were confronted with the New Zealanders’ Haka before kick-off.

The game began with rampaging runs and bone-rattling tackles which brought gasps from the crowd of about 300 spectators including New Zealand’s Chief of Navy RADM David Ledson and Maritime Component Commander CDRE Jack Steer.

As the match progressed, play resembled two giant sumo wrestlers charging into each other kamikaze style, without thought of self-preservation.

Suddenly on the 15th, minute the RAN’s fleet-footed LSET Chris Bohan broke away from his man and raced 30m to score under the posts.

No sooner had the Aussies converted the try than the Kiwis hit back through their power-house forwards who got over the line with a series of driving mauls. Conversion levelled the score 7-7.

After the award of an RAN scrum penalty, the RAN forwards showed dogged determination to drive over the top of the mammoth Kiwi pack to make the score 12-7 but they missed the conversion.

The Kiwis managed to equalise just before half-time when both teams stumbled off the field, dazed and bleeding from numerous cuts and wounds sustained in a match which was rapidly becoming a battle of attrition. Ominously, thunder clouds rolled in during the second half and pouring rain further dampened the hopes of an RAN victory.

Injuries to key RAN players helped the Kiwi pack dominate the second stanza. The score was 43-12 with four minutes of play remaining and the Kiwis scored two more tries before the final hooter.

The captain of the RNZN team, Te Kaha’s WO Mark Tapsell, raised the Lou Smith Cup overhead at fulltime and praised the RAN for their courageous effort.

He also lauded Kiwi hooker Able Seaman David Reti for his Man of the Match performance that featured many bull-dozing runs in the second half.

Commodore Flotillas CDRE Peter Lockwood congratulated both teams for an exciting match.

He said the game measured up to the tradition we have come to expect from Lou Smith Cup matches.

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