League: Lions roar in with double victory at grandfinals

By PETER JESSUP

The Mt Albert club underlined its resurgence with a double-barrelled victory in the Bartercard Cup and Fox Memorial grandfinals at Ericsson Stadium yesterday.

Marist-Richmond failed to recover from a slow start in the Bartercard game, the Lions running in early tries and holding a lead throughout. In the Fox, they kept reigning champs Mangere East to a two-point lead at halftime and scored the only try of the second 40.

"We're back," said club president Tony Sadgrove. "We want to again be the power we once were."

The Bartercard grandfinal teams provide seven of the 21 players named yesterday for a train-on squad to prepare to face the Jim Beam Cup competition winners from New South Wales in the curtainraiser to next month's test. Five players are from the winners and two from the beaten grandfinalists.

Otahuhu/Ellersllie, who fell one step short of the grandfinal, provide a further five players and none of those selected comes from franchises outside the top-five playoff teams.

Interest in the NPC final focused on the performance of Marcus Perenara, who has the chance to move up from this grade to the October 16 test, but that is more a sign of the dearth of halves than of his form.

Older brother Bernard played the better of the two yesterday. Marcus ran out of steam and would need a major fitness routine to ready him for his first international.

Lions captain Steve Buckingham guided his side to victory brilliantly.

He produced two decisive pieces of magic - running at the tiring Brothers forwards from 15m out to stem a burst of Marist-Richmond scoring and hold the lead, then producing a run-around and delivering the ball to veteran Gus Malietoa-Brown, charging and changing the angle for the decider.

That second bit of brilliance came thanks to the great defence that marked the Lions' performance.

Buckingham's downfield kick landed in-goal, the Brothers passing three times behind their line in a bid to get back to the field of play past wall-to-wall defenders. The try followed a goal-line drop-out.

If there was a defender who stood out it was secondrower Reagan Wigg - the deserving winner of the Ken Stirling Medal as player of the grandfinal. It was his third trophy game, after a win and a loss with Hibiscus Coast.

For Brothers, coach Bernie Perenara it was second time unlucky at the big game. He was unsure about continuing next year.

They lost centre Ricky Henry with a split hand in the first minutes and although he returned he played a subdued part. Captain Henry Turua was also sidelined for a time with concussion. There was a problem with the game clock and timekeeping, too, and injury time was not added on. "We lost five minutes I reckon and it put pressure on us to score."

But they made too many mistakes to win and Perenara agreed the right team won.

The Lions' two wingers were the first scorers, continuing good form they've shown through the season.

Misili Manu opened after 10 minutes when quick hands beat the up-and-in defence of the Brothers. Rowan Baxter followed him across at 16 minutes, diving under tackles from dummy-half.

The Brothers had opportunities but their combinations were off. Last-passes went to touch, wrong options were taken and tries bombed.

It was 29 minutes before they crossed thanks to a solo run from halfback Bernard Perenara, who beat the big forwards.

But the Lions responded almost immediately. Buckingham changed the direction of the attack and a brilliant off-load from fullback Andreas Bauer to Wigg followed.

Right on halftime Malietoa-Brown regathered his own chip-kick and the tiring Brothers defence couldn't stop him from barging over.

The Brothers needed a quick response and it came from Bernard Perenara again. He broke the line midfield and delivered a great pass for fullback Jan Tiavale to go under the posts.

They closed to 22-16 when left wing Misi Taulapapa profited after the Lions failed to cover a bomb.

But as the Brothers retreated from the goal-line Junior Kiwi Robinson Godfrey and Bernard Perenara exchanged words and then punches and both were sin-binned.

Buckingham stepped his way to a try under the bar. Brothers centre Ricky Henry replied down the left flank and it was 28-20.

When the Lions forced a goal-line drop-out in the 70th minute, Buckingham was allowed to run on the return and he found Malietoa-Brown coming at speed on an angle to take it under the bar again. The conversion put them safely at 34-20.

Manu got his second with two minutes to go. Halfback Kelvin Wright ran off the scrum and delivered a slip-pass, Manu put one hand in the air as he crossed half-way and he realised he had the last points in the bank, the cover left well behind.