Andy Dickson ensures Northern has a convincing win over Western in 1974.....

Northern continued on its winning way in the Sports Trust Cup series in 1974 when it beat Western convincingly 27-3.

Northern thoroughly deserved to win as they were the better team and with former Southland representative with 31 games under his belt, it was Andy Dickson who led by example.

At half time Northern were leading 10-0 and looked as though they were going to continue the dominance.  It took till the third quarter for Western to get their act together and gained a lot of territorial advantage. They won some good ball from Peter Sinclair and Ken Taylor, a late replacement.  Herb Agnew the new hard working prop was impressive as he buried himself in the tight and mauled effectively.   That was about their lot though as they wasted a lot of opportunities and just could not hold on to the ball.

The fact was that too many of the line outs resulted in tap backs to Murray Heath which just added to the pressure he was under.  Peter Sinclair was unlucky not to score from a set move and showed his pace in getting to the loose ball. 

The outstanding feature of the game was the control shown by the Northern forwards.  They ensured the ball was passed out cleanly from the rucks and lineouts making it easy for ................

The Northern captain, Trevor Payne directed play well and  his kicks from first five eight kept the Western team on the back foot. To Payne's credit he realised in the second half that Western were covering these so he varied his play more.
Centre Mike Ryan impressed with his determined running and expert backing up.  Ryan showed nerve when he was successful with a drop kick.
Tom McNamee (second five eight) and Pat McNamee (full back) with both running strongly. They were well supported by Kevin Harvey.
Both Northern wingers Pat O'Connor and Chris Copeland scored tries with the latter receiving a great ball from Tom McNamee who split the defence of the tiring Western players.

For Western, Ian Dallas (centre) and Brian Thompson were class.

Northern:  P. O'Connor, A. Dickson, J. Riordan, C. Copeland, (1), Mike Ryan (1DG), P. McNamee (2PG) (1 Con)
Western:  A. Dickson (1PG)

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