Christchurch claimed their third double of the millenium, producing superb
wet-weather rugby to beat Linwood 19-3 in yesterday's Canterbury Trophy final at Rugby Park.
Cup winners earlier in the season, Christchurch took their overall tally of silverware for the decade to nine comprising six cups and three trophies with the 2009 team emulating the double-winning teams of 2000 and 2005.
"It's just awesome," captain and hooker Will Hurst said.
Christchurch claimed their third double of the millenium, producing superb wet-weather rugby to beat Linwood 19-3 in yesterday's Canterbury Trophy final at Rugby Park.
Cup winners earlier in the season, Christchurch took their overall tally of silverware for the decade to nine comprising six cups and three trophies with the 2009 team emulating the double-winning teams of 2000 and 2005.
"It's just awesome," captain and hooker Will Hurst said.
LIFTING THEIR GAME: Christchurch's Chris Mason, left, and Linwood's Finauga Segi contest a lineout at Rugby Park in Christchurch yesterday
Having lost the toss and been given the wind for the first half, Christchurch made sure Linwod paid for their generosity. There was barely a moment in the opening spell when the match was played out of Linwood's territory, as halfback Steve Alfeld and five-eighths Tim Priest and Corey Simpson expertly plugged the corners en route to securing a 19-0 halftime lead.
"I said [to the players] `if we get our heads up and they get their heads down, we'll come out on top'," Hurst said.
"In the second half we just had to make sure we didn't play defensive rugby and still try to attack, even into the wind. We talked all week about having
two-man tackling with one going low and one going for the ball and it made a hell of a difference.
"We started playing [in Spain] on the 15th of February and it's now the 16th of August, so it's been a long season and the guys have done really well."
Stuck in their own half and unable to go forward, Linwood barely fired a shot. Their body position was generally too high, their lineout was ordinary again, they threw panic passes and could not use their defence to gain any momentum.
Their tacklers like to hurt the opposition and, on a fine day, the Linwood players can plant their feet and launch themselves at runners, but Christchurch were too clever and too nimble yesterday, forcing the Linwood defenders to fall off an alarming number of tackles.
"We lost it in the first half. Finals footy got to some of the boys and we just didn't come up with the goods," Linwood captain Nathan Naqova said.
"Nothing went well for us in the first half at all, and it's pretty hard to come back from 19-0 down, but we're proud of what we've done. Making the final was good for us and, hopefully, we'll go one better next year."
About the best thing that happened all day for Linwood was that Canterbury hooker Steve Fualau came off the bench to play his first footy of the season. He added real impact, as did fellow reserve and Canterbury player Willi Heinz.
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