Sonny Bill helps Canterbury dominate

DEAN KOZANIC/The Press

Sonny Bill Williams in action against Bay of Plenty.

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The fact that Sonny Bill Williams made his long-awaited debut was about all that was noteworthy about Canterbury's 28-9 win over Bay of Plenty last night.

After being slowed by knee and hamstring problems upon his arrival in Christchurch, the former rugby league international played just over an hour of the match at AMI Stadium, having replaced the injured Ryan Crotty.

Williams tried hard but it wasn't a game that was easy to get into. His work ethic was good, though, highlighted by his pushing of Lelia Masaga into touch, when the BOP wing seemed certain to score a second half try.

Other than that, the best thing about the match was that it finished and that Canterbury did just enough to win it.

Watching, it was hard to escape the conclusion that it would've been nice to have Colin Slade playing at first-five-eighth. One man can't determine the outcome of a game, but his presence would've brought a degree of calm to Canterbury's skittish first half performance.

Cohesion was hard to come by as people tried too much too soon. Man for man, Canterbury possessed more skill than BOP but by being in such a rush to show it, they played into the visitors' plans.

It gets boring to keep harping on it, but teams continually come to Christchurch with the sole aim of capitalising on the home team's mistakes. They don't attempt to outplay them, don't even try and compete with them really.

They just commit bodies to the breakdown and kick. From there it's pretty safe to assume that Canterbury will then cough the ball up or concede a penalty. If you've got a decent kicker, like BOP's Mike Delany, then you're well in the game.

Canterbury's forwards aren't beyond a few errors themselves, but they must shake their heads sometimes when they look at the scoreboard. They destroyed BOP in the scrums last night and were untroubled at lineout time.

Set piece dominance of that nature is normally reflected in points and yet there were Canterbury, trailing for a good chunk of the firsthalf.

It took a bullocking Nasi Manu effort to finally put them in front, in the 33rd minute, following a brief period in which Canterbury had looked pretty good with the football. They reckoned more than 13,000 folk turned up to watch the match but it's debatable whether they were all there come fulltime, because it was an awful match to watch.

One that had you looking forward to the prospect of watching the NRL games coming up on television afterwards.

Just when the game seemed to have headed into a terminal decline, Canterbury put a few phases together resulting in an important try to Matt Todd. The shame of it was it coincided with a leg injury to Manu, who'd again been strong.

Stephen Brett was unable to add the conversion but, at 18-9, Canterbury had gained a decisive advantage. The result was made safe when giant centre Robbie Fruean scored his seventh try of the season.

- © Fairfax NZ News