CRL GRAND FINAL HISTORY: Eastern’s golden era nets premiership three-peat
Eastern Eagles end a 45-year wait to appear in the Pat Smith Trophy Challenge grand final on Sunday, aiming to add to a premiership tally the club last contributed to by winning three straight Canterbury Rugby League titles from 1979-81.
The seeds for the club’s hat-trick were sown in the mid-1970s. First earning premier status as Christchurch in 1946, a sole championship in 1948 followed before an eventual name change to Eastern Suburbs in 1968.
Papanui won four straight grand finals from 1971-74 and would take out another three in succession from 1976-78. But 1975 belonged to Eastern Suburbs.
The 27-2 victory to break Papanui’s stranglehold on the Pat Smith Trophy remained the biggest margin in a grand final until Aaron Whittaker and the Riccarton Knights rewrote the CRL record books in 2002.
Future Kiwi Alan Rushton’s dominance in the scrums, and a rampaging forward-pack effort led by Kip Winika and Terry Gillman, who went on to represent New Zealand XIII in 1976, were credited by The Press’ John Coffey for underpinning the emphatic result.
Working off that platform, halfback Murray French had a blinder, and Bruce Dickison and Bruce Murphy were untouchable out wide, scoring two tries apiece. The result was a personal triumph for former New Zealand Test half and Eastern Suburbs player-coach Graeme Cooksley, who played the last of a then-record 47 games for Canterbury in 1975.
Eastern Suburbs went on to lose the 1976 (25-9) and 1977 (13-9) grand finals to Papanui, before dipping out in week one of the 1978 playoffs.
The premiership treble unfolded from 1979. With Papanui missing from the grand final for the first time in nine years, table-topping Eastern Suburbs overwhelmed Marist-Western Suburbs 26-13.
Holding a tenuous 5-3 halftime lead at Addington Show Grounds, Eastern Suburbs kicked away with captain-coach Grant Findlay creating two vital tryscoring chances and scoring a three-pointer himself. Murphy grabbed another grand final double, while Kiwi back-rower Barry Edkins, teenaged Papua New Guinea import Peter Klink and winger Kevin Placid (who also kicked four goals) dotted down.
Winger Ben Huriwai was the hero of Eastern’s 25-3 rout of Sydenham in the 1980 decider. The 14-stone flyer scored four tries – a grand final record that would stand for 22 years – including two dazzling long-range efforts.
Placid and Klink crossed again, while Kevin Murphy found his way over for a try as Eastern dominated every facet of play in front of a 4,000-strong crowd.
The Eastern Suburbs dynasty concluded in 1981 with the team in red and white grafting out a 16-2 win over Addington in cold, wet conditions. The wily Edkins, playing at stand-off, put his side on top and capped a man-of-the-match display with a 30-metre solo try in the second half, before hooker John Maguiness sealed the result. Winger John Rangihuna and second-rower Jim Churcher had scored in the first half.
Placid (main picture), playing at loose forward in the ’81 decider, Klink, Findlay and Bruce Murphy were among the mainstays to feature in the three successive grand final triumphs. Sonny Rolleston took the coaching reins for the latter two seasons. Edkins would join Hornby to play in a record 10 grand finals overall, scoring 50 points. Findlay created his own slice of history by appearing in grand finals for four clubs: Papanui, Marist-Western Suburbs, Eastern and Addington.
“What you do remember is probably the winning part of it and the celebrations, it seems it never leaves you, winning a grand final,” Bruce Murphy recalled this week to Star Media’s Sam Coughlan.
“It feels still pretty good even now to have won those ’79, ’80, ’81 grand finals. What I hope (the current team) realise is that to win a final, you never forget it. If things aren’t going well, just recharge, rethink and go to the next step.”
Eastern dropped to third on the ladder in 1982 and was bundled out in the minor semi by Kaiapoi, heralding a lean period for the club through the 1980s and 1990s. Unable to field a team in the 2004 competition, Eastern Suburbs returned for a season in 2005 before the advent of Aranui Eagles in 2006.
Aranui adopted the Eastern name again in 2018 – and the Eagles’ charge to CRL Snap Fitness Grand Final Day, squaring off against a Riccarton Knights side chasing their first title in 22 years, has revived memories of the club’s golden era.
1975 CRL PREMIERSHIP GRAND FINAL
Eastern Suburbs 27 (Bruce Dickison 2, Bruce Murphy 2, Leon Paskell, Jim Churcher, Alan Rushton tries; Dickison 2, Barry Edkins goals) defeated Papanui 2. Halftime: Eastern Suburbs 11-2. Referee: Don Wilson.
1979 CRL PREMIERSHIP GRAND FINAL
Eastern Suburbs 26 (Bruce Murphy 2, Barry Edkins, Kevin Placid, Peter Klink, Grant Findlay tries; Placid 4 goals) defeated Marist Western Suburbs 13. Halftime: Eastern Suburbs 5-3. Referee: Don Wilson.
1980 CRL PREMIERSHIP GRAND FINAL
Eastern Suburbs 25 (Ben Huriwai 4, Kevin Placid, Kevin Murphy, Peter Klink tries; Barry Edkins 2 goals) defeated Sydenham 3. Halftime: Eastern Suburbs 14-0. Referee: Don Wilson.
1981 CRL PREMIERSHIP GRAND FINAL
Eastern Suburbs 16 (John Rangihuna, Barry Edkins, Jim Churcher, John Maguiness tries; Edkins 2 goals) defeated Addington 2. Halftime: 8-2. Referee: Tony Drake.
