RUGBY FOOTBALL.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 98, 1 June 1914, Page 2

RUGBY FOOTBALL.

NOTES ON SATURDAY'S GAMES.

One of the great charms of Rugby football to the "man on the bank" is its unexpectedness —the little way that many matches have of upsetting anticipations and calculations. Frequently it happens that a game which is supposed to be "a good thing I '' for a particular team proves to be very different from what is expected. And that unexpectedness prevailed in the Canterbury Rugby 'Union's senior matches on Saturday, to the great joy and delectation of the spectators. It seemed, '' on paper," as if Merivale, leading team in the competition, would have little difficulty in disposing of Sydenham, gallant and plucky though be the wearers of the cardinal and blue. Again, though the Christchurch team possesses the reputation of following up a good display with a poor one, it -was anticipated, that the team which had defeated Old Boys on the previous Saturday would be able to beat Marists /with out having to exert itself overmuch. The third match at Lancaster Park, between Old Boys, premiers last season, and beaten only once this year, and Albion, which team has. not won a match this 'year, looked easy for Old Boys. But Merivale finished only a •single point ahead of Sydenham, Christchurch won only in the last few minutes, after being well behind for most of the game,' and Old Boys had ,to battle against Dame Fortune as well as'against Albibri.

A DESPERATE FINISH. , Of the three matches at Lancaster Parle,..the best was between Christchiirch'and Marists. Until the last few ininutes the play was not of a high standard, scientifically, but it was open and .fairly .fast, with frequent possibilities of scores. In the last ten minutes "the game was exceedingly bright and interesting. The Christichurch men woke up with a vengeance, and made spirited and determined onslaught after onslaught on the Marists' citadel, in a desperate endeavour to ''pull the match out of the fire." Marists met them with spirit and vigour, and the game became really exciting. ~ But the red and blacks, grimly fletermined and hurling, themselves into the fray with splendid vigour, smashed jfchrough,the Marists' defence again and jyet again, so that in less than ten the score was altered from 12 to, 3 in favour of Marists, to 14 to 12 in, favour of. Christchureh. It was a great finish.

: Until that last ten minutes the play had been fairly even, but with Marists' looking like the winning team almost all through, quite apart from the tale told by the scores. The Christchureh men played a rather curious game. They started off with a good attack, and M'Cully capped it with a try brought about by purely individual 'work —it was a case of the opportunity and the man to take advantage of it happening along together—and by a weakness in the Marist defence. Then the red and blacks relaxed their efforts a little, and for a long time Marists played the neater football. Certainly the Marists scored only one try in their 12 points, but they were making rather better use Of their opportunities than the Christchurch players' were making of theirs. By the way, that try of Marists was a fine one; it was got by a fine rush of backs and forwards from near halfway. In the final ten minutes Christchureh seemed quite a different team; it almost deserved to be called to account for inconsistent running. SOME FAULTS/

For spectacular!ty the " game wfts praiseworthy. From f the point. of, view of .scientific Bugby. it wa;s blameworthy —the last ten minutes are left out of aecount now*. As a rule, there wa» overmuch individual work arid tOo' little combined play 1 . When combined movements were- attempted they usually broke down through' faultiness of methods or through uncertain handling of the ball. On both sides there were weaknesses in the defence, and the game, as the play went, should have been one of high scoring of tries by both teams. Scantling the play retrospectively, one finds that there were too many instances in which ah opportunity to score was thrown away by faulty handling of the ball or bad passing in combined or by individual players trying to do too much by themselves, or by men being out of position when their turn to receive the ball came. And on the Ghristchurch side there was an instance of a; faulty system. ' Christfthurch had four threequarters, and it was invariably the case that when four or five of the backs took part in a passing rush, that rush finished on the touch-line instead of on the goal-line. The wing-three-quarters were being- jammed into touch. And it so happened that when the calibre of the individuals in the three-quarter line was tested in attack it was found that Christchurch might just as well have had three men in the line instead of four. F. C. Upton, who played on the right wing, is out of his element in the three-quarter line.

When the Christchurch team aroused itself, and hurled itself against Marists in the ':'db or . die" method which won the match,it forgot that it had four three-quarters, and it was well for it tbst memory failed in that instance Although the team was battering the defence, as rone many the backs were left to do the finishing touches, and they scored with, short, sharp movements, full of energy and dash. They discarded the Oblique ;and rather slow movements, in Which the ball went through many hands, that had been noticeable in the earlier portion of the game. Nearly every man iri the team went into the play in those last few 1 minutes with all his heart and energy, but C R. Murray, Sapsford, M'Cully, Wallace, Robinson, and Macdonald managed to do most of the finishing., off of the well-sustained attack. , : UNPOPULAR TACTICS.

V4jreat interest was centred in the 'Varsity-Lirtwood match on Saturday. This was probably due to the fact that

both teams took the field with a strong determination to win. 'Varsity again had made several changes in. their team, and from Saturday's play some of them did not prove too beneficial. Much to the surprise of everyone, Mansell was "dropped" and Coltliart put in his place. Derrett, a promoted junior, was played between Livingstone and Young, but he did not go too well. Probably, as this was his first appearance in senior football, he suffered from stage fright. Dailey and Free hooked well together, but the ball hung considerably in the back of the scrum. Scrum practice is;! whas 'Varsity need to give their attention to now, and, until they do, their progress tip the status ladder will be, slow. Taking the team as a whole, though, the 'maroons played a much better game than they did on the previous Saturday. Their attempts to make the game open were gladly welcomed by the onlookers. In this particular branch of work Young showed out prominently —in fact he was largely responsible for 'Varsity's first try.

Linwood were up against a tougher proposition than they were the previous Saturday. In the first spell they let the ball out well to the backs, but only to reveal a sad state of affairs. The rearguard showed no knowledge whatever of passing tactics. Time and time again A 1 dwell made openings, but the ball was either fumbled or some player hung on to it too long. Had the backs any idea of combination they fcould have notched at least two tries in the first spell. In the second spell the greens gave all their attention to forward play, and the pack played really well together A warning word, though, must be issued to some of the Linwood men; in football the ball is to be played, and not the man. There is no necessity to dump a man several times on the ground when he has passed the ball; nor is there any justification for pulling a man out of a scramble by the hair. These methods tend to make a team unpopular.

OLD BOYS' EASY WIN. There is little to be said of the Old Boys-Albion game, except that the whites had an easy win, and were very unlucky in not putting up a much bigger score. They sadly missed the services of Crawshaw, who was taking a spell, and were in consequence somewhat disorganised, but they had no difficulty once they got going—which certainly took longer than it should have, done—in disposing of the woodenspooners. The white; forwards • lack "gingfer.*'AN IN AND OUT GAME.

Merivale supporters on Saturday must rhave received: something in- the nature of a shock at the unexpected good showing of Sydenham and the narrow escape from defeat by the blues. It must, however, be admitted in -justice to the present leaders of' the competition, that the score did not adequately represnt the difference in the teams, Merivale being undoubtedly superior to the Opposition; indeed the blues were itt&bking-:throughout most, of the ! game. '* As the play invariably 5 hovered ifl Sydenham territory and the. blues were fairly successful in Securing the ball in the-serums, a serious weakness was revealed in being unable to push • the attacks home to a successful issue. True C. Dickey, as a substitute to Atkinson at half back: was hardly impressive, but nevertheless the failure by the blue rearguard to materialise can not altogether be blamed to this. The fault seemed to be that there was tdo much ijitiinlttg across' the field, the five-eighths particularly seldom making any; serious effort to beat their man. The blue forw'ktds managed to hold the cardinals in' the tight work, but in the loose did not Show to great advantage. Despite the fact, that, Sydenham proved such a hard proposition'the game was uninteresting from a. spectator's point of view. I This;does not mean that individually tht; standard : 9f. play was below the average. On the contrary Sydenham were playing 'a desperate defensive game, some of the suburban backs standing out prominently in this respect, while. Merivale were hammering away most of the. time. No concerted work, however, was ever indulged in by the cardinal backs, .the rearguard seemingly, being content to -leave the destinies of the game with the forwards. As the Merivale backs at times appeared to be quite content to adopt the same tactics, it will readily be seen that play from a spectacular point of view became monotonous and uninteresting. Owing to the absence of Doeil, A. Hamilton filled the vacancy at full back. It was only in the last few minutes of play that the blues found what had long before been apparent to those on the line, thai; the last-named player was the weak spot in the Sydenham defence. High kicking up the field to this cardinal man, combined with fast following up, would probably have proved well worth while from a Merivale point Of view. A resume of the game would hardly be complete without mention of the magnificent display given by R. .Kennedy, who was easily the best forward on the ground. It will be remembered that this young Sydenham player attained representative honours last year.