FOOTBALL.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 196, 19 August 1899, Page 4 (Supplement)

FOOTBALL.

The interprovineial fixtures to be

played this afternoon were Otago v. Southland, at Dunedin; and Wellington v. Nelson, at Wellington.

Some of the alterations made in the

Auckland rep. team by Mr Arnell this week \vcr:> badly needed. It is no use having' a good three-quarter line if the five-eighths is weak, a.s Auckland found out to their cost in the match against Thames last Saturday. It was a pity that C. Hay was so dis-

appointing1 when given the chance to ! prove his merit, for he has played ! some clever games at live-eighths in ■the Cup matches. The fact remains, however, that he was not up to the '. mark in last week's match, and the : back division's organisation suffered

accordingly. If the two opposing five--11 eighths had changed places [ believe j the match would have had a very different result. At any rate, the inclusion of Riley in the team as five- ; eighths should strengthen its attacking powers considerably. Nicholson ; will have to show a little better form 1 to-day, 1 fancy, if he is to keep his ' | place behind the pack. His play ' seems to lack variety, his one idea j being- apparently to send the ball out 'I to his five-eighths every time the for- [ wards heel it out. That is all very well at times, but if I he one plan is | followed invariably it loses its effect, for the opposing wingers soon "drop 1 to" the little game and keep a close watch on the five-eighths, giving him no chances. A clever half-back like . Humphries—or lira mid in the old days j—will so "mix" his play that the opposing wing's cannot guess what dodge lie will be up to next. The substitution of George Gillet for Cardno as full-back' was only to be expected, for the Auckland man compared most unfavourably with his Thames vis-a-vis last Saturday. Pillinger is a good little three-quarter, but he is still young (having been a junior up to j this season) and not yet the equal of It. McGreg'or, to whom he gives place in the "A" team to-day. Murray's inclusion in the pack instead of on the wing- leaves the latter position open for "Tiny" Laing, who may be depend-t-d on to keep his end up. 1 am glad to see that Donovan is being given another chance as full-back for the "B" i team. If Nicholson, at half, is not in 1 his best form to-day (and with a strong pack- with him he should be) he may find that Young will supplant him in the team that will journey ; South. "Spectator" writes: —"Our football | reps, are in need of a good half-back. i In my opinion the best man in that 'position is Galloway, and I am surj prised that he has been overlooked." The English footballers play the : last match of their tour to-day, meet- : ing the newly-formed Victorian Rugby ': Football Club at Melbourne. The tour has been a very successful one. They I won three of the four test matches ! played against Australia, and only ' tost three matches out of a, total of 20 i fixtures, winning the other IT. They ! have scored 303 points, and have had I only 91 points scored against them. | Ten of the matches played might j fairly be deemed first-class, and of these ten the Englishmen won 7 and lost 3, .scoring- 90 points against 55 points. The games at Rockhampton, Mt. Morgan, Bundaberg, Gonlbnm, Newcastle, and ArmidaJe, and against i the Combined Great Public Schools, would hardly rank as first-class. In each of these the Englishmen scored a victory, generally by a large margin. i Their highest score was 34 points, ' against Bundaberg, the home team I only scoring 4, while against Mt. Mori gan they put up 29 to 3, against Maryborough 27 to S, against Northern District 28 to nil, against Western Union 21 to nil, and against the Public Schools 21 to 3. Adamson's splendid goal-kicking has been a feature of the tour. The visitors, according to the Rev. Mullineaux, have learned something from the Australians "in the way of marking with the ball and in forward play," while there is no doubt the visit of the Englishmen must have a beneficial effect on Australian football. It is, indeed, a great pity the Englishmen have been unable to visit this colony, as there can be no doubt that the standard of New Zealand football is higher than the Australian. The Wellington Football Association selected the following team to visit Auckland and contest the Brown Challenge Shield:—Goal, Berntsen; full-backs Auld and T. White; halves, Masters, Taylor, Kerr; forwards, Fraser, Williams (Rovers), McDonald, J. Sim, and Hathaway. Some of the above being unable to make the trip, the Association has, according- to the N.Z. "Field," accepted the offer of the Rovers' team to go as a body instead of those above-named. The match against Auckland will take place at Potter's Paddock on September 2nd. The gate at the Alhambra-Kaikorai match, played at Dunedin last Saturday week, amounted to £102, a New Zealand record for this season's club matches. Five years ago £105 was taken at the match between these two teams.

j By playing against Wellington on ! tile athjust.il. I'l-ost holds the record I tor the number of times a player has represented Canterbury. His record now stands at 22, A. It. Johnston and M. Lynskey following with 21, while F. T. Evans, C. Hobbs, and 11. C. Wilson have each played '~0 times.

From Sydney "Bulletin": — "With a pack of good 'heeling-out' forwards ahead of tuein, the English

backs would beat any footbali team Sydney has ever seen—the Maorilunders included. As an all-round com-

bination they are miles ahead of the Australian backs—though they haven't a dog.er like Spragg, or a.s tricky a man a.s 'Ginger' Ward, or as fast a,

sprinter as Muler. In the scrum the British forwards can beat their opponents for the bal-l, but they seldom send it out to their backs, who, there-

fore, have to make all their own openings, and they do it so well that they

have won every game that has gone i to the credit of their side."

! y "British three-quarter back Gwyn ! Nicholls is undoubtedly the finest j back who has ever played on Sydney Cricket Ground. There is absolutely not a point in which he could be improved. Cool, fast, safe and unselfish, as well as being brilliant in almost | *iV(M-y department of the game, and ' the clean, calm way in which he ; marks, kicks, and tackles is a revela-

tion.'' "Like Eanji with the English Cricket Eleven, Parson Mullineaux is the "Jonah" of the visiting British Rugby team. In almost every instance to date, when the junky little sky-pilot has played, his side has been beaten,

and whenever he has stood out it has

won. Undoubtedly the little parson plays his best game in the pavilion, as putting him in the team means leaving out either Cookson or Adam-

son, which 'busts' the combination."

Mr H. G. Holland, of the Auckland i Referees' Association, returned from ! a visit to Sydney on Monday. In the

match England v

New South Wales

i he acted as one of the touch umpires. ; With regard to the matches he has : seen in Sydney, Mr Holland has, according to the Sydney ".Referee," "not been greatly impressed with the play of lite Englishmen, with the exception

of Nicholls, who is undoubtedly a bril-

liant all-round man. The tackling of j their back's is, however, really first-

class, and equal to anything in New

Zealand. Each tackier gets the bull as well as the man. Compared with New Zealanders, the pace of their forwards is only moderate, and they also seem to have no ability to make scoring openings." "The Englishmen," Mr Holland went on to say, "would probably upset our fellows with their screwing, as we still play wing forwards. Yet they seemed to gain little by their screwing. I think Auckland would give them a great battle, and. in fact, beat them, for the reason that T fancy our men are a good deal superior in hooking the ball in the serum and getting it out to the halfback. We get the ball away much

more quickly from the scrum than

you do here." As to the failure of Xcw Zealand to get the Englishmen across. Mr Mullineux told Mr Holland that he was very disappointed that they were unable to visit New Zealand, the obstacle being- the necessity of about five members of the team (some of them medical .students) to return to England as soon as possible.