AUCKLAND R.V. TAURANGA.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 209, 4 September 1899, Page 3

AUCKLAND R.V. TAURANGA.

WIN FOE THE LOCAL TEAM. (Auckland, 12 points; Tauranga, nil.) The match between Tauranga and the Auckland "B" team was played cm Saturday afternoon at Potter's Paddock, Epsom. The weather was fine. and there was a very fair attendance. The game which resulted in a win for the local team, was a very second rate display, and towards the end very onesided* The play of the Tauranga team as a whole was crude. There was no attempt at combination, and the rules as to offside pla,f were infringed • i way that seemed to indicate blissful ignorance of their existence on the port of some of the visitors. The referee (Mr A. Campbell) was too lenient in this respect: one of the Tauranga wing players especially was allowed to "loaf" offside in the wosr glaring manner. On one occasion the visitors nearly scored from a forward rush which was started by a player who was palpably offside. Such leniency on the referee's part is illadvised, for unless a team is penalised for infringing the rules they will never learn to improve their play. On the Auckland side, although the team had ii far bettor knowledge of the game than their opponents, the combination was not, good: but as the team had never played together before ■this was only to be expected. The teams were as under: — Tauranga (yellow and blue): Brick, R HoytoT three quarters. Matheson, Thorn,* Ka Kan; five-eighths, T. Yercoe; half, J. Cook; wings, S. Darragh and A. Mathias; forwards, A. "Kinc. .T. Jordan, G. Brown, D. Brown, Peter Tikaito and IT. Asher. Auckland (dark blue): Full back, Donovan; threequarters, "Roberts, Piemvick, Lendrum; five-eighths, Asher; half, Paile; wings, Doran and Clarke; forwards, McCluslde, C. Brady, H. Dacre, Neighbour. Eaton, Beeston. McGregor. Mr A. Campbell wns referee and Messrs W. Dsragh and M. Keefe liny

■umpires. The first spoil ended without any score being registered. Auckland had the best of the play, the visitors only crossing the. half way line about twice during "the spell. Soon after the start of the second sDell the locals rushed the ball to the Tauranc-a line, where "Rule, making a good opening, passed to Roberts and the latter fretting- across scored first Wood. Eaton's kick at goal fell short, f Auckland ?,. Tnuranga 0.) Then ■the visitors and Kn T\au intercepting j fl wild pass strealced for the AiioiclfvnA line. He got across Tint lost the ball and Renwick forced. Uninteresting1 play ensued until ten minutes from time, when the game livened up considerably. Asher gettinsr possession near the visitors' 55, went through his opponents with n strong- dash an A scored a try, which Eaton failed +o convert .( Auckland 6, Taurang-a 0.) A few minutes later a Tauranga man made a wild kick at the ball, and missed, and Eaton securingl the leather scored an easy try. Renwiek's attempt at goal was very poor. (Auckland 9, Tauranga 0.) A minute or two later Asher got across again, scoring between the, posts. Easy as the kick was, Roberta failed to send the ball over. Just before the end Tau--rans-a looked like scoring from a forward rush (started offside), but Asher Bayed, and the game ended with Auckland leading by 12 points to nil. On the Auckland side Paile and Lenflrum were the pick of the back division, the former especially putting in some clever work. Ren-wick was not ■up to the mark, and lost more than one good opening by want of judgment. Donovan's play at full back

■was sound. Among the forwards Tlees-

ton and Dacre were noticeable for

good hard "graft," but all worked well, and Doran played a particularly good game on the wing. The Tauranga backs were very weak in passing and making openings, but several showed promise of developing into good players with proper coaching. Ka Kau is a strong runner with a

good turn of speed; he put in a couple of good runs on Saturday, but played too far away from his centre to ge' many chances. Cook, the half back, was also very fair, though handicap-

ped by the bad feeding out of his forwards. Of the forwards. J. Jordan,

Peter, King and Tikaito were about

the most prominent