FOOTBALL.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVI, Issue 30, 4 February 1905, Page 12

FOOTBALL.

r If the New Zealand footballers W* j any notice of the following lurid wttniag . they will keep away from South Afrie* j en route to England. This is i letter v j from a. New Ze.alandpr in Cape Town! "Before the game was half over 'foot men would be a band of helpless cripples," says the writer, ,; and the hospitals would be augmented by a batdi-of » New Zealand footballers. Be warned ii time, and don'r try yottr skill agkinsfc ■ the Anglo-Dutchmen on the brickfields of South Africa. The grounds *re « j hard as flint, and a deadly tackle night ppel] mischief to many a New Zealander, for the Dutchmen can collar, mate i>o mistake about that. Once tackled their ! opponents have a. poor chance of coning 5 up to the scratch smiling. The Southj African backs are good in all depigments, and the forwardF are not toi* . 5 sneezed at. If your plsxers wait w • reach England safe and* sound, ' away from the Rugby grounds «f tfci* ; country. Otherwise they" will be simp^ , ■ butchered for the sport of the Ihrfca--1 men." ) I had a brief chat with "Jack" G2ki*. » who has recently returned from * trip • to Great Britain, on matters connected i with football in the Ola Country. The i interest taken in Rugby in the sooth of ! Er.gla.nd is practically nil, and at' * - match at which ''Jadr' , was present J* - ■ tween Blaekhtath, the best dub in "England, and another top-notch team—-Bose-bery Park—the attendance did not' , ; exceed 500. The pavilion was a ftbmtivti hen-coop affair, with room for four .*P • five hundred people. Mr Gillett aatißi pates that the New Zealand teen ~«3j i come out with a pretty good record, *"& ; ; thinks that they will win the I? 6 ** 1 ? < number of their matches. If Bla«khe»tt . were opposed to a crack Auckland t»* , ! like the City District Club, he k"""* i ' that the home team would wia.'■ w i against a representative New e^*^ ■ combination he would not like tber chance. He anticipates that the "tow «» our team vrill prove a financial sac** 6, not because the people Trill go to s** Rugby, but that they will gotosea if New Zealanders. The Association * tremendously popular, and it was *n fjy ! opener to Mr Gillett to see the Ha? , *' I cent work of the crack teams. ja Rugby enthusiast, the '"^ tor i^S , jgreatly taken by the ias played at Home, and is Be^ae^/_ c , class it. as the better game of the **T "It will come here," he says; ' learn to play it as it is *»2 the game will advxnee in SJgjJfTj-'v hi it has done tbroogbeat Jritf* ■_Jl*