THE EVE OF THE CAMPAIGN.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVI, Issue 253, 23 October 1905, Page 5

THE EVE OF THE CAMPAIGN.

CFiom Our Special Cortesponftent.) LONDON, September 15. Td-morrow the New Zealanders will open their football campaign a.t Exeter, where they meet a strong Devon County team. Since their arrival a week ago they nave been quartered at the Globe Hotel at Newton Abbott, and have" gone in for stead/ practice on the adjoining football ground. Mr G. H. Dixon, the manager, took a run up to London on Wednesday to visit the New Zealand Government offices in connection w/th the tour, but the rest jf the team have spent the week at their training quarters. A member of the team writes to mc from Newton Abbott; "We arrived here last Friday morning, and started training the same afternoon, doing only light work—kicking, passing, dribbling, ate. The ground is good, and there is jvery convenience for dressing and baths. We practise every morning at 10.30. On Monday and Tuesday mornings we had regular games of 13 aside. Both wer< rery f*st and hard games, and we play, id for an hour and a-quarter. The men seemed very fit and well. There was nc jame on Wednesday, but we practised passing,'dribbling, etc. lne ground was rather hard, and there were one or two minor accidents, but nothing serious. "In the afternoons we do as we please. Many go for walks into the country, aa far as Torquay and Teignmouth. Others ! go for bicycle rides. All of us are charmed with the beautiful scenery and the quaint old villages through which we passed, and it is interesting to compare notes on our different excursions ■when we retuyri In the evening. Wednesday was Fair Day here, and we attended, and thoroughly enjoyed the novelty of the Fair, which was so utterly unlike anything we see in New Zealand. Thursday's practice will be our la.t before the opening match, as we shall rest on the Friday." Mr Seddon's announcement that the High Commissioner in London was arranging to have news of the team's doings cabled out to New Zealand seems to tickle the fancy of the London newspapers. The "Daily Graphic" declares that never since Pindar wrote his Odes have State and athkMes sc joined bands. The "Westminster Gazetta" pietu es "our own Colonial Secretary" giving out news of the Test matches, but remarks that the man in the street would probably not be content to wait so long for hi 3 news. The '•"Daily News" observes tlat the New Zealanders are "probably the first team to receive State recognition." The lastnamed paper sent a representa-! tive to interview the secretary of the High Commissioner's Department on the ( - subject, and next morning Mr Kennedy was astonished and considerably amused to find himself reported as saying: ■'It is an excellent idea. The team is, sc ' to speak, yet another instrument for the welding together of the Empire"—a piece of flowery rhetoric which had its origin in the interviewer's own imaginative brain. -Sporting writers have devoted a good I deal of attention to the visit of the New Zealand team during the past week. The "five-eighths" system, which is new to this country, comes in for a good deal of discussion, and the 'packing of the forwards and the position of the "wing" have given the critics to write . about. The chief difference between English and New Zealand styles of play is in the packing of the scrums. The New Zealanders pack 2-3-2, whereas the Englishmen pack 323, the wing forward having iio existence in this country. Hamish Stuart, in the course of a , column article in the "Daiiy Chronicle" on the subject of the visitors' system, remarks: "The New Zealandera justify their system on the ground that the two front men—called "hookers"—can get the ball just as well as. three, and that the five behind have the same pushing- power as our five. Now; our frcnt three are supposed to do some pushing, though their first aim should be to get below the opposing three with a view to pushing them up; and so getting the ball with the first shove, made as soon as the ball is 'in.' The New Zealand front two do not push at all. They only try to get the ball. Like our front three, they must rely upon the men behind to push at the psychological moment. Here I think we will the real contest of the systems, and if the New Zealanders beat our beat packs, for the ball; then our forward play, or at least out scrummage work, may suffer considerable modification before the tour is over. We are hardly likely to adopt the., professed wing forward either in his defensive, or aggressive aspect Indeed, I expect an eariy collision between this \ over and the referee at Exeter on Saturday. In New Zealand he is allowed to obstruct the opposing half, or, in other words, to prevent him getting round when his own side have the ball, provided he keeps one hand on the scrum. The provirsuggeste a latitude of law likely to 1 more honoured in the breach than t! observance In the neat of a keen gam Let mc not strike, howerer, a discon ant note until the winger's way 3 ha-< been seen aad «**,* & Saturday."

! L Dealing with the New Zealanders , ' visit as an event in Rugby 7 football Mstory, Haniish Stuart suggests that the colonials,: if successful, will leave their mark on English methods of play "It would be idle," he says, "to pretend Miat the visit of the New Zeakndere will make the same appeal to the football public as the Australians make to the cricket public; it marks, however a new epoch in the game, and may have' I far-reaching consequences, for it gives jto the governors of "this code the proud I distinction of being the pioneers of Imi penal footer of the same clais, and foi the Rugby world at least, of the same j interest and importance as Imperial : I cricket. The New Zealanders, it is true, j are not the first colonial football team Ito visit England; we have had Maoris and Canadians, the latter under both codes as our guests, but they are assuredly the first side who can fairly be j described as of the same dass as exponents of Rugby as the Australians are I of cricket. Possibly their excellence may have been exaggerated, and theh methods extolled. beyond their merits: until, however, they are put to the test of actual play we must accept the New Zealanders as an exceptionally fine aide who play a "game* which differs in so many respects from our various 'games' that our methods may suffer considerable modification before tbJ3 tour ends, provided always our guests meet with tiiat measure of success which alont ' would justify imitation'of their ways ' on our part. , * A rather patronising article in the i "Pall Mall Gazette" on the subject of the New Zealand football team informs its readers that the Antipodeans "play i rather an old-fashioned game, and En<»- : lish teams may very well hope to teach them something/- . The article concludes with the.remark that "anything colonial will receive encouragement in ; these days from the Motherland," a } piece of patronage for which the eolo- ' nial team, if they read the PM.Q., must I feel deeply grateful! ' As to New Zealand football tactics J being old-fashioned, it will be time enough to say so when the matches againet British teams supply the proof, and the London paper would have been ' wiser to wait until the colonials had given their first exhibition before com- \ mitting itself to this extraordinary l statement. Considering the defeats in- f flieted.. upon Bedell-Sivright's team by New Zealand and Auckland, to say no * thing of the Rotorua Maoris, it would € seem as though the boot were on tht c other foot, and that England mighi t have something to learn from the "old t fashioned" colonials in the matter of ? f-ootball. And I am quite sure the New Zealand team can get along without f patronage. l