THE TEAM SPIRIT.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 66, 19 March 1925, Page 10

THE TEAM SPIRIT.

"HAPPIEST OF FAMILIES." SELECTORS NEVER HECKLED. 'There is no question that the team has been just one happy family throughout the whole tour," declared Ces. Badeley to a ."Star'' representative this morning when' talking of matters connected: with the All Blacks. He said that all the way through there was not, he thought,;a single 7 instance in' which there was call for.any unusual taefc or firmness on the -part of the manager, and the,spirit of. unselfishness was present all through to a marked degree in matters'"relating both to the play and the. repute of the side. They all pulled together for the one common purpose. Katurally, lie was a J good deal dis-

appointed at not having been selected on several occasions, for lie had kept in keen training, and lie felt that the selectors might have given more than one of the party more games. At the same time, he did not press his claims on the selectors, and they may have been of opinion that he was indifferent. Like everyone else he accepted what was done with the idea of raising no dissension,'but he felt that at times the selectors were rather quick to drop a player who did not immediately play at the very top of his form after having been spelled for a time. It was a feature of their experience that the only way to keep in absolute tip-top form was through regular matches, for the travelling rather curtailed the ordinary practices and training. Having seen more of the Southerners only at their hest, for this reason, when the games were played in Vancouver it was not -until then that he discovered that Robilliard, of. Canterbury, was a first-class wing threequarter. Still, in common with the others who did not get many games, Robilliard' had taken the decisions of the selectors sportingly, and, . after all, it was that spirit which had made the tour the success it had been.