CANTERBURY OVER ALL

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 113, 15 May 1925, Page 6

CANTERBURY OVER ALL

FIFTEEN ALL BLACKS. A MAGNIFICENT GESTLTxE. The five men who have been charged with the selection of the All Black team which i? due to play a short programme of five matches in New South Wales next month will need? be blessed with a tine sense of proportion. Presumably the team will consist of twenty men at most, and there are 2-5 unions from which the selection is to be made, by either weeding out or building up, from the nominations forwarded by the local selectors of each of the unions. Under the circumstances, and especially after the experience of la.-t tear, it was expected that the local selectors would exercise a keen discrimination in their no'"lnat ; oi- = . bavins bad personal knowledge of the particular men and class ot i-iaver mat had commended themselves last \eai to the New Zealand selectors.

So far there have been published the nominees from half-a-dozen union?, and in fixe of these the expected standard of restraint and judgment has been shown. Rut thp nomination of Canterbury has passed all bounds in putting forward the claims of fifteen men — eleven new players and four of last year's All Blacks. It savour? too much of election "stuffing. - ! and can scarcely hp justified by the standard of tbe game in , anterbury. seeing that last year Canterbury wa? beaten by Southland and south I anterbury. and the • latter suffered defeat at the hands of a travelling Marlborough team. Were tho other unious to act on a similar basis to Canterbury, one might expect to have twelve new men and Stewart nominated from Timaru and the same number from Marlborough and Southland. while Hawke's Bay (whose nominati.>n has not yet been disclosed) would have every justification for ?ending forward sixteen or seventeen name?.

There were eleven union? represented by the 29 player? .-ent to Britain last year. and. with the exercise of thp utmost discretion by those responsible for bringing tiie claim? of outstanding player? under the notice of the NewZealand selectors, the number of candidate? for the party of twenty must run to three times that number.

The Canterbury nomination is no doubt a magnificent gesture that will be noted all over the Dominion, and when the Canterbury provincial team is chosen a compari-on between that team and this nomination of fifteen players will he interesting. In its forthcoming tour of th° North Island, the Canterbury provincial team will be expected to justify the very high tribute its union has paid to its quality, of labelling it practically a New Zealand side in standard.