RUGBY REFLECTIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 245, 16 October 1928, Page 14

RUGBY REFLECTIONS.

PLAYERS OF THE PAST.

STARS OF OTHER DAYS.

LINKS TN IMPERIAL CHAIN

COUNTRIES AND COMPARISONS

(By GRAHAM E. BEAMISH.)

Some talk of Alexander And some of Hercules, Of Hector and Lysander And sucb great names as these. But of all the world's great heroes There's none that can compare, With the

Yesterday is the playground of all men's hearts and perhaps it is that the idols of one's youth are placed on too high a pedestal. Over in the land of the Springbok, that vast continent, with its glorious green edge where the surf of the Indian Ocean croons, its simmering heat of the high veldt, its kloofs of mysterious blue-grey shadows and wonderful silhouettes, they talk Rugby much as we do in New Zealand and recall the giants of the Rugby past, men who made history 011 the sun-burnt playing fields of their own land, and in other countries afar. Carolin, Loubser, Stegman, Krige, Marsburg, Roos—the names are legion. Some of the South Africans insist that 1906 was their vintage year of Rugby, when they made their triumphant tour of the Old Country to win 26 of their 29 matches played, and incidentally to beat the great Welsh team of that period— memories of Llewellyn, Nicholls, Gabe and Morgan—which a year previously had lowered the colours of a well nigh invincible All Black side.

"We were great in those days," said one Springbok veteran to nfe as he mentally surveyed a Rugby past through the mist of passing years.

Penalty of Youth. Like the memorable and incomparable William Pitt, who admitted the accusation that he was a young man, the writer knows not that vintage time, but if South Africa can ctoi'-i her giants of the past, what of New Zealand? In the All Black party was "Allie" Good, a member of the invincible Taranaki team of the nineties, and if "Allie" would talk —which he wouldn't—he might have told of his brother Hugh, who was likened to a runaway locomotive in possession of the ball, of that great stalwart of New Zealand Rugby, Alfred Bayly, of the supreme skill and artistry of Allen and Humphries, of the consummate cunning of O'Dowda, Wateon, Hawken and Wells. "A great team," said "Allie." He let it go at that. He did not tell of the historic occasion when it was suggested that Taranaki should go on tour of the world, nor the fact that it was no mean challenge. Once again I must plead youth in being unable to counter the statement by a New Zealand journalistic friend that the 1903 New Zealand team which toured Australia that year was the best ever,' nor am I able to expatiate on the Rugby virtues of Asher, McGregor, Wood, Duncan, Stead, Kiernan, Long and Gallaher, names that are legendary in New Zealand football. And great, it is admitted, was the. original All Black team which descended on a startled England iu 1905 and convinced even the most hardened critics that their Rugby was decadent. Theme of the Critics. »

"What a pity." I heard it remarked many time's .in South Africa. It was always the same theme. What a pity that the cream of South African Rugby talent and the flower of New Zealand Rugby did not meet' in the year 1907 or thereabouts. Truly, if the oldtimers are Tight, and one must pay some respect to hoary heads and mature opinions, it would have been a battle royal for the Rugby crown. With a far-flung empire and priceless possessional parts of the earth it is natural that oceans should divide some of us, and the fact that Africa and little New Zealand lie far apart maybe solely due to the fact'that it was not until 1921 that the elect of Africa and New Zealand met on Dominion playing grounds. Of that tour I can speak. Like Pitt, the younger, I had begun to age, and I was at the appreciative stage to realise what high-grade Rugby really was. True, it was a memorable tour. I have memories of a Test match \* T hen New Zealand played with the will to conquer and achieved :ts. mission; another Test match on a sun-baked turf at Auckland when Gerhard Morkel— the greatest full-back ever seen in either Union or Dominion —kicked an amazing field goal to give the Springboks victory, a fatal third Test match in pitiless rain and quagmired ground when two teams fought, to a bitter end without a point being scored. If there was a Rugby crown in reality, hands across the sea then hold it, just as they hold it now, appropriately enough perhaps, for New Zealand and South Africa are both great in the Imperial chain. And now for the future. Maybe in IP.'tii or thereabouts South Africa will again send ;i team to Now Zealand to wage the Rugby war which has so far been so c\en. It is more than probable that many new faces will be seen in both the national teams, and just as the football giants of the past had their day. so will many of the stalwarts who played so well in the past season, give way to younger men, for in Rugby the rare is over to the swift and the strong, and the truism that youth will prevail is consistently emphasised. Memories. Lovely and mysterious is South Africa, although one's impressions of a hurried tour will linger long. It ma\ or may not he as Rider Haggard pic lured it for my youthful edification I tut I know now how true was the velluir a- painted l»v Olive Sehroinor and others "no is naturaliy tempted to make somi loiiiparisons. I confess that early rising is not iii; forte, lint one has a memory of a superl «nnrise at Port Elizabeth when th hills loomed dinilv on a dark background the coastal indentations and curvin; bays were cameo-out. and the sel except lor a little frill of white sur hloiht the shore was a motionless plaii of indigo. Low down on the easteri hoiizon there was an ever-broadeningban of pearl, which slowlv chanaed to saffror lo red. and a riot of colours unti •rimsons, golds, and palpitating ros lowly eddied up to the zenith to mak

a wonderful flame picture. It was incomparably lovely, and to some New Zealaiulers there came memories of tfhe reflected and mysterious lights of Mitre Peak in the hours of the dawn, or the changing colours of The Remarkables above their superb setting of the placid waters of Wakatipu.

Yes, to visit South Africa is to realise that we have much in common. Our Sutherland Falls may not approach the Victoria Falls in their majesty, but the bold challenge of the great Rewi Maniapoto may be compared to Alan Wilson's heroic stand on the banks of the Shangani River, and in the eternal snows of the Dominion's mountains there are places of quietude and great beauty which would rival even the grandeur of the Matoppo Hills. (End.)