COLLEGE RUGBY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 160, 10 July 1933, Page 13

COLLEGE RUGBY.

CHARITY DAY MATCHES.

AUCKLAND BEAT TAKAPUNA.

WIN TO SACRED HEART.

Traditional secondary school football, fast, open, and spectacular, was seen by the hundreds who watched the College Day matches at Eden Park on Saturday It was also the Auckland Rugby Union's Charity Day. There were the usual colourful scenes on the bank and in the stands— hundreds of beys with the colours of their schools streaming from their buttonholes cheering excitedly, and urging on their teams.

Two matches were played. The early game was that between Sacred Heart and Mount Albert Grammar, and was a fine exhibition of fast and open .play. The boys threw the ball about with abandon! and pave the spectators the type of football we have come to expect from secondary schools. The backs moved along in fast and spectacular array, and the tackling was swift ami determined. It was the clashing play of the Sacred Heart forwards that paved the way to victory. They played with great determination, and it was their assertion that gave a speedy set of backs opportunities which were accepted with both hands. Sacred Heart won by 20 points to 13.

Takapuna's Pine Performance. When it is considered that only five weeks ago Auckland Grammar beat Taka* puna Grammar by 25 F oints to 3, the performance of the Takapuna lads in Satur™£th" went down fighting with on ly three points scored against them Realising there was only one way to ?u d m , Gir own a K aln st the Auckland side, Ihe Takapiina lads set about their work and, showing surprising dash, they got a strangle hold on tho game that successfully throttled the speed and cleverness of the Auckland backs. Time after time the Takapuna forwards won the ball, and for the greater part of the game they shaded the Auckland pack. They gave their backs abundant opportunities, but these backs failed as a scoring machine. Individually, they did well, and It was plain that with coaching in the right direction, they could be moulded Into a dangerous attacking force.

The match was a battle between the Takapuna forwards and the Auckland backs —and the Auckland backs won. They showed a splendid understanding of one another's play, and some of their passing and inter-passing was brilliant. If they had been given the opportunities of the Takapuna backs, they, may have run up another 25 points. Takapuna exploited the only tactics that could have brought them success, and it says much for their allround ability and powers of defence that only one try was scored against them.