"ANCIENT FOOTBALLERS."

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 249, 21 October 1933, Page 2 (Supplement)

"ANCIENT FOOTBALLERS."

Old N.Z. Selector's Opinion of Inter-Island Game. Writing to a member of the staff of the "Auckland Star" the night before the inter-island Rugby match—won by North 27 —18—a former New Zealand selector wondered who would win the Ancient Footballers game at Wellington on the next afternoon. Stanley Dean tells us they are young players, possibilities for England in 1930. "Nepia! While writing I look upon his photograph in the New Zealand team of 1924. Surely we have some- ! thing younger coming on. The same applies to our forwards, Metcalfe, Purdue, Ho re, Cottrell and Co. They will all be pas.t it in a year. Honestly, I could go on for a week —really, it's over the odds. Granger, the South Island full-hack, is a joke. I looked at him in Oamaru eight years ago for Otago, and he was not good enough then. Perhaps, like whisky, he is supposed to mature, but against Otago last week he was awful." Curiously enough, the day Alan Adams and Peter Harvey chose the _ North Otagoan for the full-back position in the South Island fifteen, Taylor, of Otago, played one of the best games in that position ever seen in Wellington. He had been nominated, too! This selector goes on to state how much he had enjoyed reading the history of inter-island Rugby in the Sports Editions from July 22 to September 2. So does another Dominion selector, who had a hand in choosing the Southerners from 1908 to 1920. Both men have been criticised more than once in these columns, yet they breathe no word of reproach, only messages of cheer and good will. The latter states: "Re the controversy about Jack Steel. Mr. Jim Wilson, who was a schoolmaster _in Greymouth, was primarily responsible for Jack's recognition. He wrote very glowing accounts of Jack's progress, so we gave him a try-out in the 1&19 game in Wellington, where he scored two sensational tries in that year's game, which North won 2S —11. Jack, of course, could have been a much greater footballer had he not been so moody. We are still breeding the players, and the team for England two years hence should be right to standard. The Ranfurly Shield is a wonderful moneyspinVier, hut Jisto EfT* salne," 1