THE ALL BLACKS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 206, 31 August 1934, Page 13

THE ALL BLACKS.

A CRITIC'S VIEWS. FAULTS FORE AND AFT. "FIND" OF A THREE-QUARTER. (By Telegraph. —Spccial to " Star.") WELLINGTON, this day. The All Black win against the Rest of New Zealand was at once an explanation and an augury. It was a clear-cut interpretation of the chequered career of tho team in Australia and evidence of better things to come. The touring team took the field against a side which had been assembled mainly from country unions, a side which had never played together before and had little understanding of what its real strength might be. Almost inevitably, this country team was on the slow' side, both as to forwards and backs. It had not a tithe of the combination of the team which had returned* nothing approaching the same experience, and for a good quarter of the match these losers had the bustled and indecisive air of men. who are convinced that they are out of their clas6. Yet with all these factors, not to be offset by the fact that there was nothing at stake for the returned side, the difference between the teams was mainly a matter of kicking. There can scarcely ever have been an All Black side so deficient in variety of play, in generalship,- in vim, in tackling as this one. An adequate full-back, fine in gathering, sound in judging the line, but hopelessly at sea against tho wind, is fronted by a three-quarter line which looks to be the weakest in post-war history. Caughey, whose main asset is his pace, is no Lucas, and it is equally sure that Bullock-Douglas is no Steel or Svenson. Hart, on the other wing, has that essential quality of pace and quickness—he thinks as fast as he moves, and with the men inside him giving him the opening for his speed he will always be a valuable man. But thrusting through for a try from ten yards out, that is not his line. With these three-quarters go two ill-mated five-eighths. Oliver, it is clear, is the brains of the team; as far as there is any thinking done by the back line once it goes into motion, Oliver does it. Page is always likely to be a difficult man to stay with, his changes of direction and sudden edging off on his own make him an individualist of the first degree, and Oliver is not able gain the knack of fitting in with these bursts in which Page cute out not one man but half a back line.

Thus the development of any movement is epefulative. If Oliver is given the opening and the space to move in he is able to do a t -workmanlike job, but aside from combined movements he is not a starring back—when an opponent drops a pass or fumbles a short kick, Oliver is not there to start something which signals danger to his foss. And thus, too, Page's irritating habit of moving crabwise can crush an attack as effectively as good tackling. It must be remembered that in this match the All Blacks were not facing backs of international class; the Rest of New Zealand fielded a back line which, with the notable exception of Smith, who is a find of the highest order and a real scoring winger of the Steel type (to watch him send two All Blacks flying at the same moment when moving up for a scoring chance was worth the rest of the match), was not , fast and not given to tackling soundly. The tourists were able to play with confidence, and it was this measure of confidence which gave them the victory. Another serious weakness in the All Black side was the lack of effective linking of forwards and backs. The forwards have chosen to develop the new passing game, which is probably the reason that the dribbling rushes of The Rest went through their ranks like cheese. The line-out work is crude, even though the marking of the All Blacks by their opponents was badly done, the scrummaging honours until the second half started were clearly with the losers, and the actual signs of feeding their backs given by the All Blacks were extremely few. The backs, at times, from sheer dearth of opportunities, and in the second half the losing forwards, though forced to share the ball fairly evenly, pushed the tourists back to their own twenty-five whenever they joined issue. With the floundering service which he was given from the line-out, the persistent raising, of feet in the scrum and the failure to put the ball in properly Kilby was presented with a great problem. Certainly he was behind no band of forwards that bore comparison with the players of ten years ago. The Brownlies, Whites and Richardsons of those days would have swept through this team with ease. But though there is devil enough in the play of «the present side it is illdirected, wasted on blindly fighting for control of "the situation when a chance has passed. It was not uncommon for the All Blacks to be struggling against their adversaries some time after the ball was on its way to the New Zealand goal line. Lack of quickness in thinking, that may be said to be the chief failure of the present team, that and the very real and very melancholy fact that there is not a solitary real star in the whole Bide. It is too much, perhaps, to hope for a Steel, a Cooke or a Nepia, but it is hard to be refused even one of them. The returning team, ifith all itg advantages, was sorely tried by The Rest "and only slight misjudgments robbed the losers of three tries. And the All Blacks were trying to win. The rough handling. which they received from their opponents was enough to keep them interested in the match il they had not been thrown on the defensive practically throughout the second half. The one bright spot in the match was the fact that the play of The Rest suggests that there mus be other men about for the finding, and that their solidity plus some of the pace of men like McLean and Barry will make a good team xet. „ With the wind and sun behind them the All Blacks put on 22 points to 8 in the first spell, and in the second half The Rest scored 9 .points to 3, the final result being 25—17 in favour of the AH Blacks. SAVOTTRS OF ** SQUEALING." CRITICISM OF TEST REFEREES. (Received 10 a.m.) SYDNEY, this day. Cliff Porter, the ex-New Zealand international Rugby captain, interviewed by the "Daily Telegraph," criticised the complaints of the manager and some members of the All Blacks about referees. He stated: . . , "It savours of 'squealing. It is bad sportsmanship. They could have done much better by saying nothing, even if they had the impression that everything had not been to their satisfaction. I hope the people of New Zealand do not take too much notice of them. "From the point of view of fairness, Mr. A. L. C. Irving's refereeing in r.he last Test could not have been improved upon. "What really happened in the first Test was that the All Blacks met a much becter team, and the Australians won on their merits."