SEVEN MATCHES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 227, 25 September 1935, Page 9

SEVEN MATCHES.

UNIVERSITY RUGBY.

TEAM'S JAPANESE TOUR.

MUCH EXPECTED OF PLAYERS

Seven matches are to be played in Japan by the New Zealand Universities' Rugby team, which leaves Auckland by the Aorangi on December 23.

Members of the team will join the Kitano Maru at Sydney, and on their way to Japan they will call at Brisbane, Thursday Island, Davao, Manila, Hongkong and Nagasaki. They will probably play two matches in Hongkong, one on their way to Japan and one on their way back.

If possible, Wellington and ooutli Island members of the team r-. ill leave from Wellington by the MaKura. The team is due back in Auckland on March 16 or 17.

The New Zealand University RugbyCouncil has received an invitation for members of the team to play a match in Shanghai, but it is considered doubtful whether this match can be fitted into the itinerary.

Instructions issued recently to members of the team by the manager, Mr. P. Martin-Smith, of Wellington, point out that as the team will be leaving New Zealand in mid-summer, members would appreciate the necessity for being in perfect fitness when they leave, otherwise they would find it difficult in starting on a strenuous tour immediately on arrival in Japan. )

"The Japanese are expecting much from us in the way of football," said the circular letter, "and it is essential that we should not disappoint them. The Japanese do not see things as we do. They 'enow New Zealand as the home of the All Blacks, but they regard the All Blacks as ordinary men and they expect even more from university students. Thus we have a very high level to live up to."