WALES AGAIN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 231, 30 September 1935, Page 6

WALES AGAIN.

Tho incredible has happened; the All Blacks have been beaten. It is true that All Black teams have been beaten before, in Australia and South Africa; true also that in the record of tho 1905 team there appears an entry: "Wales 3, New Zealand 0." But most New Zealanders have preferred to think and say that those cold figures mci*cly embalm a certain regrettable omission, and that All Black teams when playing in the United Kingdom have been invincible. But last Saturday there was no mistake; Manchester's men were defeated by three tries to one, and the score appears to reflect the run of the play. There were no excuses made at SAvansea, and there will be none in New Zealand. Whatever happens in later games—and if we know Mr. Meredith and the players under his charge the Swansea result is not likely to be repeated often —the 1935 team cannot equal the records of its predecessors, but no flags will be half-masted because of that. The unbeaten record of the 1924 team represented for their successors a kind of "mental hazard" which was likely to mar their enjoyment of the tour and possibly to affect the spirit in which they played the game. This tour may show that the standard of Rugby in the United J Kingdom has been raised considerably in the last decade, and that visiting teams must expect opposition as hard as that encountered by English or Australian teams which come to New Zealand. Meanwhile there will be peculiar elation in Wales, for once again a Welsh force has humbled a victorious invader.