H. F. McLEAN LEADS ARMY RUGBY SIDE

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 169, 19 July 1941, Page 4 (Supplement)

H. F. McLEAN LEADS ARMY RUGBY SIDE

WHEN the Army entered a team in the Auckland senior Rugby competition there was plenty of experienced talent available, but it was thought that the * side would be at a disadvantage in developing as a team as the players went overseas. This did not occur, for when the occasion arose recently recruits of a similar calibre were available. It appears that the Army fifteen is at present stronger than at the beginning of the season. Its forwards have been the match winners on most occasions, but an improvement in the play of the backs has been seen recently; there is no reason why team play of a higher standard should not be now revealed. On paper the Army has the best three-quarter line in the competition, W. I. Perriam, captain of the South Island reps., in the centre, and L. Schubert, Auckland representative, and A. Mclnnarney, Auckland and New Zealand League player, on the wings. Behind the scrum there is J. Pile, Auckland half of a couple of seasons aeo with T. Wagstaffe and R. Bilkie alongside him Both the five-eighths are former members of the Grammar §tt teams - . F™?, 11 ?. a satisfactory full-back.has been found in B. H. Warner, who filled that role last season for Universitv. L-ast week the team was without the services of its captain, E. Jackson, the Hawke s Bay All Black, who has gone to the officers' tiaining corps at Trentham. Again there was a fortunate substitute, in H. 1 .McLean, who has come up from Trentham with commissioned rank. To patrons of Rugby in Auckland McLean is a familiar figure As a member of the Grafton team and captain of the representative side, lie had few peers in the packs as a consistent grafter, and when it came to the forwards joining in handline bouts' McLejn revealed speed and sure hands, which often brought him tries. He was the obvious successor to Jackson, and the teams in the next few weeks will lack nothing on the score of generalship. It was expected that there would be another newcomer in the forwards to-day in P Smith a member of the Maori team which toured Australia in 1935 and Fiji three years later.

P. Smith