THE PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL TEAM.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 12974, 29 November 1907, Page 6

THE PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL TEAM.

There is a striking difference in the public attitude regarding the present tour of the professional football team now playing at Home and that of the "All Blacks" two years ago. The result of every match played by the latter was awaited out here with as much anxiety as if the fate of New Zealand depended upon it, and hundreds of people in ChrUtcuurch used to hurry down to tho Post Office on Sunday morning to ascertain from the special messages cabled out by the High Commissioner, how our men had acquitted' themselves on tho preceding day. The brilliant aeriea of striking victories achieved by our men was undoubtedly a source of great pride to the community, i»nd oarned for the team a degree of pop ularity never won by any other representatives of sport. It is very different with tho professional team, which has just lost another match, the fifth. out of tho fifteen games played up to the present. Its defeats, which in tho case of the "All Blacks" would have plunged New Zealand in gloom, aro received with sheer indifference, and even its earlier successes evoked no enthusiasm. It was generally understood that matters wcro to bo so arranged that tho visitors would first meet the weaker clubs in the Northern Union, Ko they might pick up tho special points of tho game ac played in tho North of England beibro meeting tho more powerful teams, and that is apparently what was done. Any comparison between the merits of the two New Zealand teams as shown by their play at Home is difficult, because tho clubs under tho English Rugby Union do not meet those of the Northern Union. But it is agreed by experts that tho beat "Welsh teams would beat tho best Northern Union teams, and as the "All Blacks' vanquished all the Welsh club teams they met, it is a fpir inference that they would have defeated tho Northern Union clubs who are now beating the "All Golds." This confirms the general belief in New Zealand that the professional team, in epito of all that was claimed for it, was decidedly inferior to tho amateurs. At one period of their tour the "All Blacks" showed signs of fatigue, and 1 the New Zealand public, which had come to regard it as an understood thing that they should win by something ...us 40 points to 8, noted, with pained surprise, scores in which tho winning margin was very much smaller. But the "All Blacks" numbered only twenty-seven players and were putting teams of fiftoon into tho fieJd, whereas tho professionals, ■with thirty men, have only to play Thirteen in each match. They have thus, with more than two full teams to choose from, a much bigger margin to work upon than their predecessors. Apart from the feeling wo all have, that for the credit of the Dominion* we do not like to sec a team of New Zealandora beaten by English club teams, comparatively few people aro concerned with the fortunes of the professionals. And for ourselves we regard fheir frequent defeats with all the less regret, because they can hardly fail to discredit professional

football. The formation of the team was a misfortune from the point of view of clean sport, but ita ill effect* in that direction will probably be considaxably minimised if vi© English tour falls as short of the anticipated success as seems probable.