The Test Football Match.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17224, 15 August 1921, Page 6

The Test Football Match.

If any newcomer to New Zealand lind had doubts as to what was the national game of the people, they -would liave been dispelled on Saturday afternoon, when the probable issue of the contests in Duncdin and Wellington kept almost all tongues busy. Even to oldtimers who could talfc over the visits of the English teams under Stoddnrt and Bedell-Sievwright, it seemed as though never before had such general interest been taken in the result of an international match. That New Zealand's win was popular goes without saying, the pleasure with which the news was fcoeived being all the greater because it justified the public's confidence that bur men would prove superior. As the report by our special representative at the match shows, however, we have not so much to boast about, if we wefe inclined to fio so. as the scores-suggest. The showing made by the All Blacks is described as disappointing, the chief characteristics of their game being sound defence, poor attack, lack of dash among the forwards and of cohesion among the backs, and wild passing. The South Africans, who were represented by their strongest team, are declared to have played a better gamei than" their opponents- until the last twenty minutes,, to have had all the tad luck that was going. They seem to have surprised the/ spectators by playing a much less stereotyped game than they had displayed in previous matches. '.Luck, good or bad, may befall any team; it is a factor upon which it is impossible to calculate* and therefore must bo put aside. This having been done, there remains the fact that the strongest teaih oUr .visitors could jmt in the fieldj playing on a ground which though heavy was dry, and with a perfectly dry ball, was beaten by a'New Zealand teain which no one in Canter-, bury 'will admit was the best that could have :.been picked, and thjft did not play up to the best All Black traditions. The outstanding fact that New Zealand won the first Test, does not, however, i necessarily contradict the assertion that the South Africans have been underrated, and that New Zealand Vill have to do better than on Saturday to make. sure of winning' tire twtf other Tests, j On a ground that suite them better .than any on which they have yet played they develop a game that will unpleasantly surprise their opponent's. '