RUGBY FOOTBALL

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 24051, 13 September 1943, Page 3

RUGBY FOOTBALL

AIR FORCE GAME SOUTH ISLAND BEATS NORTH The band of the Royal New Zealand Air Torce entertained patrons at Lancaster park on Saturday with bright music apd ceremonial marching, and its efforts earned loud applause from a very good attendance. After a junior football match had been played at 1 o’clock, the band took the field for three-quarters of an hour before the Inter-Island Air Force game commenced, and at half-time played and marched again. The band’s performance brought more applause and Reused more enthusiasm than the game. Inter-Island Air Force game was n ved to provide all the highlights for each team had beta carefully selected from material that was generally regarded as high class. Spectators were disappointed in having presented to them one of the poorest exhibitions of the game seen in Christchurch for a long time. The reason for the complete loss of form is hard to understand, but one reason may be that the players attached great importance to the game, as on this form they were to be selected to represent the New Zealand Air Force against the Army, at Dunedin next Saturday. There is usually poor football when teams attempt to pass for the sake of passing, and before they have settled down to their work. The play in the opening stages was aimless and ragged, but mistakes were forgiven in the hope that better things were to come. The teams failed to settle down and at no stage was anything but very mediocre football shown. It was drab, aimless,‘and uninteresting. Winging forwards on both sides were responsible for a great num- ' ber of mistakes and instead of settling down to solid scrummaging work and giving their backs the ball cleanly, they broke front the scrums immediately the ball was put in and proved a big hindrance to their own men. It was perhaps not surprising that the ball was invariably dropped by one of the inside backs, and not once during the game did the ball reach the wing-three-quarter when the latter was in a scoring position Whatever excuses might be made, however, there was no reason why the ball should have been dropped so frequently Some of the tackling was fair and one of Kerr’s efforts in the first spell, when he quickly worked his opponent into the right position and put in a dive tackle, was the highlight of the afternoon, but there was much high tackling that did not bring results. The art of dribbling appeared to be something the forwards had not heard of. Mr R. W. Blazey, the referee, awarded only two free kicks—one to each side — during the whole game and from the start it appeared he was only too anxious to overlook breaches in the hope of making the game Interesting. In the second half tempers became frayed and tactics not usually associated with good football were resorted to. In the first spell a loose forward rush ended in Knight scoring a try for the North Island, which Pearson failed to convert. Play had advanced well on in the second spell before Dick secured the ball, raced across field, and sent to Wilson, to Kerr, who kicked and enabled Palmer to score. Wilson converted and South Island won by 5 points to 3. The teams were:— South Island—H. P. Brady; J. E. Kerr; C. A. Wilson. J. Dick; J A Butler, J E. Dansey; T McCallum; R. Rothwell. R A. Keeble, F. D. Delgrosso, S. O. Field, O. S. Meads, D. Moynihan, V. Gotlieb. R. A. Palmer. North Island.—G. A. Sherlock: E. Kay, J. F. Ransfield, D. Armstrong: P J. Reid. F. L. Pearson: G. M Harvey: W. Muir, D. K. Farey, R. J. Kemp. G. F. Henderson. H. Fraser, J. G. Wills, T. H. Bowler. O W. Knight. Kay was Injured in the first few minutes of the game and his place was taken by 0. C. Jacobs. Mr R. W. Blazey was referee. «>■. . LJ NEW ZEALAND TEAM wy SELECTED ■ ‘ The following players have been chosen to represent the Royal New Zealand Air Force against the Army at Dunedin next Saturday : R. J. Masters: J. E. Kerr, P. L. Pearson, J. Dick; P. J. Reid. G W Delamore; T. R. McCallum: R. R. Rothwell. K Farey, R. A Keeble, O. S. Meads. H. Fraser G. P. Henderson, G. H. Terry. O. W. Knight (captain). Emergencies—Backs: G. A. Sherlock, J I’. Ransfield; forwards: S. O. Field, J. E. Wills, T. H. Bowler. 'LOWER GRADES Under 18 Grade.—Technical Old Boys 6. Sumner 3; Southern beat Merivale by default: Albion 6. Linwood 3. Under 16 Grade.—Final: Southern 5. High School Old Boys 3. Under 17st Grade.—Merivale 20, Rltamond 0; Southern 33, Linwood 0: Albion 49. Sunnyside 3. Under 6st Grade.—Linwood A 46, Christchurch A 0: Athletic 11, Albion 3: Linwodo B beat New Brighton by default; Southern beat Christchurch B by default. ASHBURTON BEATS CANTERBURY

Dash and vigour in the forwards won the game for Ashburton (12) in the representative game against Canterbury (8) played at the Ashburton Domain on Saturday. The game aws .marked by good line-kicking and passing on both sides, although too much individual play in the forwards lost many chances for Canterbury. In the backs Ashburton did splendid work, but Canterbury Was slightly flat-footed. Canterbury was better in the tight, and In the loose forward rushes Ashburton led the way Wardly played a steady and useful game in the forwards for Ashburton, and he was usually In , the right place at the right time. During the first half the Ashburton backs had little chance to show their form, because play was mostly controlled by the forwards at Canterbury’s end of the field. Flynn failed to get an ambitious penalty kick over just after play began, and then Behrns filed also' when he tried to do the same for Ashburton Two more attempts at penalties for Ashburton within the next 10 minutes failed, but, after a good kick from half-way. Lilley carried the ball to the Canterbury line, and after a short tussle Childs (right wing) scored. Behrns failed to convert Ashburton 3, Canterbury 0. Shortly afterwards, when the Ashburton forwards had been pushing steadily against the Canterbury defences, Moore (Ashburton) scored from a line-out near the posts. Childs nearly scored for Ashburton twice after this, when he rushed quickly down the side-line, but failed to fall on the ball after dribbling it past the posts. At halftime tire score was: Ashburton 6. Canterbury 0. Soon after the second half had begun the referee (Mr C. Wellman) was bowled over and slightly Injured, but he continued to referee the game. Play continued in Ashburton’s favour, with Wardly playing eagerly Then Doig scored . for Ashburton from a penalty kick. Ashburton 9, Canterbury 0. The Canterbury forwards at this stage rallied, and fought back gamely, using their superior weight to advantage, but in spite of this Shearer, the 19-year-old Ashburton forward, broke through to score. His try was not converted. Canterbury fought gamely on and refused to admit defeat, especially in the backs. Its first try came when C. Taylor went over from a loose forward rush Ashburton 12, Canterbury 3. Then Lilley. the Ashburton centre, was carried off the field with a broken leg and Slaven took his place. Just before time Herman dived through the Ashburton defences and scored. Jarman converted. Ashburton 12. k Canterbury 8. By this time the AshburJL ■ ton forwards were tiring and the Canterbury forward play was becoming more vigorous. Canterbury was on the verge of'scoring, but the Ashburton backs just managed to hold them until time, when the score remained the same. RUGBY LEAGUE DRAW IN VIVIAN CUP On Saturday Addington and LinwoodWoolston upset calculations in the Rugby League Vivian Cup by playing a draw--16 points each The winner was to have met Army-Combined next Saturday in the final, with Sydenham-Rakaia. as holder having the right to challenge. In the other game played Sydenham-Rakaia had little trouble in beating Homby by 2) points to 8, The winner was too strong back and forward. LINWOOD-WOOLSTON v. ADDINGTON At the start of their game it looked as if Linwood-Woolston was to have a big win over Addington, which took the held short, but filled up later. Two good tries, unconverted, soon came, but then Addington consolidated, stopped Llnwood’s passing and made the game even. After the interval Addington gradually unproved till it had converted a 13-5 dehC!t into a lead of 16-13. Linwood then made a last effort and drew level with •. tr?' only to miss a fairly easy goal which would have given it the win It J™? b T, no means a brilliant game, as e ' s defence was better than its Long combined runs were not "Umercus. clever solo efforts leading to °f the tries The last quarter was much better than the earlier part and n nT V . e , n ? ess made for great excitement. ttL u U t , ,all- R Whitley,- and S. Cook, in in »vT a S ks ’ and D Allred and A Clark i!• ~e forwards were most prominent for Allred being an outsatnding F a tvV Fo , r Addington, L. A. Bench and » n?5 ar * ed the backs in attack, with • narbarel playing very soundly at full-