RUGBY FOOTBALL

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24932, 20 July 1946, Page 8

RUGBY FOOTBALL

AUSTRALIA SEARCHES FOR TALENT COMING TOUR OF NEW ZEALAND (From a Special Correspondent.) SYDNEY, July 16. Australian Rugby Unions are making more thorough preparations than ever before for the tour of New Zealand in August and September. A Commonwealth wide search for the best players is being conducted. Between July 27 and August 3 the following trial matches are to be played, in Sydney:—New South Wales v. Queensland. New South Wales v. Northern States (Victoria, South Australia, and Tasmania), Queensland v. Southern States, Australia v. The Rest, and New South Wales v. .Combined States (Queensland, Victoria. South Australia, Western Australia, and Tasmania).

This will be the first time Tasmanian and Western Australian players have been considered for Australia. Past Australian teams have been mainly New South Welshmen and Queenslanders, with occasional Victorians. Rugby is now established, even if only on a minor scale, in Adelaide, Perth, and Hobart, and every effort is being made to see that the team to visit New Zealand is truly representative o,f Australia. Behind this elaborate talent search lies a desire not only to assemble the best possible team for New Zealand, but also to lay the foundation for next season’s tour cf Britain. The only thing certain about personnel is that the team will include few, if any, of the 1936 Australian Wallabies in New Zealand. Full-back ROn Rankin (New South

W'ales) may pay another visit, and if he does he will no doubt be captain. Since his return from the R.A.F., in which he won the DF.C. and the Croix de Guerre, he has reproduced something of the skill he showed in New Zealand in 1936. He had a wonderful time on the June northern tour of New South Wales, converting 12 tries and kicking four penalty goals in three games in Queensland. Keitn Windon, a fine breakaway forward in the 1936 team, may again visit New Zealand. He is still one of the best forwards in New South Wales} Apart from these tw< though, it looks as if the side will be entirely post-war. Of potentiality there is ample, but the quality developed by high-class experience still has to be built up. Australia should send a pack of young, big, and fast forwards, supported'"by speedy and clever backs, but soundness in defence may be lacking. Australia’s hard grounds da not develop players keen to go down for tackles or to fall on the ball, and most matches are marked by high scoring on both sides. Australian teams, however, are spectacularly brilliant in attack, as long as they are allowed to do as much running and passing as they wish.

New stars among backs are Paul Johnson and Trevor Allan, both of New South Wal£s. Johnson is an inside centre (equivalent to second five-eighths) and Allan is an outside centre (equivalent to centre three-quarters). Both are brilliant attackers, if allowed room to manoeuvre. On the recent three-game northern tour Johnson .scored three tries in the first match, and Allan scored three in the next Moreover, the wing three-quarters outside them scored nine tries in the three games. This scoring gives the general pattern of football here—to clear the ball quickly from the scrums, line-outs, and rucks, and send it along the line of backs for the three-quarters to do the scoring. Played successfully it is most appealing, rather like good secondary school football in New Zealand.

Australia’s pack should average 6ft and 14st, but may have too many loose forwards. Fifteen-stone Graham Cooke (although now 34) and some of his fellow’ Queenslanders, may be introduced to provide workers in the tight.

Chairman of the selection committee is Mr A. C. (“Johnnie”) Wallace, captain of the 1927 Waratah team in Great Britain. One of his associates is Mr Harold Masters, a Taranaki representative in 1919-20-21-22. and a member of the 1922 All Black team in Australia. He is nowon the staff of the Sydney Grammar School

New Zealand influence in Australian football, in fact, is beginning to be considerable. Secretary of the New South Wales Union while Mr J. Noseda was in the A.1.F., was Mr C. D. A. Kennedy, who played for Mount Albert Grammar and University in Auckland before moving to Sydney. His temporary secretaryship having ended, he has been made a member of the New South Wales Rugby Council. He was manager of the New South Wales team on its recent tour of Queensland.

Mr Evan Jessup, a 1932 All ’ Black and a 1934 Australian representative, is prominent as a club coach in Sydney. There are whispers that he will be sent with the Australian team to New Zealand, officially as assistant manager, but actually as coaph. Just now he is co-operating with the president of the New South Wales Rugby Union. Mr Justice Herron, in writing a coaching manual for clubs and schools.