INTER-ISLAND RUGBY MATCH TODAY

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27978, 26 May 1956, Page 3

INTER-ISLAND RUGBY MATCH TODAY

'T'HE South Island team will have to improve con- ■* siderably on the form shown in the final trial at Lancaster Park on Tuesday if it is to improve its record in the annual inter-island match. The North-South match at Wellington today is the eleventh since the war, but in that time the South Island has won only twice.

There should be a huge crowd at Athletic Park, for tlie selection of the New Zealand fifteen which will begin its three-match tour on Wednesday must be based largely on this match, and it will be surprising if New Zealand's team for the first test against South Africa varies much from that chosen for the New Zealand fifteen.

Today’s match is the forty-eighth in a series which began in 1897. So far the North Island has won 27 times to the South’s 17. The North Island has won in each of the last three years, and a further victory tomorrow would allow it to equal the record winning sequence of four games each side has achieved once.

Although the South Island has a poor post-war record in these games, four of the eight defeats have been by only one or two points, and the 1956 match should also be quite close. There will be some individual clashes of extreme interest. The fullbacks, K. C. Stuart (South) and D. B. Clarke, are of a type—strong, courageous, reliable. R. A. Jarden is a certainty for the left-wing position for New Zealand, but the other three—two of them normally left wings—must now be considered strong candidates for the right wing position. The vital inside back positions will be contested most keenly, and there will be particular interest in the showing of R. H. Brown (Taranaki) at first fiveeighths.

On form and reputation. J. B. Buxton (Canterbury) and W. H. Clark (Wellington) must be leading candidates as flank forwards, but the struggle among the locks should be a tremendous one. S. F. Hill and R. H. Duff, at their best, will find it difficult to match I. Mac Ewan and R. H. White, and the South Island front row will also have a stiff task.

It may be that the national selectors will call on one or two players not chosen by the island selection panels.

It is unlikely, for instance, that P. T. Walsh, of Counties, has been dropped completely, considering the faith ginned on him last year bv the All lack selectors.

The teams for the match are:— North Island.—D. B. Clarke: R. A. Jarden. J. T. Fitzgerald, T. Katene; W. N. Gray. R. H. Brown: A. R. Reid; A. Pryor; C. E. Meads. I. Mac Ewan. R. A. White, W. H. Clark: I. Clarke, R. C. Hemi, R. J. O’Carroll. South Island. —K. C. Stuart; R. M. Smith. A. E. G. Elsom. J. R. Watt: A. L. Wilson. R. G. Bowers; P. B. Vincent; A. J. Soper; W. Gillespie. S. F. Hill, R. H. Duff. J. Buxton; M. W. Irwin, D. Young, F. McAtamney.