RUGBY BOLD EXPERIMENTS NEEDED

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29251, 8 July 1960, Page 20

RUGBY BOLD EXPERIMENTS NEEDED

All Black Backs Lack Scoring Potential

(From T. P. McLEAN, "NZ Herald" Correspondent, by Arrangement with the N.Z.P.A.J BLOEMFONTEIN, July 6. It looks as If the All Blacks, in the interests of their remaining Matches, most make bold experiments. No good purpose can be served by saying that the team would vot have suffered its first loss in a provincial match to Orange Free State by 8 points to 9 at Bloemfontein today if D. B. Clarke had been kicking up to true form. The truth is that the principal deficiency was the want of scoring ability in the AH Black backs.

At the time when J. R. Watt scored one try and P, F. H. Jones the other, the AU Black forwards were decisively superior to a pack of very considerable weight and strength. This was the time for aU out attack with everything depending upon a free flow of the baU among men weU positioned to back each other up. It was not until the last 10 or 15 minutes that the AU Blacks, now under great strain, made any persistent attempt to carry out an attack by the outside backs. It was a case of too little and too

late. A. H. Clarke was forced into his old fault of running wide with the ball, S. G. Bremner lacked the speed to compete with B. van Niekerk and 1 Kirkpatrick, and T. R. Lineen was perhaps too far away to exercise the dangerous influence of his natural game. Faulty Passes As a final poignant touch, mishandling and faulty passes still affected movements in spite of the fact that the AU Blacks have now reached the halfway stage of their tour. Thus when Bremner executed his barge most intelligently to gain a half yard of ground as be was tumbling forward of his tackler, the movement promised a try in the corner

to Watt—and no doubt the game could have been won then and there—but Lineen's pass pitched a least a yard behind the flying winger. Better far under the circumstances to take the tackle and trust to the forwards to command the next move with a quick heel. Not that the backs as a whole deserve to be condemned for this was yet another of the several demonstrations of the tour that the trend of recent years toward power football has robbed the New Zealand game of its old authority in the three-quarters. Perhaps the experimentation, if it is attempted, could turn first to a combination of S. R. Nesbit, A. H. Clarke and Lineen. There might even be profit in W. A. Davies at second five-eighths, and in K. F. Laidlaw as a centre, for Clarke or Nesbit, and,Lineen, but whatever is attempted—and surely the need will be recognised—it is important that the smashing play of the forwards in their finest drives against an outstanding provincial pack should be supported by dangerous thrusts. Unhappiest Figure The unhappiest figure of the game naturally was D. B. Clarke, who had the misfortune to play his worst game for New Zealand at a time when so much depended on his boot Perhaps the cause of his failings at goal was a tendency to stab too sharply at the ball. So far as Clarke’s general play was concerned it was strange that he did not make more use of the up-and-under which so nearly yielded a third try in the first half. By and large the forwards were superior to those of Orange Free State, but even here there seemed to be too heavy a burden for I. N. Mac Ewan in the line-out and the Free State’s tactics of using every means, including wild tapping, of denying the ball to the All Blacks turned out to be triumphantly right for the day in a game that throbbed with excitement.

New Zealand could have no repinings. The All Blacks have depended too often upon penalty goals in recent years to cavil at loss caused by this means.