ALL BLACK WIN UNDESERVED

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29271, 1 August 1960, Page 12

ALL BLACK WIN UNDESERVED

Lethargic Performance Against E. Transvaal (From T. P. McLEAti, **N.Z Herald” Correspondent, by Arrangement with the JOHANNESBURG, July 31. If ever a touring international Rugby team ought to thank its lucky stars it should be the All Blacks, who on Saturday at Pam Brink Stadium, Springs, beat Eastern Transvaal by a goal, a penalty goal and a dropped goal to two tries. The victory was not only narrow, it was undeserved. Apart from one extremely exciting phase of play, which S. G. Bremner began with a superbly judged thrust of 60 yards or more, the All Blacks were strictly on the defensive for most of the second half and with the score of 3-6 against them their chances kept on diminishing.

With only three or four minutes remaining they looked quite hopeless. Then C. E. Meads made up for a game played most of the time in second gear with a tremendous break from halfway.

After a vigorous run of 20 yards or more he punted across toward the goalmouth and the Eastern Transvaal full-back, W. Cilliers, was under extreme pressure from the fast following All Blacks when he kicked the ball dead from a yard or two infield. At the scrum W. D. Gillespie picked up the ball and tried to go across the goal-line. When he was checked the ball fell loose and the outstanding All Black forward of the day, K. R. Tremain, most deservedly scored when he picked up the ball and hurled himself over.

D. B. Clarke kicked the goal to put the All Blacks into the lead and then he and K. C. Briscoe repeated their tour de force of the second test Clarke fielding a long throw back from a scrum about 40 yards from the goal and drop-kicking a magnificent goal tp seal the match. The spoils to the victors, so the saying goes, but it must be said

that for a good part of the game, more particularly of the second half, Eastern Transvaal was decisively the more lively and efficient team. A tall and capable line-out forward in A. Muller, well supported by H. Dinkelman and H. Nel, threw the All Black line-out play badly out of gear. So sound was the combination of the halves, D. Watt, a nuggety and most querulous man, and D. Mulder, the fly-half, that the latter seemed to have aeons of time for his tactical kicks, while Tremain and D. J. Graham shuffled somnolently toward him. No-one on the tour has kicked the All Blacks into so many parts of their own territory as Mulder, who punted with tremendous length and accuracy. Fine Efforts Wasted It was a misfortune that so much fine effort should ultimately go begging because of Cilliers’s desperate kick, and it was even sadder that Mulder, the number one player of the game, should in the end be accountable as a villain because of his failure to recognise that the All Black backs were so often in such straits that the ball should have been constantly put among them rather than into touch. If Eastern Transvaal deserved the victory because of its sustained effort, which only began to flag towards the end of a hard match played under a pitilessly hot sun, it deserved it even more for demonstrating the embarrassing incapacity of the All Black back line for attacks worthy of the name and reputation of an international team. There was no doubt that A. H. Clarke was being played too soon after his injury at Oudtshoorn, but it was odd indeed that his painfully unfortunate attempts, both to field Briscoe’s passes and to set the line going by ill-directed punts, did not persuade W. J. Whineray or Bremner, or both, that any sort of rearrangement of the backs could not possibly produce a less potent attack. Not until 19 minutes from the end of the game did K. F. Laidlaw, in the centre, receive a pass in a full back line movement The backs were indeed fortunate in their two champions— Briscoe, tough and game as ever, and D. B. Clarke, not quite in test match form but magnificently powerful in defence during all of the stress of the second half Whineray was a most strenuous worker among the forwards, but one had the impression that the team as a whole, and particularly the pack, was going through the motions rather than finding much zest in yet another stern and unyielding encounter. Time will show whether this mood is temporary or lasting, but if it should prove the latter the team- is in for trouble, especially against Transvaal next Saturday. But for the fantastic kicking of D. B. Clarke, whose penalty was placed from 50 yards and whose drop-kick was an unbelievably fine kick, this could have been a loss. The mere fact that Mulder, a player of great reputation, was able to exercise such influence on the game emphasised the extent of the lethargy which gripped the All Blacks.