All Blacks Win 58-3 In Open Game

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29851, 18 June 1962, Page 19

All Blacks Win 58-3 In Open Game

(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright)

MELBOURNE, June 17.

The All Blacks ended their tour of Australia yesterday with a dazzling display of the open game in defeating Victoria by 58 points to 3.

They scored 14 tries in a match widely regarded as the finest display of Rugby seen in Melbourne since the war. The All Blacks led 24-3 at half-time.

The win—the ninth in 10 matches—brought their aggregate points for the tour to 426, one of the highest totals by a touring team in Australia. Their opponents have scored 49 in all matches.

The full-back. D. B. Clarke, who kicked five of the All Black’s eight conversions yesterday, took his personal tally for the tour to 107 points scored in nine matches. Clarke was wrongly credited on the ground scoreboard and in some Australian press and radio reports with kicking a sixth conversion. The New Zealand touch judge, D. M. Connor, raised his flag for the kick but was overruled by the referee, Mr R. Craig. The match also marked the sixty-fourth appearance for New Zealand of the prop forward. I. J. Clarke, who was captain for the day in honour of his new record, Clarke’s number of matches beats by one the record held by another great All Black front row forward, K. L. Skinner. Victoria’s three points came from a penalty goal kicked by a New Zealander, the former counties player, J. Anderson. At full-back. Anderson did his best to cope with the All Black whirlwind but he was powerless to stop many of the attacks which swept from one side of the field to the other.

The 14 tries were a fascinating array of some of the best moves in Rugby—the five-eighths, R. C. Moreton slicing through in mid-field, the winger T. P. O’Sullivan centre kicking to a surging

line of forwards, the other I winger, D. W. McKay, diving for the corner, or the massive lock forward, I. N. MacEwan, bursting through the ruck and charging for the line with the irresistible power of a bulldozer. The crowd of about 7000 spectators loved every minute of it and gave the All Blacks a wonderfully warm reception. A television audience of thousands also watched the full match. Penalty Try Awarded The All Black scoring included a penalty try awarded to the flank forward, K. F. Barry when he was obstructed right on the goal line. The whole All Black side played with great verve and dash but if one man had to be singled out as the player of the match it would be the half-back, K. C. Briscoe. Briscoe’s superb display behind the New Zealand pack left Victorian Rugby followers in open-mouthed amazement at the strength of a touring team which could afford to have him as second choice half-back. It was a measure of Briscoe’s skill that he completely neutralised and played right out of the game Victoria’s trump card, a fair-haired, marauding flank forward, J. Culka. Given considerable latitude early in the game by the referee, Culka was becoming a fairly effective spoiler when Briscoe decided to put an abrupt end to his nuisance value. Briscoe shot 20 and 25-yard dive passes clear past his two five-eighths to the centre, P. F. Little, and left the marauder grasping at the air. Briscoe varied his play with wonderful skill and kept the Victorian defence in a constant state of baffled anxiety. Little overcame early un-

certainty to play some magnificent attacking Rugby in the second half. For the first 20 minutes of the game he was the only New Zealand back who looked at all unsure and hesitant, but once he got into his stride there was no stopping Jiim. He went past his opposite, the hard-tackling J. Douglas, once with a change of pace worthy of J. B. Smith. The Victorian pack, led by the former Australian representative front-row forward, G'. Vaughan, stuck manfully to their task but were no match for the All Black eight. In the second half the All Black forwards were taking the ball at will in the set play. Mostly they chose to feed it to the backs but there were also some fine forward tries.

The dashing Maori backrow man, W. Nathan, who was the crowd’s favourite, scored two tries, as did the flanker, Barry. Another Maori player in the match, the former Auckland winger, R. King, now living in Victoria, saw little of the ball in attack and found marking the persist ant O’Sullivan too much of a handful in defence. O'Sullivan’s tireless work was rewarded with a good try, and his centre-kick made another for the forwards. Top try-scorer was the winger, McKay, with three, and the five-eighths, Moreton, who, at 20 looks a great prospect for future New Zealand sides, scored two. For New Zealand scorers were:—Tries by McKay (3), Nathan (2), Barry (2), Moreton (2), Briscoe, O’Sullivan, Mac Ewan, Little, and T. N. Wolfe. D. B. Clarke kicked five conversions and Briscoe, S. Meads, and D. Young one each. 58 points. For Victoria: J. Anderson kicked one penalty goal. 3 points.