Complacency Could Be All Black Weakness

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30146, 1 June 1963, Page 18

Complacency Could Be All Black Weakness

I By

A. A MULLIGAN,

, a British journalist with the English Rugby team, who is writing

, ™ IVUU IO IVIIUKU specially tor ‘Tile Press.”]

lhe cards have been dealt by the selectors. We, the onlookers, peering over their shoulders, know what the cards mean; what we do not know is how the players will play them.

The young men of England have come south to Lancaster Park, to vindicate themselves and give a good account of their true football ability before leaving for home.

browsing gently ir. the grass at Lancaster Park, they will be in danger It will be up to Whineray to see that there are no cork trees Wrong Tactics How, then, can England vindicate herself? If she plays it in the pack, and uses the touchline, she will surely fail. If she spins it among the backs, without creating good possession, she will also fail The whole question will rest, as it always has, on whether the English forwards have done their homework and learned the simple and excellent lessons which have been taught in the last three matches From there it will be a question of how * quickly Clarke and Horrocks-Taylor strive to use each ball contrary to many New Zealand critics I do not believe that the English halves could have utilised the ball they received much better: to have tossed it about would have accelerated the AU Black supremacy. not increased their own. No, the answer must be in winning the loose ball, the rugged art at which all New Zealanders excel Pace to Score Before England leave one hopes that Phillips will be unleashed but once He has the pace to score a try as Hewitt did in 1959 from a Horrocks-Taylor half break With Sykes in form, little veteran that he is, perhaps we shall see better things from England Foi the All Blacks, there is more to this test than winning They must please their selectors, tor by doing so the tour to Britain will become a probability, not a possibility With many old hands in the side, the thought of new pas-

tures provides a special incentive.

One has great faith in this All Black pack The halves as a pair remain to be proven. Connor, as an individual, is a great scrum-hall and fine tactician The All Black back-line behave themselves like Chinese crackers when fed from the loose heels: they are less convincing in the set moves

Perhaps they will react to the placid Anglican landscape of Christchurch, to the atmosphere of Edwardian grace twixt Stratford-on-Avon and Cambridge, and make themselves at home. Perhaps not.

There remain only the two full-backs; dominant figures both On points, D. B. Clarke won the first round. If Roger Hosen wins the second, so might England. My neck grows long—for one cannot help bu* assume a victory for the All Blacks A natural incentive is to support the underdog— and I shall be happy to lose my head if England beats the All Blacks

For the All Blacks this is a happy hunting groundscene of many a stampede and rout, where Springbok. Lion, and Tricolour have tailed to win a test ( Great Victories In 1 fact, the last two tests here have been won in a manner which led me to believe that no side in the world could have held the All Blacks on those occasions.

Dr. Dame Craven himself, commented as much in 1959 when the Lions were run round the paddock like straws in the wind

In spite of the Hawke’s Bay debacle, it would be foolish to considei this England team too lightly In fact. England’s strength will be a Dunkirk psychology—and complacency will be New Zealand's weakness.

If the Al) Blacks feel that they can play Ferdinand,