Strong Cambridge Half-Backs May Trouble N.Z.

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30287, 13 November 1963, Page 32

Strong Cambridge HalfBacks May Trouble N.Z.

(From r. P. McLEAN. Sports Editor o! tM "New Zealand LONDON, November 12. Buoyed up though they are by the tremendous feeling of confidence that followed their brilliant display against London Counties on Saturday, the All Blacks may find Cambridge University a very difficult and different opponent tomorrow. The University has not an overwhelming good record this season, having won only half of its 10 games, but it has a real incentive to do well.

This match will bear greatly on the selection of the team to play Oxford at Twickenham early next month.

Moreover, the young Cambridge first five-eighths. C. N. Gibson, a Northern Irishman, has been playing so well as to attract the newspaper feature writers. He is already being described as the find of the season. It is also somewhat ominous that the scrum-half is S. J. Clarke, for the latter looked uncommonly good when he toured New Zealand with the English team this year. Few better visiting half-backs have been seen in New Zealand in a long time. Five of the Cambridge team are old Blues and one of these, the international. Drake-Lee, in the front row, has almost as high a reputation as Clarke. Altogether,

the University team looks big enough and. in particular, fast enough to be very troublesome. There are two or three points about the All Black selection. It cannot now be doubted that the extreme brilliance of the New Zealand loose forwards. W. J. Nathan and D. J. Graham, contributed greatly, if not principally, to the decline of London Counties and the factor above all which governed their play was speed and quickness. By contrast, tomorrow’s

loose forwards—K. A. Nelson. K. R. Tremain and B. J. Lochore —are not notable for speed, so the Cambridge halves. Clarke and Gibaon. may have time to develop the movements which were denied the Counties' threequarters. The rest of the All Black selection is straightforward enough, although a heavy responsibility rests on J. Major to prove himself. D. Young, the first string hooker, is working like a beaver, using all his arts, strength and guile to give the All Blacks a fair share of the ball and Major, by some means or other, simply must build up to something like the same standard. Given some of Saturday s divine fury the All Blacks might win this match comfortably. but they will be really troubled if they cannot produce a fair measure of the same strength.