N.Z. Rugby “Sombre As Its Outfit”

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30312, 12 December 1963, Page 26

N.Z. Rugby “Sombre As Its Outfit”

(From

T.P. MeLEAN.

Sports Editor of the “New Zealand Herald”]

LIMERICK, December 11. Not without cause, the All Blacks have been given the “stick” over the manner of their victory against Ireland. In one particularly savage review a columnist, Stanley Bergin, of the Dublin “Evening Herald,” has claimed that the only colour they brought to the match was black.

“It was not just part black but all black,” Bergin wrote "To me the type of Rugby they played was as sombre looking as their traditional outfit

"My general impression was that the New Zealanders added little to the game’s reputation. For a group of players who have had special training, the incentive any tour give* and who begin with a superiority complex by tradition and current record, they played as dull a game as their coiurs indicated.’’ Not Millionaires Writing in the London ’’Observer,” Garry Redmond, a Dublin barrister, said: “It is not sour grapes to say that these tourists are little short of millionaire* practising thrift,’’ and in the "Irish Times," Paul MacWeeney, a Rugby authority of acute percipience, remarked upon “the inflexibility of planning” which he thought was ad-

versely affecting the scoring capacity of the team. Here, there end elsewhere the direct statement, rather than the suggestion, has been made that the AD Blacks disdain all but the forward batterings and the D. B. Clarke goal-kicking which served them so well only a few years •go.

In substance, the criticism from gifted and or popular writer* were disturbing in their quantity and I therefore approached the manager of the AU Black*. Mr F. D K Iby. to ask whether it was true, a* wa* so freely implied. that the All Blacks were committed to one line of attack. No. said Mr Kilby, it was not true. The team was taking the field with every intention of playing effective winning Rugby attractively

The scoring of nine tries against South-western Counties and seven against Midland Counties demonstrated that this intention was being honoured. Wherever it was possible the team would seek to spread the attack to all arms.

“But," Mr Kilby said, "internationals can’t be judged as you judge lees important fixtures. The defence is keener, the tackling is sharper, the 15 opponents are prepared to play to the very last gasp. To Be Expected

"Taking the Irish match as an example, I don’t think anyone with experience of Rugby could have expected much more than came out of the encounter. I doubt, for example, that M. A. Herewini has ever been under as much pressure as he was from the Irish wing forwards. “I would say very definitely that our tactical policy is not deliberately restrictive. We aim always to win as well as we possibly can. "But where the other side set* out deliberately to thwart or control attacking on a broad front it is often very difficult indeed to do more than plug for victory.”