Two Of Many Brilliant Moves

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30367, 17 February 1964, Page 12

Two Of Many Brilliant Moves

So it was when Whineray scored the last try. Again there was a breakdown in the Barbarians’ back-line, again a galvanic movement as the All Blacks instantly regrouped and pressed onward, and again perfect passing and backing up. Little and Graham were the main figures this time and when Whineray began his bolt Caulton was ranged to his left.

It was a perfect movement with a perfect ending for instead of passing Whineray dummied and went on to score his only try in two tours. These were but two examples. Many of the rest,

including movements which did not succeed but which were hair-raisingly exciting, paralleled these two in the number of players participating in the breakdown of the defence and the number accurately making and catching passes.

Once, about five minutes from the end, Laidlaw, who must surely now be on the threshold of greatness, broke away and half-a-dozen players charged with him for nearly 70 yards in a passing array which was only spoiled when Gray, after taking a pass from Whineray, threw Laidlaiw a forward pass only five yards short of the goal In the very last movement of all the Barbarians were bashing into the All Blacks'

twenty-five when suddenly, and improbably, Stewart had the ball. While many of the rest of the players stared at him in a wild surmise he sprinted for 25 yards right down to Wilson, the Scottish full-back. Dick was yelling his head off to the right but Stewart, if he could hear, could not proceed so far. Instead, he kicked straight down the field. Dick and two defenders, one the very fast Englishman, Phillips, chased after the ball. Dick plainly had the legs of them both. But as he raced onward it became a question whether he would win the ball before it reached the dead-ball line or whether it would beat him.

'The ball won—by only a yard or two—but it was symptomatic of the crazy, wonderful, deliriously exciting thing that this match had turned into that the crowd groaned in vexation because the New Zealanders had not won another reward. In colder terms the match turned upon two events, each of which remarked the hawklike intelligence and skill of the All Blacks of the day. The first half was splendid. The play, it is true, was not convulsed by the spirit of the Barbarians’ match with the 1953 All Blacks when the Barbarians throws-in from touch travelled 15 or 20 yards and when the two sides dashed at each other with the impetuous enthusiasm of boys released from a long dull

term of work. This time there were short throw-ins and the inside and midfield backs of both teams stole forward at least in the opening phase to the defensive stations that ar< nowadays always taken up in the big stuff. Still, it was good, keen Rugby and there could not have been a more delicious touch to set the match alight than the mark the New Zealander, I. J. Clarke, claimed for the Barbarians some 40 yards from the All Black goal about 20 minutes after the start. At his request the referee, Mr G. Walters, signalled the touch judges to go to the posts. lan’s brother, Don, the great goal-kicker, had already missed a penalty attempt. It

was a piquant moment of a great career when lan Clarke, without the least trouble, drop-kicked a goal. He was playing well at that stage, as well as in any match of the tour. So, too, was Pask, the Welsh No. 8, while on the left wing Simpson, one of the two unknowns brought into the match by the Barbarians, was having an epic encounter with Dick. There were good tries by the All Blacks before the interval, one a beauty by Tremain after Graham had caught the English outsidehalf Sharp, in possession, and the other the smartest piece of passing down the blindside by Whineray, Nathan, Laidlaw and Meads before Meads crossed the line.