RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30451, 27 May 1964, Page 30

RANDOM REMINDER

FIELD GOAL

Only those with an understanding of what Rugby football means to the New Zealander, and in particular to the New Zealand boy, will appreciate the magnificence of the moment recorded at the end of this little tale. The meetings of school first fifteens have not begun this season, but on the lower levels, the battles are fought with no less spirit; and for the young spectator, the result is just as important. It was against this background that a team from one of’ the Christchurch schools recently visited another. Team A, the visitor, was asked by the coacn of team B, the host, if it would be possible to include in the B team a Chinese student who was

big and tall, who was decidedly too old for the grade, but who was very keen indeed to have a game of Rugby. The coach of team A agreed readily enough, and the match began, with the guest player tucked away inconspicuously and rather ineffectively in the B forwards. But in the second half of this hard-fought match, the young Chinese man appeared in the B backs. And even before the ball reached him, it was clear that he was a magnificent athlete, with a really tremendous burst of speed. This did not escape the observation of the partisans along the touchlines, who exhorted the B’s most earnestly to get the ball out to their new-found hero. Which they eventually did. Then this young

man showed just how naturally gifted he was. Although he was somewhere about his own twenty-five when he received the ball, he shot off on a magnificent run, swerving and changing pace, before straightening up and setting off for the goal-line. It was clear that no-one could catch him. In another language, he made his own rules out in front With every yard he covered, his pursuers dropped half a yard further behind. The spectators screamed in delirious delight. And then it happened. The ballcarrier paused beneath the posts, drew back his right arm with the superb grace shown in pictures of the discus throwers of ancient Greece, and hurled the ball over the cross-bar. It was his first Rugby match.