Juniors Have Weight To Match Springboks

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30802, 14 July 1965, Page 17

Juniors Have Weight To Match Springboks

(From I. J. D. HALL, Rugby Reporter of "The Press "! The Junior All Blacks to meet the Springboks at Lancaster Park today are junior in name only.

This will be the heaviest pack the Springboks have met on tour —it averages more than 15 stone a man.

And the backs, except for the first five-eighths, Mehrtens, are fairly experienced campaigners.

The Springboks have responded by choosing a very heavy pack, while four of the players—Nel, Du Preez, Janson and Naude—can be regarded as locks, which brings an additional sophistication to the three-lock game the Springboks played in Australia.

Free from the taint of provincial parochialism, this match could be one of the most attractive of the tour.

One could expect a Junior All Black team not to have developed yet the grimness associated with international Rugby and the Springboks, if they are allowed, will play aggressive, attacking Rugby.

But because of the state of this tour it is unlikely the game will develop into a flowing, running match.

Tighter Play The Springboks have realised they must tighten up their forward play, and the choice of four locks shows that is their intention. And it is unlikely they will use their backs freely, allowing the Juniors to break down set play into loose rucks. No doubt the Springboks have remembered vividly the effect the Wellington

loose forwards, Williams and Lister, had on Smith and Oxlee. Both are in the Junior team and will pursue the same tearaway tactics in an attempt to intimidate Oxlee,

who had a bad game at Wellington. Oxlee must be the key man of the Springbok team. If he receives a good service from Smith, which in turn means clean possession from the forwards, he could dominate the match by his astute kicking and quick passing. Outside of him, he has a fine pair of centres in Roux and Nomis and speed on the wings.

]7st 121 b Lock

However, if the Juniors break down the Springbok inside backs, then South Africa will be in trouble.

They have not yet shown a great deal of aptitude in the face of thrusts by the loose forwards or in stopping driving forwards. The Juniors have a good pack, bolstered in weight by the 17st 121 b lock, Crawford, but because the forwards have not played together it is unlikely they will match the Springboks in the scrums or the line-outs, where du Preez and Nel should gain most possession. But in the loose the Juniors should be every effective; fierce and decisive in their rucking and driving. Mr N. J. McPhail will have seen to that.

Untried Half-Backs

The one weakness in the Juniors may be the half-back combination of Davis and Mehrtens. They are an untried pair and it is a big test for Mehrtens. He may have to face up to the big, fast Springbok forwards in their short passing rushes—an unpleasant prospect.

Outside of Mehrtens there is the pace of Tataurangi, Milner and Osborne, although Milner was not very impressive when he played against the Springboks for the Poverty Bay-East Coast team Lancaster Park will be heavy but if there is no more rain it will not be the heavy sticky mud of Carisbrook But the Springboks have shown they can handle heavy grounds, so that will not worry, them.