H. K. EMERY TYPIFIES NEW TREND IN LEAGUE

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30916, 24 November 1965, Page 19

H. K. EMERY TYPIFIES NEW TREND IN LEAGUE

TN other years Rugby A League prop forwards required speed, power and strength; sadly, this first requisite has practically dropped out as the McTigues. Herberts, Maxwells and Ratimas have battered and crashed their way into international test arenas.

One follower of this latest trend is the New Zealand forward, H. K Emery, most effective bulldozer in recent years. Britain began the trend of the pounding prop and the Kiwis threw in their lot during the 1961 British tour when Emery and his able colleague, S. K. Edwards, thumped and bumped their way into the hearts of the British supporters. In the last five years their reign has been threatened but never overthrown. With the West Coast hooker, J. R. Butterfield, the two Maori props made more than 20 appearances on the 1961 tour and many local front rows felt their combined weight of more than 46 stone for much longer than the 80 minutes of football.

There were no frills to their play. They were on the field to win the scrums and to batter the forward defence into submission. When these tasks were completed they rested and watched the lighter, faster loose forwards score the tries and often take the glory. Emery’s long career—he first played first-class Rugby in 1952 and he has played about 200 first-class Rugby matches in the two codes—must soon end. His admitted age—3l—is considered in many quarters to be a conservative estimate. Who will replace him? R. 0. Scholefield plays too loose a game; E. Moore is a possibility but he cannot also fill the vacancy that Edwards will leave. Off the field Emery is rather quiet but once there is a scrum to go down or

he has the ball in his hands he becomes a human dynamo, a frightening sight to those in his path. He is seldom tackled around the legs—a blow from the pumping knees would be stunning—and usually three or four opposing forwards need to grab various sections of the Kiwi prop before he can be lowered. Emery’s aggression has often been played upon by opposing forwards and in 1963 at Brisbane things came to a head when the Maori player retaliated to the Australian prop P. Gallagher’s, niggling and both

were sent off. Australia thought it had the match won then—Emery was a vastly better scrummager than Gallagher—but B. S. Lee proved a determined replacement when brought from the second row and the Kiwis surged to a fine victory. The first test of the current French tour brought the next major incident. The Frenchman H. Marracq —according to a French newspaper report hit Emery several times on the face before the Maori realised what was happening. Emery then knocked

Marracq cold with “blows that would kill a steer.” Assisted by Moore, Emery knocked out Marracq and G. Denarnand, as the Frenchmen attempted to blatantly kick the Kiwis. Emery and Moore do not go on to the field to fightone remembers the Australian wing, M. A. Cleary, breaking Moore’s nose at Auckland this year without receiving any retaliation—but their strength ' and power give team-mates confidence that any foul play by the opposition will be thoroughly dealt with.