Inter-island Rugby game has colourful history

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31772, 31 August 1968, Page 11

Inter-island Rugby game has colourful history

rpilE Inter-island match is A a Rugby history on its own—a history full of colour, characters and great deeds.

The first game between North and South was played in Wellington 71 years ago; since then there have been 60 matches, 35 of which have been Won by North Island teams. South has won 22, and three have been drawn.

South Island has often been the underdog in these contests, and North, with its 12 All Blacks, is entitled to favouritism in today’s game. But supporters of the South will be heartened by memories of the last three matches at Lancaster Park —all of which ended satisfactorily for South.

In 1960, while the AH Blacks were campaigning in South Africa, North found that the burden of supplying two-thirds of the New Zealand team was too much to bear, and went down, 26-11, to a lively South team.

The games of 1962 and 1963 Will live in the memory. On each occasion a Goliath-like North side was beaten by the determination and application of an underrated South team. Few will forget T. N. McAra’s sensational death-knock try in the left-hand corner to win the 1962 game for South; nor the manner in which the southern players responded to the inspired leadership of D. J. Graham.

The following year, with practically the same XV ip the field, South looked D. B. Clarke, C. E. Meads, W. J. Whineray, and the others squarely .in .the eye and walked off with a narrow, but well-merited victory. E. W. Kirton’s part in that win was instrumental in gaining him All Black honours for the first time. Since that occasion, North has won four matches on end, and many of the players in the side today have contributed to these successes. One of the most menacing figures will be K. R. Tremain, who scored a hat-trick of tries in the spectacular 1965 match at Wellington.

Matches in the early years were often beset by unexpected difficulties. In 1904 the game was played at Dunedin and two of Auckland’s noted AH', Black's, G. W. Nicholson and C. E. Seeling, did not arrive in time. The inter-island rivalry did not bum so fiercely in those days; two Otago players filled the vacancies in the North Island scrum.

The 1904 game was the first of five successive appearances by J. Hunter and H. J. Mynott as the North Island five-eighths, which probably constitutes some sort of record. North was unbeaten during this period.

Another famous fiveeighths combination for the North Island was M. F. Nicholls and A. E. Cooke. The two players had struck up a formidable combination in the space of about seven club games in Auckland in 1923, and the following year they helped North give South one of its biggest beatings—39-8. The only other occasion on which these two great players were teamed as five-eighths for North was In 1926, and, significantly, their side put up the record score and the record winning margin by beating South, 41-9. Nicholls’s 20 points In this match still stands as a record for an individual player in the fixture.

North Island scored eight tries against South in Christchurch in 1932, and five of them were gained by the powerful Wanganui wing, G. A. H. Bullock-Douglas. This is another feat which has not been equalled, let alone surpassed. South’s longest winning run began in 1937 and ended in 1945—a total of six matches, for the inter-island

game was discontinued between 1940 and 1942. Such well-known Rugby names as T. C. Morrison, C. K. Saxton, V. L. George and R. R. King contributed to South’s supremacy in the late 19305. In the remaining years South’s regular full-back was the Canterbury man, P. R. Callanan; who kicked 16 points in the 1945 game. The post-war period was ushered in by an epic game in 1946 at Wellington. The field was swept by wind rain and the mud quickly turned to slush. By common consent there was only 25 minutes’ play in the second half, but R. W. H. Scott defied the conditions by managing to kick the sodden ball twice between the posts to give North Its margin of victory.

The 1947 match at Invercargill provided the rare sight of two All Black forwards being ordered off. But there was evidently no animosity between the players: J. G. Simpson and L. S. Connolly left the field arm in arm. W. F. McCormick will be South’s full-back for the ninth successive year in today's match, and he needs only five points to become the highest individual scorer in the history of the series. D. B. Clarke scored 51 points in his eight games for the North Island.