1970 ALL BLACKS NOW TOP THE REST Williams Shining Star In Match Of Records

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32381, 21 August 1970, Page 9

1970 ALL BLACKS NOW TOP THE REST Williams Shining Star In Match Of Records

(Front T. P. McLEAN) EXST LONDON. What a team. What a man. These were the immediate reactions to the performance of the All Blacks in defeating South African Country Districts, 45-8, before a crowd of about 15,000 yesterday.

On a dry, dusty pitch which would have been ideal for slow bowlers, the AU Blacks brought up their 100 tries for the tour, so breaking the 15-year-old record of the 1955 British Lions by six.

They also Efted ttrir aggregate to 483 points —lB more than the record set by the Waßabies of last year for all teams touring Smith Africa.

The team, therefore, was the 1970 AB Blacks. Those are very great achievements indeed, and one hastily put baek the reflection that with rather surer handling and a greater frequency of passing into the three-quarters the

score of points and tries could have been quite considerably enlarged. The man was the 19-year-old B. G. Williams, who scored three tries, a penalty goal and four conversions, and so became easily the recordbreaker for All Blacks in South Africa. Crowd Favourite What he did on the field needs little description. If you listen carefully you will surely hear the cheeis of 3000 Coloured spectators raised as Williams ran two of his tries

into the in-goal area at their end and as he placed all of his goalkicks so that they saw long before the referee, or Hie touch judges, or anyone else that these were going to succeed.

Williams quite simply has | become the toast of South . Africa, white, non-white and ■ coloured, and I would suggest that the greatest thing about him is that in temperament, behaviour, modesty of bearing and cheerful willingness he is exactly the same youngster as he was when he set off with the team. This takes some doing for a 19-year-old who is aware of how much adulation he has stirred. But there was another stroke of genius attached to Williams. This was the decision of B. 3. Lochore to give him the goalkicks after W. F. McCormick had placed only two in five attempts. There is little doubt that McCormick is weary of the mind at the moment There is also little doubt that the events of the second test have disurbed his confidence at some considerable cost to his accuracy. The AU Blacks tried to do something about this when they posted the man who had scored—Williams was the first of them—to stand alongside McCormick as he prepared for and made his kicks. But when McCormick missed the goal to R. A. Uriich’s second try. Lochore called up Williams.

His first effort went over; the second, from 55 yards, from one of the five penalties the All Blacks were awarded.

did not succeed. And then Williams hit all his shots fairly and squarely. From a technical point of view he kicked very well in-

deed. And what a relief he is to the AU Blacks. Now they have at least two baskets for some of their eggs. The fact could turn the test series their way. Farewell First By one of those mischances r which are more frequent in ' South Africa than one would r expect, the promoters of the s match played “Now is the s hour” before the ball had - been put into play. The farewell ought to have : been some appropriate coun- > try tune for a team sadly I lacking in both techniques t and the kind of fiery energy t that New Zealanders would , associate with country play- ! era.

The best of the All Black effort came late. That was when the tidying up processes so necessary to a good team had led to surer handling of the ball. For the rest, the combination was too strong altogether. When B. E. Holmes, as an example, scored, the baU was all over the place, and Holmes was in the right spot, when W. L. Davis backflipped the ball going down in a taekle on the goal-line. When L R. Macßae scored, H. P. Milner at the end of a passing run had darted back infield to where several players were aligned to carry on the movement with speed and thrust Shrewd Laidlaw Outstanding successes, apart from WiUiams, were C. R. Laidlaw, who played very shrewdly indeed, Milner, who ran with speed and nip, A R. Sutherland, who was very strong in his bashing runs, Lochore, who covered extremely well, A. R. Smith, who stood at two in the line-, out to help C. E. Meads, and Urlich, who heeled weU and ran better.

[ The Hawke’s Bay combination at inside back—Davis, t Macßae and B. D. M. Fur- ' long—if not at its Ranfurly Shield standard, nevertheless was very solid and greatly improved with the game. Scorers: For New Zealand, tries by WiUiams (three), Uriich (two), Milner, Davis, Macßae, Holmes and Smith. McCormick kicked two conversions and Williams kicked four conversions and a penalty. For Country Districts, a try by P. van Deventer and a penalty and conversion by D. Visser.