BLACK DAY FOR KARAM All Blacks throw away tour ‘grand slam’

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33706, 2 December 1974, Page 32

BLACK DAY FOR KARAM All Blacks throw away tour ‘grand slam’

(From

T. P. McLEAN)

LONDON. The All Blacks will always have cause to regret the misfortunes, which in a harsher world might be described as inanities, that caused them to draw, 13-alI, their match with the Barbarians on Saturday when they were decisively the better team.

The principal misfortune was that J. F. Karam fell into the category of a left-handed golfer as he sliced four out of five shots at goal from penalties and another from his attempt to place the goal to A. R. Leslie’s try.

Karam fell even more sadly from grace by giving away a penalty in the first minute of the second half when he charged the Scottish prop, I. McLaughlan late when he had plenty of time to miss him.

The All Blacks had turned to face a wind, which in Twickenham fashion swirled disconcertingly, leading seven points to three and with their forwards eager for the ball.

Confusion Instead of forcing a very long kick into the All Blacks’ in-goal area, Karam decided to run the ball out, and his kick pitched well beyond half-way, where there was some confusion among McLauchlan and others in fielding it. That was when Karam late-charged. The French referee, Mr George Domerq, carried the penalty all the way to the pitch of the ball, and from 30 yards A. Irvine kicked the goal. Irvine kicked two other penalties with his round-the-comer kicking, so much more acurate, perhaps because he

took greater care, than Karam; and it was only a piece of luck for the All Blacks that Irvine hooked wide the attempt at a conversion from a late try by T. M. Davies which would have won the game.

Williams’s run One other criticism should be levelled at the All Blacks: they conceded 17 penalties, at least three against S. M. Going round the scrum, while receiving only 10 themselves. They have been careless in their concession of penalties during the tour, but just as nothing excused Karam’s late charge, so was H, H. McDonald at fault when at a scrum on the Barbarians’ line in the second half and after a sensational and thrilling 40-yard run by B. G. Williams which almost produced a try, he got himself into strife before the ball was put in and cost the All Blacks not only the heel, but also about 40 yards of ground.

So the All Blacks must rue their luck — and some lack of forethought. What a pity. It would have been a tremendous finish had they managed to win.

Fine side The Barbarians were, in part, a magnificent team. For the first time in a long time, an All Black pack was beaten at both the line-out — where the count was 17 to 12 — and the ruck, where the Barbarians won by nine to eight. They were heavier than the All Blacks; their massing at the ball was determined, no doubt as a consequence of their experience in South Africa, where contact between the front rows is turned into psychological warfare; they did their best to bend K. J. Tanner, R. W. Norton, and K. K. Lambert into, if not below, the turf; and they had fine backs, too: Though J. Bevan, the only uncapped player in the side, ran crossfield too much for an effective fly-half, he had a brilliantly intuitive break and his play was streets ahead of the Welsh fly-half of last Wednesday, P. Bennett.

Tartars As for G. O. Edwards, his passes were both longer and more catchable than Going’s, and they promoted searing attacks in the three-quarters. From the first menacing minutes, therefore, it looked as if the All Blacks had really caught a Tartar. In terms of penalty chances offered and taken the Barbarians were, in fact, Tartars.

In forward quality, they may well have been the best an All Blacks team has played in the British Isles. Yet the All Blacks were the better side; there was no question of that. They were desperately unlucky that Karam did not take his chances in the Irvine manner; they were shattered by that penalty against MacDonald; and most of all they saw Going in the second half clearly cross the line, near the posts, and yet lose the. try because the ball was either squirted or kicked from his hands before he could make contact with the ground. Back row

In spite of these misadventures, they controlled the ground, upwind as well as down. Their forward play was both dynamic and heroic. Stupendous speed was turned on by the back row of Les-

lie, K. W. Stewart and I. A. Kirkpatrick to move into the Barbarian three-quarters and make instant counters from mistakes forced by the intense pressure exerted by all of the pack. In spite of his shoulder injury, unhappily supplemented during play by a crack on the knee, P. J. Whiting made some glorious takes at the lineout, and Kirkpatrick was not too bad at this, either.

The Barbarians often massed four huge men, R. Uttley, W. J. Mcßride, G. L. Brown, and F. Cotton in the front of the line-out, but even here, though Tanner was not as capable as usual of taking the ball cleanly at short, throws-in, the All Blacks had the advantage much of the time.

Pressure The growing line-out superiority of the Barbarians in the second half could be attributed to the physical weariness of the All Black forwards. Still the All Black forwards surged, setting the game alight with runs such as Kirkpatrick’s which aroused a crowd more or less entirely on the Barbarians’ side. While the Barbarians deserved their try, it was the only one they looked likely to score. The All Blacks, on the other hand, chucking in all manner of mistakes by the backs in their enterprising attempts to run the ball—not only scored twice, but two or three more times placed the Barbarians under such pressure that with only a shade of luck there would have been tries.

Their tries were superb efforts. T. G. R. Davies, trying his fantastic sidestep in a run out of his 25, was hit by tacklers and Stewart, Kirkpatrick, Whiting, and Going ail made ground before Leslie capped the effort with his try. This came in the 32nd minute, after penalty goals by Irvine, after four minutes, and Karam, after 25. When Irvine capitalised on Karam’s late charge in the

first minute of the second half, and 22 minutes later kicked a magnificent 50yarder after what looked to be a punch at a lineout, the All Blacks seemed to be cheating themselves out of an unbeaten tour.

Thanks to a superb piece of play by G. B. Batty, who followed a kick at such speed that he collected Irvine in the 25 with the ball, the All Blacks had a ruck from which Batty received the ball spying Williams far across the field, he kicked beyond D. J. Duckham on the left. Williams took the ball on the hop and, trying for the posts, was ankle-tapped down to make the try which Karam converted off the upright. Even now, though the Barbarians were playing all out the All Blacks had the advantage. It was ail enormously exciting. But with about five minutes to go, Irvine lofted his punt, Davies with his Eiffel Tower reach made the catch of the bounce, and down he plunged for the try. Karam then finished one of his less fortunate matches with a magnificent mark. The play was still of tigerish, incessant intensity. But the whistle finally blew and there it was: a record of seven wins and a draw and an even better record of 18 tries to two.

Tragedy Perhaps there might have been many more tries if the All Blacks backs had held their passes more surely and sent the ball on more reliably. Even Going had his troubles, and of the line only Batty and Williams were next best to faultless. The Robertsons were under difficulties because of the pace of their opponents, and D. R. Robertson once missed Bevan excruciatingly — but he redeemed himself totally with a fabulous tackle of P. S. Preece when the latter looked to be hell bent for the line 40 yards away. The Barbarians backs were not above pinching a yard or two for their tackles.

The tragedy was that the decisively better team so narrowly missed the win; but surely no All Black team has done a more powerful job of rehabilitation of a game which had descended critically in quality and prestige.