TO-DAY’S BIG RUGBY TEST

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 257, 26 July 1930, Page 29

TO-DAY’S BIG RUGBY TEST

Who’s Who in the Contending Fifteens

PEN PICTURES OF THE PLAYERS

Never in New Zealand’s Rugby history has public interest been so keenly aroused as it has been during the present British visit. With one test game apiece to their credit, interest in the third test, to be decided to-day at Auckland, is exceptionally keen. Below we give our readers a series of thumbnail sketches of the members of the two teams.

New Zealand

G. NEPIA, who is 25 years of age, is to-day universally acknowledged to be the best full-back in the game. Originally a five-eighths, he was tried out as fullback by the selectors when choosing the team for Great Britain in 1924, and made such a success of the position that he was retained as custodian, and played in every one of the matches played in Great Britain in 1924-25. “Nepia is without question the greatest full-back ever capped in this or any country,” wrote a prominent English scribe in 1924. and Mr. Baxter, the manager of the British team at present in the Dominion, endorsed this opinion after the first test match at Dunedin. “I take off my hat to Nepia,” said Mr. Baxter; “he is the greatest full-back I have ever seen.” Nepia drives a motor-lorry on the East Coast. . „ . F. W. LUCAS, who is 28 years of age, is a mercer. He has represented Auckland from 1922 until the present time, and has played for Ne.w Zealand in 1923. 1924, 1925, 1928 and 1930. He toured Great Britain in 1924. and South Africa in 1928 with the All Blacks. Possessing a good turn of speed. Lucas has a dazzling swerve and tricky sidestep, which makes him. very, hard to stop. His reverse passing with Cooke ,ias delighted thousands in trial and international cnines. A. E. COOKE, who Is 28 years.of age. is a men’s outfitter. Learning his football in Auckland, Cooke early gained representative honours, and was chosen at the age of 22 to accompany the All Blacks to Great Britain. On that tour he proved himself one of the most brilliant inside backs the Dominion has ever produced. He scored 19 tries during the tour. His greatest asset is his remarkable pace. Which he turns to good account both on attack and defence. He also gains much ground with his gigantic punting to the. line. He has the heart of a lion, and has never left the field in a single match in which he has taken nart. Cooke has plnved for Auckland. Hawke’s Bay. and Waimrnna. but is this season playing in Wellington for the Hutt Club. G F. HART is one of the Rugby “finds” of 1930. A youthful Canterbury player, he early displayed all the attributes necessary for a wing-three-quarter, and soon won his way into the Canterbury fifteen. He showed up so brilliantly in the trial games this season that he was selected for the first Test, and did so well that he has retained Ins place in all the Test'matches this season.. Possessing more than average pace, he is a very determined runner, as he showed in scoring his tries at Dunedin and Christchurch. M. F. NICHOLLS, who is 2b years of age, is a clerk in the service of the Railway. Department. Making his mark in Hugny in Wellington early, at 19 years of age he was selected to represent New Zealand against South Africa m 1921, and did so well in the first Test at Dunedin that be retained his place in all three Tests against the Springboks. He touicd Great Britain in 1924, and on that tour was dubbed “the brains of the All Blacks.” He also accompanied the New Zealand team to South Africa in 1928, but there was much comment because lie was only selected for the final Test, in which he scored nearly all the points for his side. Nicholls is particularly clever at making openings, though he raie.y scores tries himself. He is a great placekick, and is quick to seize an opening to pot goals. His line-kicking is also of great service. . . IV A. STRANG, who is 23 years of age, is a schoolmaster. Learning his football at the Timaru High School, he gamed a place in the South Canterbury team at 18 years of age. and on his 21st birthday he was selected to accompany the New Zealand team to South Africa. He played so well on that tour that he was played at five-eighths in the first three Test matches, winning the second one with a dropped goal. He is of solid build, with plenty of pace, a deadly tackler, and a very fine goal-kick. Fie owes his reappearance in the New Zealand team to the brilliant game he played for the combined fifteen against the British team at Timaru. The members of the British team declared that Strang was the best back they had so far encountered on the tour. . M. CORNER, who has just reached his maiority, is a bank clerk. Learning his football at the Auckland Grammar School he won a place in the Auckland team last year, and did so well that he was capped for New Zealand for the second Test this year. As game as the proverbial pebble. Corner-is fast and nippy, and shoots out a very neat pass. C. G. PORTER, the New Zealand captain, is 30 years of age. Learning his football at Wellington College, he was at his best in 1924, when he was selected to captain the New Zealand team on the tour of Great Britain. He did not play in any of the test matches on that tour owing to the fact that J. H. Parker had much more pace for the wing-forwnrd position. Porter, however, was a great success as captain, and under his wise leadership the team was a. happy band of brothers. Portqr has captained the New Zealand team ever since, and a most successful leader he has proved himself. A. I. COTTRELL is a Canterbury forward, whose speciality is hooking the ball in the scrum. He is an honest worker, and i.ever shirks any of the weight-lifting. He can also control the ball well when dribbling. J. HORE, his fellow-hooker, is an Otago player, who is 22 years of age. He plays with the Southern Club in Dunedin, in which city he is also a prominent surfer. He got his cap for Otago in 1926, and was a member of the All Black team which toured South Africa in 1928. He is an expert hooker, who revels in scrum and ruck. R. G.-McWILLIAMS is 28 years of age. He is a contractor, and is at present residing at Hamilton. An untiring worker in scrum and loose, McWilliams has represented Auckland since 1922. Powerfully built, fast, and brainy, he is a good dribbler, and can also handle the ball well. I*'. M. Howard, of South Africa, placed McWilliams in the world’s best, fifteen he selected in 1929. W. E. HAZLETT started on the Rugby road’at the Waitaki Boys’ High School. He joined the Pirates’ Club in Invercargill. and first represented Southland in 1925 when 19 years of age. This fine stamp of New Zealander gained his All Black cap in 1926, when he accompanied the New Zealand team to Australia. He was also a member of the New Zealand team which toured South Africa in 1928. He is 23 years of age and owns one of the largest sheep stations in New Zealand, as it stretches from Lumsden nearly up to Lake Wnkitipu. W. BATTY learnt his Rugby at the Auckland Grammar School, and has represented the northern province from 1925. He gained a place in the New Zealand team in 1928 and again this season. He is a shipping clerk and his age is 27. „ , E. R. G. STEERE. the New Zealand lock’, hails from Napier. Scaling 14st. 4lb„ he can push like an elephant, mid he keeps on pushing. The b.g Hawke’s Bay man is very popular. :is be plays the game for the game’ sake. H. G. McLEAN learnt his Rugby in Hawke’s Bay, but may be said to have been developed by the Wellington Club, an he Joined up with that club when 19

years of age. He is now 22 years old, and a typical stamp of New Zealand forward. Standing well over 6 feet in height, he scales 13st. 121 b„ and can not only move fast, but can push. His long reach enables him to be of great service on the line-out, and he frequently, sends the ball out to his backs. He is just at tho ideal age for Rugby, and should win his spurs in his first Test match to-day.

Britain

C. D. AARVOLD, who captains the team in the absence of Prentice and Sobey, won his Rugby blue at Cambridge In three sue cessive years, playing In the Varsity match one year as full-back. He was captain of Rugby in the year that J. S. R. Reeve, who has since come to light as a really great wing-threequarter, was unable to obtain his blue. After leaving the University Aarvold entered the wool trade in the North of England, and spent some time in the West Indies on business just before the start of the present tour. He is of Swedish extraction. He weighs 13 stone, and is 22 years of age. J. A. BASSETT plays for Penarth and Wales, and captained the Welsh side In two matches last season. He is a member of the Glenmorgan County Constabulary, a force renowned for Its Rugby players. Bassett was the full-back for England-Wales in the Rowland-Hill Memorial match at Twickenham. He is one of the humorists of the touring team. He Is 25, and weighs 13st. 101 b. J. S. R. REEVE Is a barrister by profession. At Cambridge he missed his Rugby blue, but played a good deal of hockey. A Rugby schoolboy, Reeve has a high-step-ping action that makes him a difficult man to bring down. This is his first game since the Invercargill match, an injured ankle suffered while training at Timaru having kept him out of Intervening games. He weighs 13.10. and is aged 22. H. M. BOWCOTT, centre in to-day’s team, is perhaps the most polished player in the side. He took a degree in economics at Cambridge, and now plays for the Car dlff Club. His younger brother is a very promising scrum half. Until he was 15 i Bowcott played Soccer for Cardiff High School, and had never handled a Rugby ! ball until the school changed over from the [ Association to the Rugby Union code. He is 12st., and is 23 years of age. J. C. MORLEY is one of the younger school of players recently capped for Wales, and is a dangerous scoring wingthreequarter. He is very fast off the mark, and his pace has enabled him to gather in several tries on the New Zealand tour. Twenty years of age, he weighs 11 stone. H. POOLE plays scrum-half to Bowcott for Cardiff. His reverse pass, the most attractive feature of his game, was acquired by long practice in directing the ball behind him to a chalk mark on the gymnasium wall. It is a very effective method, rarely, if ever, exploited in New Zealand. He weighs 12 stone, and Is twenty-four years of age. R. S. SPONG is acknowledged to be one of the most resourceful fly-halfbacks in Britain, and, with W. H. Sobey. another old Millhlllian, played for England in most of the International matches last season. He has been the outstanding player on the present British tour. He is aged 21, and weighs 13 stone. B. H. BLACK is a South African by birth, and witnessed some of the matches played in Africa by the 1928 All Blacks. He is an Oxford man, but not a Rhodes Scholar, and after the present tour will remain In London to practise law. He is 14st. 41b., and is aged 22. J. L. FARRELL, a farmer, with an interest in horse-flesh, has played regularly for Ireland for the past three or four eeasons. He is a member of the Beetlve Rangers Club, which lias a great tradition behind it in Irish Rugby. With Spring, Aarvold and Sobey of the present team, he visited the Argentine with MacMyn’s team in 1027. Twenty-six years of age, he weighs 13st. 111 b. J. McD. HODGSON, one of the successes of the tour, has not. yet been capped for England, but the form shown on this tour should make him a certainty for a cap on Ills return. Like Reeve, Hodgson is a Rugby boy. He is now studying engineering, and is serving bis apprenticeship in the famous Parsons turbine works, at Newcastle. A fine golfer, Hodgson plays to n four handicap. Aged 21, he weighs 14st. 101 b

G. R. BEAMISH, another good golfer, and the finest scrum forward In the side, is a IHlgbt-Lloiitenant in the Royal Air Force. Xie is an Ulsterman, and one of the most valued members of the Irish team. Beamish broke a leg two or three years ago, and wears one boot slightly higher than the other to give the weakened limb protection. He is the giant of the team, is last. 41b., and his age Is 25. IVOR JONES, one of the greatest loose forwards ever seen on a New Zealand ground, is a Llanelly steel-worker, and has captained Wales, A great place-kick, he began his Rugby career at full-back. He has a great pair of hands and gives a deceptive feint pass. He weighs 13st. 01b., and is 27 years of age. H. O'HARA O’NEILL is a student of agriculture at Queen’s University, Belfast, and on his return will be captain of Rugby there. He is aged 22, and Is 14 stone. DAI PARKER, who played for Wales against the All Blacks when he was 19, Is one of seven brothers who have made a great name in Welsh Rugby, four having been capped. Another brother plays for Llanelly In the same team as Ivor Jones and T. E. Jones-Davies. Of very massive build, Parker weighs 15 stone In football kit. He is 25 years of age.

H. REW has been one of England’s regular forwards for some time. Ho plays for Devon and the Army team, nnd is a dashing type of player, who can stand up to any amount of hard work. He is 23 years of age, and weighs 14st. 101 b.