TEST PROSPECTS

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 280, 23 August 1934, Page 16

TEST PROSPECTS

Australia Fancied A RUGBY COMEBACK All Blacks’ Stiff Task (By E. N., Grcatorex.) Sydney, August 17. If 1 Rugby Union results could be worked out by dead reckoning, it could be said that the Bledisloe Cup is already in Australia’s possession. On form and on paper the odds are greatly against the All Blacks. Put it this way. In both games against New South Wales the All Blacks were sorely pressed. They just scraped home on each occasion. In the first test New Zealand was beaten back and forward, and in the second half Australia, which nobody can deny was a 100 per cent, better team on the day, did almost as it liked How then can the All Blacks hope to avenge that stinging defeat of 25 to 117 ' , Personally, I believe now that Australia will win the last match, but I remember what happened in 1932. The 1934 All Blacks are treading again the path of the team which came over two seasons ago. The 1932 team lost the first Test, a rather miserable game, but Australia won in a style that indicated that the ashes were "In the bag.” But "Billy” Wallace’s team came again, and by painstaking and systematic development, coupled, with the will to win, was victorious in the last two Tests. The 1934 All Blacks may have the same spirit of the previous team, and they may, from the ashes of Saturday’s debacle, create a new side, and football history might be repeated. Good luck to the All Blacks if they win! It would be a grand achievement in view of the convincing-lookin’g margin Of the first Test victory. Changes Will be Necessary. • Just as certain as it seems that no changes will be made in the fifteen who served Australia so well in the first Test does it-appear that the AH Blacks, because of the poor form some of the visitors have shown, will have to make changes for the big game on August 25. A few of the forwards—those who did not play the part of toilers on August 11—may be put aside. It would not be surprising to see Leeson. Mataira and Mahoney go in. To those who saw Leeson’s gueat display in the second game against New South Wales, when he was brilliant in the loose, and gave every pound he had in the scrums and rucks, it is a mystery why he was passed over for th’c first Test. And more puzzled than anyone else arc the forwards who played against Leeson that day. The men out on the paddock know best what goes on, and the New South Welshmen all had the same opinion of Leeson —that he was the best man in the All Black pack. Perhaps Lilburne may find a place in the final Test. There is some talk that he might go in as full-back in place of Collins. Collins has not struck his real form, and several times when the pressure bps been on, he has faltered. Against the racing, elusive backs Australia is so fortunate in 'possessing, a man who is safe all the time is wanted to guard the goal-Jine. . . ■ As to the five-eighths positions, Mr. Geddes, Kilby and Page must be in a dilemma. Oliver, magnificent in the second game against New South Wales, was not the success in the first Test we thought he was going to be, and Page, evidently worried by the cares of captaincy, was a different Page from the one we know. Still, the truism that a man can play only ns well as his opponents allow him, applied both to Page and Oliver in the Test. Like Corner,’ theycould complain of receiving poor protection from their forwards. Revelling in the freedom they were allowed by the All Black vanguard, Hodgson, Hackney, and Bridle spent the day gleefully swooping, down on the New Zealand inside men, or fanning out th block -Caughey and the- wingers. It was not until-Australia had gained the day in the forwards, and started to push the All Blacks instead of being pushed, that the wearers of the green jerseys were in command of the first Test, It was when the forwards wilted that the chance of success became great. • _ Surely that will not happen again! The All Blacks cannot-be‘expected to show ' the same weakness*, on August 25, and if the forwards 1 play as we always expect All Black forwards to pipy, there may be a different tale to tell. Australians Best for Years. Let it be said, however, that Australia’s victo’ry oil August 11—which, by the way, was a record margin for us sineb the Tests between the two Rugbyplaying countries were inaugurated thirty-one years ago—was not altogether due to the fact that the All Blacks were not seen at their best. Even at their top I doubt if the New Zealanders could have stalled off defeat. The fifteen men Australia placed in the field for that eventful match was probably the best combination this country has fielded for many, many years. This year we are meeting New Zealand on level terms. For once we have a team that has all the essentials—weight in the forwards, speed and good defence in the backs, and, most important, football brains. Ross is better than ever—the All Blacks say that Ross was the man who won the first Test—Towers has regained all his old pace and trickiness; Hayes and Lewis are reliable, and Kelaher and McLean are two wingers who can be favourably compared with the best the game has known. . The fact that the selectors could nffoftl to dispense with the services of Cerutti, who, even if he is not quite the man he was last season, is still playing good football, indicates the quality and value of the forwards in the game to-day. Yet as far as Rugby Union is concerned it is not of much importance who wins Hie last Test. The game, has definitely come back, and we have to thank the All Blacks of 1934 for playing the football that pleases the spectator. The first Test was witnessed by 33,304 people, the greatest number who have watched a match under the old code since the Wallabies’ year of 1908, and the first two Saturday matches of the tour have attracted 60,779 spectators.

In saying that the All Blacks have played pleasing football, I do not want to suggest that they would have done better by closing up the play. Kilby's men in the matches to date have always been most dangerous, and got the best results, when they passed the ball about. On the few occasions they adopted kicking tactics they played into their opponents’ hands.