Finding the All Blacks to Meet Australians

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 258, 28 July 1936, Page 14

Finding the All Blacks to Meet Australians

Hawke’s Bay and Wellington and Otago and Southland to Meet Next Saturday

(By

W. H. BICKLEY.)

CONSIDERABLE activity is being shown by the New Zealand selectors this year in travelling the country to watch interprov.incial teams in action to see leading players perform with a view to having first-hand evidence to pick the All Blacks to meet the, Australians. Almost every representative match is being attended by one or more selectors, and it seems that teams will be chosen this year on performances on the field in representative games, rather than on recommendations in nomination papers. The North Island team will probably be chosen on Sunday next in Wellington, after some of the North Island selectors have seen Auckland in action against Canterbury at Christchurch on Saturday. The South Island team will be picked on August 8 at Dunedin after the OtagoAshburton game, Ashburton being the only team the South Island selectors will not have seen perform up to then. A feature of the selections will probably be the absence of 1935 All Blacks. Of North'lsland players who made the big tour last year, for instance, T. H. C. Caughey and J. R. Page are out of the country, 31. Corner and H. Brown have failed to secure selection again for their province, “Kelly’ l Ball has retired, and Hugh McLean is in hospital after having his appendix out. In addition, it is probably fair to say that D. Solomon (Auckland), E. W. Tindill (Wellington), and J. L. Griffiths (Wellington); cannot be considered as by any means certainties. CJ J. Oliver has retired in the South Island, and G. F. Hart has been playing only occasionally, while “Mike” Gilbert and' N. A. Mitchell have had long rests through injuries, though both may regain top form in time to impress the selectors. First Shield Game.

With pipers by the score and supporters by the thousand, Southland will descend on Otago on Saturday in an attempt to capture the Ranfurly Shield. The, Southland selectors-appear to rely mainly on the size and vigour of husky forwards from the country to accomplish the task of subduing the Otago pack and so keeping the.ball away from.the opposing backs, for they, have chosen five subunion packmen whose names are hardly known outside Invercargill.. Wholesale recasting of a forward division is a bold experiment to try before a big game, but it maybe that the country men will rise to the big occasion, and if they do it will be much more comfortable reading about them in the papers than trying to stop them on the field. Southland’s hopes of effectiveness in the back.?, seem to hinge almost wholly on the ability and leadership of “Brushy” Mitchell, the All Black. The Otago team is one.that “looks well on paper.” It includes even forwards combining' dash with skill, and a back line of great potentialities with C. C. Gillies and D. : Trevathan in. the fiveeighth line, ■ Herbie Smth,. the 193-1 All Blatck, at centre, and fliers liko J. M. Watt, the former Wellington College sprinter, and W. A. Black, “the Pakeha Charlie Smith,” on the wings. Southland’s game will probably be to prevent this back line functioning, and the result of the match will depend on whether this strategy succeeds. Curiously, little attention seems to be paid to the Auckland-Otago game the following Wednesday, which will also be for the Shield if the trophy is still in Dunedin.

Has Done His Share. 3lr. B. Chapman, manager of the Waikato team which has been visiting Taranaki, Wanganui and Wairarapa and which is now in Hawke’s Bay. has been working for the game for over 36 years. As a j'oung man he played for Masterton, and represented Wairarapa in 1905. He was on the management of the Wairarapa Union for many years and was a referee for nine years prior to moving to the Waikato, where he was the first president of the South Auckland (now Waikato) Rugby Union, which was resuscitated in 1920.

He has refereed in the Waikato for the past 15 years and is a past president of the Waikato Referees’ Association, a past president of the 3lorrinsville Rugby Union, and is at present treasurer of the Morrinsville Union. He has been on the management committee of the Waikato Rugby Union since the resuscitation in 1920, and has also presented Waikato at annual meetings of the New Zealand Rugby Union. This is not his full record in management, as, besides many other offices, he was sole selector of the Waikato representatives for a term. Hero and There.

Wellington referees nominated to the N.Z.R.U. for interprovincial matches are Messrs. A. de Clifton. J. A. Wilson, J. S. King, J. Moflit, and J. Gilchrist. J. It. (“Wampy”). Bell, an All Black and a New Zealand Maori representative in his playing days, is coaching the Southlanders for their Ranfurly Shield engagement.. He was captain of the Southland team which took the shield from Waira'rapa in 1929, when G. L. Porter scored 13 points. The Auckland representatives have now played three- matches this season, and have, won them all, scoring 71 points against 47. The team’s itinerary on tour is: Next Saturday v. Canterbury, at Christchurch; August 5. v. Otago, at Dunedin; August 8, v. Southland, at InvercargillAugust 12. v. Wairarapa, at Masterton,; August 15. v. Wellington, at Wellincton. “Stand Off’ in the “Sydney Bulletin says: “The N.S.W.R.U.. which, of course, intends to run the whole show as far as football is concerned, will stage the 1938 Maoriland v. Australia tourney for the Bledisloe Cup as a feature of the 150th

anniversary spree. The University club hopes also to have an inter-university battle raging at that time, the teams to include one from Maoriland and another from Japan. Victoria has been talking of bringing over a Japanese side next season.”

Giants Recalled. Larry Bradey s performance ot scoring 20 points (two tries, five conversions and one pot) for Hawke’s Bay against Wairarapa at 3lasterton has set a record for Hawke’s Bay. a province with a long list of high scores by famous players. . . , BerU Grenside. the big winger, whose galloping run with a high knee action, made him as bard to stop as a train, scored 144 points for Hawkes Bay in games for the Ranfurly Shield. In -5 matches he scored 30 tries, converted and kicked four penalty goals. Even he however, could not reach a score oi points in one game, though in 192 b, when Hawke’s Bay beat Wairarapa 4 <-14 .he was only one short of it, scoring one try and converting eight. In this match Jack Blake, a centre ot tremendous pace, scored five tries, a record for shield games, and Maurice Brownlie, the great forward, scored three tries and converted five others, making his total just one short of the new record. When Wellington went down in the same season by 58 to 8. Bert Grenside, by scoring five tries equalled Jack Blake’s new record, and by converting one try he brought his tally for the day to 17 ’points, a total that George Nepia equalled with one penalty goal, a mighty drop-kick, and seven conversions. The 1926 season was the one in which Hawke’s Bay had W. R. Irvine. A. Kirkpatrick. M. Brownlie, C. Brownlie, and ■T. P. Swain in the forwards, and G. M. Nepia, A. E. Grenside, J. M. Blake, 1,. Paewai. A. E. Cooke. L. M. Johnson and J. J. Mill in the backs, a combination which beat Wairarapa 77-14, Wanganui 36-3, Wellington 58-8. Auckland 41-11. and Canterbury 17-15 (at Christchurch). “Beaten by Shellfish.” Cyril Towers, the former New South Wales and Australian representative three-quarter, is contributing a series of articles to the “Sydney MaU” under the heading “Twelve Years of Rugby Union,” and in referring to the tour of New Zealand by the New South Wales team in 1928, lie has this to say:—

“The day prior to the match was spent at the Bluif—of oyster fame —and as each one of us entered the ‘charmed’ pavilion he was handed a skewer and invited to break the various official oyster-eating records. The oysters were all opened and set out on large trays, and there were big containers of vinegar and Worcester sauce. It was, to lapse into the vernacular, ‘an open slather.’ We were carried home and crawled on to the field the next day. I might add that no team from this side of the Tasman has succeeded where we failed. As an epitaph on each visiting side that leaves Invercargill, I imagine the locals write ‘Beaten by Shellfish.’ ”

Towers makes an error in writing of the game against Southland, as he says that George Nepia played full-back for Southland, ‘kicking three goals from halfway and otherwise giving the best fullback exhibition imaginable on a ground entirely submerged.” Nepia played for New Zealand Alaoris against New South Wales, and the game was in Wellington.

Many Rep. Games. Wellington will meet Hawke’s Bay on Saturday in the first of the home representative matches. Mr. Norman 3lcKenzie, the Hawke’s Bay selector, has assembled a fine pack of big and fast forwards, including Tori Reid, Hawea Mataira and Doug. Dalton, three All Blacks, and H. Rolls and Everard Jackson, who have played for the North Island. In addition, his players will have had three games together this season when they march on Athletic Park. Mr. Mark Nicholls, on the other hand, has had his chosen in the field only once this year, against Taranaki, on June 23, and eyen then it was not his best team, as he was not able to pick players from Wellington College Old Boys and Poneke. It will thus be the first run together on the field of his top combination, and lack of match practice may easily be revealed in the work of the home team, despite assiduous gymnasium work in the last three or four weeks.

The Auckland team, in the first match of a very heavy southern tour, will engage Canterbury, at Christchurch on Saturday, and Southland will play Otago at Dunedin for the Ranfurly Shield. Hawke’s Bay will have its third match thi s season on Thursday against W’aikato,

WELLINGTON TEAM Match With Hawke’s Bay The Wellington Rugby players selected in view of the match with Hawke’s Bay at Athletic Park next Saturday will have further practices this week. Because of injuries, H. R. Pollock and E. W. Tindill stood out of their respective teams in club matches on Saturday, but it is expected that both these players will be quite fit if required next Saturday. All players in the provisional selection are to train at the Poueke gymnasium at 7.30 p.m. to-day. The final selection of the team to meet Hawke’s Bay is not likely to be made until later in the week, probably after the last practice on Thursday.