Budding All Blacks: Wellington’s Junior Rugby Players

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 192, 11 May 1937, Page 14

Budding All Blacks: Wellington’s Junior Rugby Players

(By

CRITIC.)

JUNIOR football in Wellington is controlled by the Wellington Rugby j Union through a council known as the Junior Advisory Board. This committee. elected from nominations made by ' the various clubs, is presided over by an appointed member of the Rugby Union, the present chairman being Mr. Henry D. ' Morgan, of Johnsonville. While the ' Junior Advisory Board is purely a recommending subsidiary body of the Rugby Union, its work apparently is so well done that practically all its recommendhtions ' are adopted by the. major body. The Junior Advisory Board has under its jurisdiction competitions in which 113 teams participate, and in the past these competitions, in addition to the organisation of representative games with outside unions and the combined colleges and a seven-a-side tournament, have been very ably conducted. The secretary of the committee is Mr. John Thompson, president of the Wellington Rugby Football Club. Mr. Thompson is an enthusiastic worker in the interests of junior Rugby. A player in the days when Rugby was played on open paddocks, Mr. Thompson has sustained his interest in the administrative side of Rugby for some 35 years. As a junior selector he has been responsible. with his co-selectors, in bringing to the fore fourth and junior grade players who have eventually reached All Black status. The experiment in the reduction in the fourth grade age' limit from 19 years to 18 is being watehed with interest, and it must be said that observations point to the fact that the change has been a move in the right direction. Most of the fine young players of last season who were formerly prominent in the sixth, fifth and fourth grades, are now to be found playing junior football, the standard of which grade has already shown a marked improvement. Junior teams now have that rare blend of older experienced players and youth on the threshold of bigger Rugby. It can no longer be thrown up that the junior and third grades are the old men’s grades. For many years Tommy Crichton has been hooker in the Poneke First XV. This year he has retired from senior ranks, and has turned his attention junior Rugby, which gave him so much in his lower grade days. Crichton was for four years hooker in the junior representative team, and was known as the permanent junior. lie is now player-coach of the Poneke Junior First Division team, which comprises a number of last year’s Poneke I third and fourth grade players. Although I defeated in its first two games bv three and two points, the enthusiasm'of the team under Mr. Crichton should assure it of a better position than has been held by Poneke junior teams during the past five, years when it was no uncommon experience to win or be close to winning the wooden spoon. Incidentally. Poneke appear to be fairly strong in the lower grades. Of eight games played last Saturday, only one was lost. Although the Hutt senior XV is not performing with much success so far this season, the club officials are not a great deal concerned over the position. Ilutt are remarkably powerful in the junior and lower grades, and within a season or two another strong senior XV will be built up. The outstanding team in the club on present indications is the fourth grade side. In its first match this team beat Poneke 21-0. and last Saturday overwhelmed a strong Petone NV by 41 points to 5. The Hutt fourths include in their

ranks the inside back formation of last year's Hutt Valley High School first XV in G. G. Burton, R. Williams and Wiggins. The side also has a powerful 14stone forward from St. Patrick’s College, Silverstream, in T. M. Flanagan, who is qualified to play fifth grade, as he has not yet reached 17 years. The coach of the team is Bob Potts, a former Petone forward and Wellington representative. Potts knows what is required to win matches, and the Hutt fourths have- provided him with the right material. The Hutt club is particularly well organised. and in this lies much of its success. From the club captain, Mr. C. Slater, to the luird-working and popular secretary, Mr. C. Dudding. the work of the club officials is marked by efficiency and enthusiasm. One of the features is the regular meetings of club coaches to discuss tactics and to hear lectures on the rules from prominent referees. Amon.’ the coaches of the club are to be found Mr. K. Mclntyre, a former Poneke back, who has given valuable service in the training of sixth and seventh grade players. Mr. Mclntyre has had the satisfaction of watching a number players originally coached by him during the past seven years playing iu senior ranks in the Hutt club. Another excellent club man is Mr. George Parker, a former Petone player, who was a member of the Hutt senior team when it first entered the Wellington Rugby Union’s senior championship ranks. Mr. Parker last year coached the Hutt sixth grade team, which scored, a virtual victory in the grade championship, only to lose the honours when Petone succeeded in winning a protest against another club, which gave them a margin over Hutt of one point. Mr. Parker was also a sixth grade selector last year. This season he has the ITntt fifths, who opened the season with a 55-3 win over Seatoun and Rongotai College Old Boys. Hutt nlayed bright football last season, and, but for an unexpected defeat at the hands of Poneke in an interesting early game at Athletic Park, would have won the grade honours without trouble.