THE NEW ZEALAND FOOTBALL TEAM.

Evening Post, Volume LXX, Issue 155, 30 December 1905, Page 5

THE NEW ZEALAND FOOTBALL TEAM.

RUGBY DOINGS IN NOVEMBER, NOTES AND COMMENTS,

Our London correspondent, under date of 17th November, sends particulars of the doings of the New Zealand football, ers' progress up to that date, when their total score was 612 points against 15. Commenting on the match against Richmond, which New Zealand won by 17 points to nil, our correspondent mentions that Kew Zealand rested sis of her best men— Smith, M'Gregor, Roberts, and Gillett, from behind the scrum, and Cunningham and Seeling, from the forwards. Richmond gave the colonials a good game, the forwards acquitting themselves excellently ; they stayed well in a quick, hard game; they showed much good footwork id the close and in the open, and, keeping on the ball, they did their full share of tackling. For quite half an hour the football honours were fairly divided, for the Richmond backs, if lacking any faculty for fininhinoan attack, possessed the negative quantity of defence in a very high degree. The tackling was very fine, and the saving kicks to find touch were well executed. "But all this good defence; 1 ' observes The Times, "does not win matches. The forcing developments were ill-planned and badly executed; there was too much running across the ground, and so the bouts of passing rarely gained anything. For half an hour it was a closely-fought game. Then the New Zealand forwards began to get the ball in the scrummage more regularly, and Richmond at once became a beaten side. The New Zealandere' heeling was done with its reputed swiftness; the backs fielded the ball cleanly, and swept straight ahead, feinting and swerving at top speed. In the closing ten minutes of the first half and the first ten minutes of the second there were four tries for the New Zealanders, and in this way what had been a close game changed to an easy defeat. Some individual members of the New Zealand team have been picked out by the various critics for special praise for their play of Saturday last. For Instance, the Mail, describing "Hunter's meteoric try," says : — "The crowd was treated to several characteristic touches of 'All-Black' brilliancy, the tries by Hunter and Deans being magnificent individual efforts. Hunter went through nearly every member of the Richmond team from the 25 line, and was greeted by a perfect tornado of cheers when he safely grounded the ball behind the posts. It was one of the few flabhes that redeemed the game from mediocrity." The Athletic News describes Hunter as being "a distinct personality; he is tho type of man who worms his \ray through the opposition." The team that took the field against Bedford was again not New Zealand's best, but a win by 41 points to nil was credited to the colonials. In meeting the New Zealanders the Bedford Club had arranged for the assistance of Basil Maelear, the Irish international threequarter, and they further strengthened their team by securing the services of Rowans, the Gloucester back, and one or two Northampton players, but, even improved in this manner, the side proved quite unequal to the task of coping with the visitors. In his introduction to the contest, the Standard correspondent writes: — "The New Zealanders must really be careful, or they will- earn a reputation for being, first of all, consummate showmen, and football players afterwards. At Bedford, after rather an ordinary display in the first half of the game, they wound up the second half with quite* the most bewildering as well a« brilliant bouts of passing they have ever given. In the bout which preceded M'Gregor's try, I counted fourteen distinct passes, and all these were most accurately given nnd as surely taken. It started directly from a bick-ofi, after a goal had been scored, and from just about the New Zealand 25 line, while it finished a yard or two from the Bedford line, the ball going zig-zag down the field. It was a piece of play that would have non-plussed the best defence i in the world, and for -days Bedford will talk of nothing else but that, and Hunter." In this match the play of Hunter again electrified the critics and spectators. "Astral," in the Morning Leader, observes that "Hunter, comparatively speaking, is not so fast as the majority of the New Zealand backs, but in Ms snipe-like swerves and swoops, darting hero and there at tin almost impossible tangent, he appears to be a morsel of greased lightning. To defending backs there must seem half-a-dozen Hunters, and I am quite certain that there has never been a player of such marvellous individual scoring capacity in this country be-fore. Four tries by no means represents his share in the fun, for he gave another to Mynott when he only had to step over tho line. It was a deliberate gift on his part, for ha wag in no danger of being collared, as you will understand when I tell you that Mynott touched down between the Bedford posts with no fewer than seven other New Zealanders round him. That, is what you may call backing up with a vengeance." Another critic writes as follows concerniug tho game and the methods of the Richmondites :—"lt: — "It was a good game to watch, although it was regrettable to ccc such an obvious lack of capacity in ideas of attack among the home three-quarters. Richmond took C. E. Chase out of the scrummago to help apparently at half three-quarter. As a means of defence it may have been good policy, but the remedy for combatting tho extended attack of tho New Zealanders is not to be found by merely throwing out an extra man, who only increases the disorder in the- lines behind. English three-quarter play can never become efficient whilo there is such a. lack of method in keeping position. On Saturday the New Zealanders onco more exposed the fallacy of the promiscuous formation of English lilies outside the scrummage. It may bo successful in defence pure and simple, but it is worthless as a means of attack." Another critic enthusiastically praises Roberts. "Roberts," ho says, "was back again, after a short rest, working the scrum, and the 'finest half in the world, 1 as he has been justly termed, played his usual wonderful part in opening up the , game and setting the Now Zealand backs in motion." Basil Maelear (of the Bedford team) is something of a football giant, judgod by one report of the match, which says : — "There was one grain of comfort for Bedford folk left at the conclusion of the gamo for their lifetime. They had produced Basil Mnclear. Without underestimating the way his companions stuck to solid tackling, there can be little doubt' that but for him New Zealand would have exceeded the half-century. He downed the colonials incessantly ; in fact, he onco tackled three opponents in the space of a few seconds. He was responsible, too, for bringing Bedford to as near as they got to scoring, but the ball was kicked dead just in time. Several timos he broko away, but notwithstanding his paco and physique, one could only feel that it was .like trying to cscap.e up a 'cul-de-sac' as work his way through." .It is 'remarked that a great many clubs are becominc converts to the New Zealand

theory'■that seven forwards pack Uetter than eight. Abbott,;who is. described as the "All Black" champion sprinter, had been out of the team for about a month prior to 17th afoveniber through a poisoned leg. "Whenejef •■ the New Zealanders meet their ffrs\ defeat there will bo such an outpouring of bottled-up adjectives that the victors will be drowned in the lavalike stream which will pour on them from the fretting volcanic press," observes the Athletic. News. "There is practically only one man in the New Zealandert.' back division," says the Express in its column devoted to "Personal Incidents on and off the Field," 'that causes any uncertainty as to whether he v ill fail to take his passes. This is their lightning-like 'three,' M'Gregor. Not that he continually does so, but one places such a high value on the colonials in this respect th?t M'Gregor's occasional fumbling becomes more noticeable. As it is, he makes no very flagrant error, and when he gets going his wonderful pace promptly dispels thoughts of anything else." One possible reason for the success of the Welshmen in the representative match against New Zealand a fortnight, ago is the fact that they adopted our scrum formation of only seven forwards. Tho announcement of the intended change evoked furious dissent. A South Wales writer said : —"Although not denying that there may be something in their style that we may find considerable difficulty in dealing with, we are still not satisfied that they are going to have the easy jobs vrith us that they have had with tile Englisß teams. Ten or fifteen years ago we made the mistake of under-rating the value of good forward play, and, brilliant as was our back division, it had no chance because our forwards were so badly beaten. Later on we found out the value of good forward play, and from the time we realised that we have been a bit more than holding our own. All this local enthusiasts have in mind, and they are looking forward with a considerable degree of confidence to Wales winning, perhaps, not pure and simply by the aid of the for- | wards, but mainly through their efforts. Of course, if it should be that the New Zealand seven can beat our eight, or even hold them, it will become evident that there is something to consider in the seven foimation, but until I see it done I am loth to believe that seven forwards —even of the stamp of the New Zealanders —can even hold-their own with the eight big, strong, clever forwards we can find in Wales. This, too, is the opinion of the majority of Welsh enthusiasts, and you can imagine, therefore, the wild outburst of dissent against the idea of changing our well-proved style of play until the New Zealanders can prove to us thai theirs is superior." At the request of the editor of the London Daily Express, Eugen Sandow saw the match between the New Zealauders and Surrey, to see whether with the eye of an expert he could detect the secret of the amazing success of the New Zealanders in their* numerous contests with English Rugby football teams. " I have confidence," wrote the strong man, " in saying that I believe I was able to determine without hesitation ihe real reason why the New Zealanders have piled up such an extraordinary score agamst somo of the best Rugby teams 'n this country. The triumph of the New Zealander is the triumph of the trained athlete, (n the first place, I wish to acknowledge the skill of the Surrey team. Any one who saw the match will, I think, admit that tho Englishmen played a skilful, scientific game. Their passing, if not quite so good as that of the New Zealandcrs, was very creditable, and ] their drop-kicking in difficult circumstances was, C think, even better than the ' All Blacks.' As soon as tho two sets of men came upon the field, T could j see that the New Zealanders were the i better physically trained, ana conse- j quently iho stronger team. It was not a question of size, for many of the Englishmen were as big as their opponents. But in muscle it is quality,, not mere quantity, that tells, ans it was apparent to me that the New Zealand muscle was the better quality. My diagnosis was confirmed by the. play. The New ZcaJanders were able, by .their''greater strength, to keep the Englishmen-/con-tinually on the defensive,., and but for the English kicking, which Vas a matter of skill and not strength^' the Ne,w Zealand score would have been much'morfi. As a matter of fact, the' New' Zealanders simply walked through their opponents times out of number. They took them by the neck and threw them over like That was the result of the New Zealanders' perfection of development, not skill, and the «ame superior power enabled the New Zenlanders to keep their feet. They did not go down when tackled, because they were strong eiiongh to resist. 'Mv point is this: That given two equuily skilful teams, the team that is of better physical development is bound to win. That is the lesson of the Surrey match, and it is.the lesson that English footballers have to learn. They must devote more attention to the systematic development of physique."