WHAT ABOUT IT?

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 49, 26 August 1921, Page 8

WHAT ABOUT IT?

SECOND TEST PROSPECTS

BOTH TEAMS ON TRIAL

ROBERTS WOULD MAKE THE

DIFFERENCE.

(By "Dropkick.")

New Zealand and South Africa meet again on the football ..field at Auckland for the second Test match out of the three, and the footballing public wants to know which will win. 'The first Test at Duriedin last Saturday week was, in a peculiar sense,' inconclusive. People who saw the match were not satisfied that New Zealand was so manifestly superior as the final score, 13 to 5, in favour of the All-Blacks woud seem to indicate. The luck was on oar side, and conceivably, had it been the other way, .New Zealand migl)t have lost. The •first Test, to which so much importance vitas justly attached, did not, therefore, really decide the question:—"Which is' the better team—New Zealand or ■ South Africa?" This leaves the issue ■ still most interestingly open for the match to-morrow, and until the actual teams are published, it is risky to pick winners. . , . . IP THE SPRINGBOKS PLAY THEIR ; . best. "Dropkick" adheres absolutely to his opinion expressed in a review of the first Test, published 1 last ' Wednesday,.week, that if New Zealand pflt on, the: field the same team that played at Dunedin, and the Springboks profit by their experience there and bj'lect thdir best ,and strongest fifteen, they will have a very good chance of' equalising the wins, and leaving it to the third Test at Wellington to settle the rubber. Their best team, in the opinion of this'writer, consist of: Fullback, De Villiers; three-quarters, Zeller, Clarkson, Strauss,' Meyer'; halves, Michau, De.Kock (or, if he cannot play), T&vnsend; forwards, Mostert, Ellis, Mellish, -Kruger, 'Walker, Dv Plessis, Van Rooyen, Olivier, or Scholtz. After the game he played at Palmerston Nijrth against Manawatu, Pienaar, the captain'of the party, mighKalso be included in the forwards, as he is a brainy, player, and directed the game well at \ Wellington. ' ■ ' This Springbok team would give any New Zealand fifteen a hard run, and would probably have beaten the winners of the first Test. The placing of Zeller arid Meyer on the •wings in the place of VanvHe'erdon and Henry Morkei would make all*the difference in the points, for both Van - Heerden and Morkei were in-, effective at Dunedin. ": IF "TEDDY" PLAYS. ■ So much ior the South Africans. Tha success of New Zealand in the second Test depends, krgely on some alteration in -the rear 'division of. the- All-Blacks. The selection of tho actual fifteen ,to play has wisely been left liquid, so-to speak, until the evei of the match, and the probabilities are, from all accounts, •that "Teddy" Roberts will pfty, as he ought to have played at JDunedim The question then is : Where should he play? "Dropkick" has always preferred him at "half .'to'five:eighths, and 'it will make a good deal of difference to the game and to his own performance wherehe plays. Badeley likes to play with him at five-eighths, and this ..jnay ( ..--in>. fluence the choice of the selectors. On the other hand, a five-eighths cannot do much, unless the'half "gete the ball away. The half-back is really-the crux of New Zealand's performance in the match. If the selectors are quite satisfied with H. E. Nichols's. display at Dunedin, probably he will be kept there, and Roberts will replace M. NicholLs. If Roberts, i on the other hand, goes half—and that's ■where he ought'to be-—then "Ginger" » ■will have to stand down. There is not the slightest,- doubt that the inclusion of Roberts, half br'\ five-eighths,, will have a most beneficial effect on the game from tho spectator's: point.,.of view, and that brings one to another point. This is the complaint about the spectacular 'quality of all the' games in which the Springboks have"-played here.