RUGBY

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 89, 14 April 1923, Page 14

RUGBY

BENEFIT MATCHES SHOW FINE FORM

ATHLETIC REARGUARD REVELATION

&;'■; After the grievous disappointments of ! pjast year's football^ ■ the Rugby prelude • Kof the Club Benefit matches last Satur-i-'iay was most inspiriting. One would hiave- to go back igany seasons for such pan openingl match as that between Po^ . :*»eke' and .-Athletic at.. .Athletic Park. ■•'.impart from one or two laggards among Vthei.forwards,;both teams played;a hard,. "fast "ganie from;' start to finish without failing," "and the pace at the end ,was faster than at the beginning. If only i this and the Petone-Oriental game can 'be taken,as fair earnest of better'to, come, then weVare in for- soniethipg-j good. No. doubt, one swallow does, not make a summer, hut there <3id not seem. , to be anything of the'-flash in' the "pail in the.Athletic-Poneke-game, for all the tries were geninue ; achievements' with-.' out the element of luck.; Three.of them, were as nice as ohe.caiild vwjsh.-to see.. Monday's report of the- match, presenteda few bouquets with^the details; but one cannot help saying" word to express . surprise at jtljej.'ejtraord.inwy' showing, of the, Athletic backs.;.,. Really th«y handled the ball"like veterans, and; ' their scoring work was perfe'cfr. ;.* Gibson' 3 ■ two tries in the first spell'we're :,tKeresult of finely-concerted a,ciion along the line* of ba.cks delivering : the ball, to a winger, who has the pace-al.winger'must. ■h^ve to be any use at all:;" ;Thei idea;.is'. that., the quick delivery of ■'• the ,■ ball . :' should give the wing .man ~e'nfciigli:x>f. "\ room and a start tp,/get:.a : chance;.pf~a run in. Both, <3rfb|qji;'and .Majmanclje on the. other •■wing.'hay© this.'©gsieritiai of speed.-■-S'Jlnningfiin'^cpted . an...'almost BimjJj^'^Ty.'.'fprt'P^oneke; 1 ■Cntting-in',waß • not. attempted' much!;-. the. ■ other 1 game paid better. and'".mucteistp'.b<iL;«'aid for.. the lesson which "th/e^. South :; Africans tiiiipht. of getting the ball to tner wing in tijne. Gibson, at five-eighths, was conspicuous for the best bit of sicJe-stepping diagonally in from the wing towards the goaj.- He was unlucky not to-, get light. '3hi6xisi.' '%.' « " "r-Z ' <» V--.V- ''■ ."'"Warwick,"" who showed.., good form .for Atheltic last year at half, should be continued this season in that portion. He has all the qualities for the ■ work and the making of' a<:first-class footballer, with prospects of going far . towards representative' honoiftra. . The. rest of the backs played almoxi unifprm : _ ly well and combined most effectually. Srenßon is a, real acquisition to the team. 1 and should continue his sutcesiftful career this season.- Both the Gibsons 'and Pof- '■■ ter and Malmancbe went through the game-without makoi" a serious mistake. Athletics handling of the-ball was far more accurate and certain than Poneke's.. /,' , , „,...■ ■, •:' Poneke were trying-out 'a number of new men.'and it would be hardly'fair, to criticise them as if they had their best r-team in the. field.. F. Tilyard was responsible for much of the" lack of combination among the badks. He seems to \be an inveterate indivdualist, except ' when; it - would 'pay ttf'go on'^with the ball. Ha twice gave' it up: in the first 1 spell with erratic passes out to the wing, when the wing man .had ■ even chance of getting through.' Tunnington ." scored a good try, but gave a...glaring speculator once when he> had ample time to clear the ball properly,. ..The "spec" is undoubtedy encouraged ; by the "kiclt-into-touch" rule, for if the. .player gets his kick in Soocer fashipni ten to one the ■ball will bounce out. The speculator kick was justly condemned as almost unpardonable by the older generation, and any rule that encourages it ouglit to go' cut; if for. that reason a We. ■'% The Atheltic,.forwards -iyere not! equal to flfeir hacks,'fra.t it-seeaied to M more: a lack of. condition than\of knowledge'of the-game; The Pack on paper"is-a-first-class one, and/should show its metal after a few more games. All-in-all the Athletic ■ fifteen were very pleasing indeed. :f ' '._■ ' .. Ponike have a habit of. getting there. Even'if they do not always shine much individually^ as a, team they always seem to manage to win. That A was the-way on.: Saturday. They won 'by a penalty goal and two tries, one converted to three unconverted tries. It was a moral victory for Athletic,-but'moral" victories are not recorded in points. . Poneke ought to havfS been beaten with the score 9rß against them,, but_ their forwards ■\ came down with a, rush' and Tynan bul2«cked his way. over the line to quite a:-fair try. That was the end of it., Of ihe new players-not one was conspicuous. faf outstanding merit, and the handling' of the ball by the backs was very: faulty. ' The forwards were a moving towk of strength., and won the game. Until, we see the iiill Poneke team out, it i» impossible to criticise. ',••■■ '■■■'': '.Petone had,a fair amount c? new material in the field against Oriental-last week, and.quite promising material, too. Young Jeff. Nicholls, another scion of the fatrious v football house- of Nicholls, was holding his' end up as full-back, and, while he did not please all who saw him, It must be remembered that he is but youthful, and will gain in confidence as he continues in his Rugby career. His taking of the ball was below par, but he certainly- gave' indications of being a good goal kick. He failed to increase his side's ptrintiTin this way, bat. the wiiid / was troublesome,';and he Could not ,al- ' togetherrbe.-blamed!" What is.important is that- he has the' idea, and. that/counts for much. Execution will conic withpractice, and %vith a gain in confidence, Before being dropped back td junior lie might well be given another try-out. Several of Petone's senior players were not available last Saturday, and it was intended that more of the club's men should be given a try-out this afternoon. Appearances point to Petone having a very good back division.again:,thisiryeaiv The Petone back* have".always,beep noted for their nippiness'and; if they-only had a heavier pack in-front of them, to clear the way and mix things up a bit, the \ bites would be a most difficult proposi- " tion to tackle. Given Oriental's forwards, for instance, there would |c no

iIV vpBOPKICK"! PROMISING PRELUDE TO SEASON

■ holding Petone i they would be almost I unbeatable. 'The" backs showed quite good combination-.last Saturday) and for a first-of'the-seasori .game <their display was more than what one might have expected. - . Among the new men who are playing for Petone this, year are D. Ryan, \vh'o hails from Sydney, but is no relation of I the other Petoneites of the same name. He play? with the forwards and is quite a' handy man. Last Saturday, ha "was on the ball the whole, time, and scored i the second of Petone's two tries. Hors'•;.fall, who formerly was a member of'the Berhampore Club, is now out with the Petone first fifteen and last week appeared, to be working well with Albert Parker. Among, the accessions to senior play is ■ Tuhi .Love; a young brother qf-M.-Love, the .Vfell-known forward.' 'Tuhi ■was on the three-quarter line agajnst Oriental, and; the position of seems to be his right, place. Hts possesses a rare turn of speed, and gives promise of '.being a good, scoring man. Anyhow, he started off .well by notching the first try of the season for Petone and yery nearly got one or tVo more. ,' ■ H. E. Nicholls has been appointed cap-, tain of the Petone senior fifteen for the season, and "Piccolo" Ashton, vice-cap-tain. H. E. had the misfortune to hurt hie right kne.e while in training last week and could not take the field on Saturday. In all" probability he will be in action next .week. 'Oriental have a strong side this season, and should give a good-account of ■themselves when they get going properly. Hickey, a,last-year junior, is quite' a good wing-forward and. is also apparently rejjed on" ag a place-kick. ' Other former juniors out' with the. seniors last week iwere-.K; .Smith, :C. Smith (five.eighths), Jones'(half),-Hume (wing, tljree-quarfcer),-and Simmonds, and Butler'(forwards), i Hume playetf * good game.and so'•• did Sim'niorids: ; Two newcomers were Hearle, who formerly pjayed for Selwyn,: and Falla, who used to be on the West Coast. Hearle was in' the 'forwards and Falla was on the wing. Cilchrist was playing as full-back, and filled, the role very well indeed. He was called upon to do some very difficult defensive work,, and mostly; succeeded. On one occasion he took a brilliant mark when the Petone forwards were right on top of him, in his own twenty-five, and thus saved an almost certain score. Perhaps it was because of his height, but, somehow or other, Gilchrist was reminiscent i-ofSiddells, when playing at full for 'Varsity last year. The only thing about Gilchrist, was that he did not', attempt any feats of particular daring, or try to bring off. any very special "stunts." In the redoubtable Moffit, who humorously says that he might as well be playing football as anything eke," Pringle, and King, the "Ories" have some pretty hot stuff in the- vanguard. _ Pringle is a player Who uses his brains all the time, and< thinks'hard, the consequence being that there is some finish ,to his: work. He should be assured of a good Rugby career. -King was in strong form last Saturday and was deadly at the collaring game. Once he had a man it was a case of "good night, nurse.',' .Riggs, a brother of. the Riggs who played for Orien,tal last season, was out with' the seniors for the first time and was doing excellently until he had the misfortune to be injured while trying to. screw a scrum. It will probably be a little while before he will be about with the team again. Oriental, may readjust their senior tealn before the club.: championship starts, but they have.plenty of materialto work on, i and are confident that this year, they will be able to make some of-their opponents ! .sit up and take'notice. :. That the League game is declining m .popularity with erstwhile Rugby players was "shown by the. batch of applicants, who came before this weed's nieeting of-the" Wellington' Rugby Management Committee seeking readmission to the amateur code: ./They all stated emphatically that they, had had enough.of League and were'"fed up" with it. One of the applicants was a suburban player of some repute, and he was asked if he would agree to stand down for three or four ,weeksi until .the New Zealand Union had decided whether or not to reopen the question of reinstatement. "Betcher -life," he replied. amidst laughter. "Rugby'll do me." • The 1923 Rugby season in Christchurch, 'says; the "Lyttelton Times," will start with eighty-four teams in all grades. The number, of teams entered in the various grades 'is .'as follows: First grade, nine ;• second • grade, fourteen; third -grade' (A)', twenty-four; third grade (B), nine; fourth grade, eleven; fifth grade, twelve; sixth grade, five (with the. prospect 6f two more* teams). Owing to the fact that the Agricultural and Pastoral Association are holding a demonstration at the Show Grounds .on Saturday, the opening of the season has been postponed till 21st April. The fifth and sixth grade games will probably be: commenced on ■ the' following Saturday.' The. teams in the senior grade ■ are :— ' Albion, Christchurch, High School Old. Boys, Linwood, Marists, Merivale, North Cante?bury, Sydenham-Lyttelton, and 'Varsity, All. of last year's teams are entering, and there is one new team in this grade—North Canterbury. The matches' ne,xt Saturday will .be: North Canterbury v. Merivale; Marists v: .Old Boys; Christchurch" v. 'Varsity; Syden-ham-Lyttelton v. Albion; Linwood a bye. . EASTBOURNE ■ CLUB., The Eastbourne Club, ■ which,' has ,b«eh bo energetic* during the. summer months in collecting funds for the erection of \a gymnasium, has been strongly augmented by. rlew playersthis season. Several -wh6 were .prominent in the lower grades of. the city club's'last year have- joined up, and will considerably strengthen t East..Harbour, fifteens.. The increased 'membership has resulted-in the club entering, four teams' for-the coming season, these" being third,- intermediate, 'fourth, and fifths. "Teddy" - Roberts, who is now a permanent resident at Eastbourne, has taken over the coaching of -'-the thirds, and is being assisted by "BilJy" Wilson, the latter paying Special atten-

tion to the forwards. The Recreation Ground has been put into thorough order, has been properly fenced, and, with new goal-posts, is now one of the best of the suburban grounds, tt is also probable that the Day's Bay ground will pc available, and, with, the ferry boats running to the same time-table as during the summer months, there, should be' no difficulty in playing four games each Saturday in the East Harbour district. CLUB REPRESENTATION. Wellington has not been aione in ex--periencjng, during the first-of-the-season business; an effort to h^ve representation pi) the Management Cpmnjrtte.e altered in such a way as to provide for a delegate from each senior club to have a seat, At the annual meetings of both the Canterbury and" the Otago Rugby Unions motions on the subject were tabled and discussed. In Wellington .a special meeting to consider the matter was held at the close of last season, the BeAampore Club's delegates moving in the indicated. The effort was fruitless, but it was renewed again recently by the Poneke Club, which decided at its annual meeting that each senior club.was entitled to a representative on the . Management Committee of the Wellington Rugby Union It happened, however, that the club wasi just a little late in making its decision, as the necessary notice of motion to have the matter' considered at the annual meeting of delegates to tfie Rugby U»ipn -required to Be handed in on the night of the club's meeting The nqtjce of motion was sent forward as.soon as possible after the meeting, but it was not in time. When this fact was made known to the delegates at the union's annual meeting, it was explained that by the general wish of the delegates consideration could be given to. the matter. The notice of motijon was as follows:— " That in Rule 17 the follqwing words be deleted:—'There shall be proposed, seconded, and elected, by ballot at the annual general meeting of delegates, a management' committee which shall consist of nine delegates.' And Rule 17 be amended to.read as follows:—' The management committee shall consist of one delegate from each senior club,, three delegates to be appointed by junior clubs, aiid a representative of the Primary Schools' Union.' " A Poneke delegate explained why the club desired that the' motion should go forward, and indicated that it might require to be slightly amended. The wish of the majority of the _ delegates, however, was that the motion should not be considered, and tha meeting proceeded to other business. Although there may be reason* for in alteration as suggested, clubs should not lose sight of the fact that the interests of particular clubs should not be considered by th,e controlling body, except under special circumstances. The business of those who are elected to act aa contrqHerßT-elected, it must be borne in mind, by all the delegates from all clubs—is to act for the game and players as a whole. There should be,' no club bias on the management 'committee, and it has been satisfactory to observe in recent years that very little hag been in evidence. ,It can also be said to be satisfactory: that representation on the management committee has been fairly well distributed among the clubs.' There is ; _no denying the fact-that a man ap. pointed to .'the executive must have at heart the interests of the particular club to which he belongs, but as a controller of the game those interests must be sacrificed for the interests of clubs and footballers as a whole. It has been well for football in Wellington ihat the management committee has been composed of men who are out to work in the interests of all. ' .'-•■■ The motion moved on behalf of th«> Marist Club at the Canterbury meeting was: " That the management committee shall ■ consist of o'fficerß of the union, together with a direct representative of each senior club, who shall be. appointed I by the club." , The mover said that iv sending the motion forward, his club did not desire to reflect on the work of the management committee in the past, but it was thought that >a. situation might arise in the future when a senior club might not-be represented. He admitted that, the motion was rather radical in its-effect.; The. president considered that the proposed constitution of the committee, would be a retrograde step. ■ I" the, twenty-six. years in which he had been a member of the Management Committee he did not.know of a single instance where the interests of a senior club were neglected. "When a man goes on thfe committee, he has to' forget his club," the president added. The change would mean that the annual general meetings of delegates would: be very dull affairs. At present, club delegates were mainly interested in .the selection of a committee, in which the aim was that •it should be composed of-men of wide experience^ and capable of a wide outlook. The motion was lost, on the voices. At the Otago meeting the matter created much discussion, and the following motion (by Alhambra.) was lost by only two votes (23 for and 25 against): "That the Committee of Management of the union shall consist of one delegate from each-senior club (the delegates from each'senior club receiving the highest number of votes to represent that club), one delegate from junior clubs, and one froni: siib-ttiiions (such members to be elected by the delegates of affiliated clubs at'the annual meeting), and two delegates . elected by the. Schools' Committee; ■' a president, immediate past president, f6ur vice-presidents, and ■ a treasurer—four to form a quorum, etc., as in rule 6." The mover said that he had. been astonished at the hostility with which his scheme had previously been received, and at the way. in which it had been misrepresented.) He considered that it was only a fair and reasonable proposal, and. that must surely be recognised by all men who were true sports. ■ The. scheme was not revolutionary,- but perfectly fair and right. He, along with several others, had been disappointed >vith the results of the ballots at the last annual meeting, and had given a good deal of thought to the matter of alteration of tlie constitution. He admitted that there was room-fov improvement in the motion. . The secondei* ■ maintained that the prpposal did not mean direct representation;. it meant. equitable representation. 'It will be news-to Wellington Rugby-enthusiasts that; according, to one delegate at the Otago meet-in'g,-the-proposed system had been tried in Wellington a year or two ago, and had proved* a dismal failure. FUTURE OF BACK PLAT. In the course.of a series of articles iv the London "Daily Telegraph," Colonel Philip Trevor, QB^E., discusses, inter alia, the future of .-back play. I often wonder (says Colonel Trevor) what the three-quarter back play of tho future is going to bo like. We may, I think, take" it as an' axiom that whatever developments in three-quarter back play 'are in stove for us, straight running'by the centre players will be eter-

nally essential. We have always realised that, and to counter the obvious defence which will be opposed to the straight runner our best centre players have recourse to ~a manoeuvre which ia known as "selling the dummy.' 1 In case there are still a few people whose education in slang is not complete, I would here explain that "selling the dummy" is pretending to give a pass and not doing so. . ' "Selling the. dummy" is an admirable manoeuvre, and vis capable of almost infinite exploitation. At present it fails to be practically useful, oftener than not for two reasons; the first of which concerns the dummy seller himself and the second his comrades. The dummy seller must teach himsey to. sidestep and swerye without slipping down as he does so. I should' be pessimistic indeed if. I did not think that this in reality was a matter of practice. Yet I have to admit that time out of number when the turf is firm does the 'man who tries to combine dummy selling with side-stepping bring -himself to grief. I assume, of course, that he is", suitably shod. .It must then be. a question of adjustment of balance, and we know that our_ best side-steppers avhen. at tue top of their form seem to be able to swerve on, so to speak, half a foot. At any rate, the^ action photographs .show themdoing so. Assume, then, that your dummy seller learns to correct his own fault. It is up then to his comrades to correct their faults. And their minds miMt^fallow" his mind if their feet are to follow his feet. Nine times out of ten. however, as matters are at present, your dummy seller, when he has beaten his immediate opponent, becomes a mere individual player. As he beats him he glances obliquely over his shoulder, only to find to his dismay that ha has beaten his comrades top. And so he ia made to realise that in its present state of de»velopment, or undevelopment, dummy selling is a two-edged sword. He has to go on alone j he reaches, another opponent, ■ and if he decides not to employ the short punt he must again side-step or swerve. It is doubtless asking too much of a man to demand of him that he should know his comrade's mind oftener than he does not know it. For practical purposes, however, I am convinced that the future of the success of threequarter back play in attack (in which dummy selling jg a, necessary factor) lies in .pre-arrangements. For me to suggest what form this prearrangement should take would >be to insult the intelligence of a good Eugby football player. I only, want to lay stress on the fact that in deceiving your enemies it is imperative that you should uot also, deceive your friends. If, then, you cannot on the spur of the moment detect what your friend is going to do when he manoeuvres it is surely better that you should know it beforehand. To a, limited extent, a very limited extent, the practice already obtains. But it is obviously capable of extensive development. I admit that the sort of thing which I am suggesting is unpopular in the eyes of a large number of Eugby Unionists. But they if I may say so, tricks with trickery. Whether you play cricket, football, or bridge, or whether you fence or box, it is essential that you should deceive your opponent. It should not b6 necessary to elaborate this point, and I would refrain from doing so were it not that the experience of thirty years convinces me that even intelligent people do not distinguish between trickery which is abominable and a trick which'is worthy of nothing but admiration. The rules of any game are, with one reservation, similar to the rules of the greatest game of all—namely, war.' The strategy and tacticsof both aro similar, but in games the spirit of-chivalry must always dominate, and especially must there be nothing akin to poison gas in "Rugby football.' As Jar as 1 can see, the threequarter line must be, so to speak a the matador in the Kugby football field. Its job must be to do the actual striking that counts. Its members must work in unison to do that, and, unless each one of them is so telepathically constituted as to know what each one of the others must and will do at a given moment, he had better do his best to supply himself with the knowledge he needs by some system of pre-arrangement. APPRECIATION. Included in the annual report of the Wellington Rugby Union were expressions of appreciation as follow:— _ "The heartiest thanks and appreciation of the union are extended to the Press for the assistance and prominence given to all matters connected with the game. A generous amount of space was devoted to reports of matches, and the papers were at all times.ready to" give publicity to any matter when the union so desired. In fact the assistance so readily rendered did much to make the season the. success it proved. "Members of St. John's Ambulance attended at all grounds under the jurisdiction of the union during the season, and rendered -first aid in all necessary cases. For this valuable assistance the union wish to express their sinctre appreciation.-, "The thanks of the committee are extended to Mr. W. F., Russell for having issued a kind invitation to the visiting and local representative teams to performances of Nellie Bramley Company, to Mr. Farrell, representing .J. C. Williamson and Co., for the kind invitation to Wellington and Auckland representative teams to be present at "Thy 86y," to Messrs. Ben and John Fuller, Jun., for their kind invitations to representative.teams to His Majesty's Theatre during the season, to L. H. Wilson (of .Everybody and Empress Picture Theatres) for his invitation to Hawkes Bay team, and to Nikola, for his invitation to be- present at his performances. The union is deeply indebted to the police for their able assistance at Athletic Park during the season. "Thanks are also extended to the band of voluntary Workers who so willingly turned out-to help the union whenever their aid was solicited, and to club officials for their prompt response to calls for information, and for assistance generally."