"NONSENSE"

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 33, 9 February 1932, Page 3

"NONSENSE"

REPLY TO CRITICISM

PLAYERS AS "POT-HUNTERS"

1924-25 ALL BLACKS

(From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, 2nd January.

A cabled message from Auckland published in abridged form in a. number of newspapers and'with greater elaboration in "The Sporting Life" says that "the Now Zealand All Blacks are being attacked as 'pot-hunters' by Mr. H. R. Jenkins, a former New Zealand M.P., who has just returned from England." The message goes on to say: "New Zealand sportsmen are in the throes of a first-class controversy over the comparisons made with the New Zealand cricket team which toured England last year. It was actually alleged that the good name New Zealand soldiers -won in the war was marred by the Rugby tour of 1924, and that it was not until the cricketers came over in 1927 and 1931 that the impression created by the Rugby team was dispelled." The cricketers are said to be more popular and better sportsmen. Eugby football leaders are up in arms against their accusers, and are quoting British authorities in their fight to preserve their good name. Meanwhile, Mr. Jenkins adds a rider to his previous statement with the words: 'If the next All Blacks manage to lose a match or two they will be as popular in England as our cricketers.'" .'Eugby people whom I have spoken to .on the subject say "Nonsense!" Even though some people may have criticised' the earnestness with which, the New Zealauders sought-to win their matches those people are not going to admit their criticism to a New ZCalander. INDICTMENT REPORTED. C. W. Packfor'd, of "Sporting Life," takes the matter seriously and writes as follows:—"If in. the message 'The Sporting Life' received from Auckland, New Zealand, 'Mr. H. E. Jenkins, a former M.P. of his country, who has just returned from England, is correctly reported, his unjustifiable indictment of the 1924 All Blacks must be at once refuted by someone in this country. I have no hesitation in doing so. To describe the last and invincible All Blacks team as 'pot hunters' is ridiculous, for there are no 'pots' to be obtained as the result of playing Bugger in these days. To infer ■ that the good name of the New Zealand soldiers, won in the war was marred by the tour of 1924 is a statement so outrageous in character that it seems impossible it could have been publicly advanced. During the war I was attached to.General Chayter's Horse in Northern Palestine and Syria for very many months, and I grew to know both New Zealand and Australian troops intimately. HAPPY RECOLLECTIONS. "In 1924 I got to know many of the players as a result of travelling the country with them. Of several of them, particularly Mark Nicholls, Maurice and Cyril Brownlie, and George Nepia, I have very happy personal recollections. The Hugby players of 1924 and those gallant troops; to whom Lord Allenby owed so much in his last historic campaign, were identical in character. They were indomitable in action. In war the men iv khaki battled for the love of Empire; those we saw on the playing fields of Great Britain were so concerned for the sporting prestige of their own country that they fought courageously .in every contest to attain to a wonderful distinction. They passed through a. series "of thirty engagements, including international games with England, Ireland, Wales; nnd France, and they won every one of them, an achievement unparalleled in the history of the game. In accomplishing- this they, not infrequently, were faced with a "stern, relentless opposition that fought strenu-. ously every moment of the game to check the remarkable series of successes of Cliff Porter and his men. HBCTIC STRUGGLES. "The tactics in these struggles, when thirty virile, enthusiastic athletes ■were hurling themselves into the fray regardless of personal injury, were naturally not of a kid-glovo character. They were hectic, but they were inspiring and impressive, for the British players developed the same determination at close quarters as did the giant forwards of the Dominion's fifteen. In such encounters, with the clashing of 'iard-as-nails, physically-perfect specimens of manhood, there were doubtless happenings that may have shocked the sensitive nature of individuals who conceivably would have been more in their element in-witnessing sports of a more sedate nature. To 'Rugger' men, especially those who remembered the superenergy of a 'Darkie' Sivright, a 'Sammy' Woods, a Frank Mitchell, or a John Daniell, they were inspiring. "I have yet to believe, and I shall never do so, that the great British forwards who opposed the 1924 All Blacks—W. W. Wakefield, Tom Voyce, A. F. Blakiston, Keg. Edwards, and Cove-Smith, to recall a few —were in the least inferior to their rivals in the development of shock tactics and in the vigour of their exchanges. These men always played hard, they would not have attained to prominence had they not done so, and when they crashed into those capable of accepting tbeir challenge there was naturally fire and fury in the air. But, with a few isolated exceptions^-and so infrequent were they that one- only dimly recalls that there were sueh —we never witnessed incidents that could in the least degree suggest that the best traditions of the game were not being observed. "There is a vast difference between excessive vigour and. foul play, and for anyone to suggest that the 1924 AH Blacks were consistently guilty of, or prone to, methods that would have been universally condemned is intolerable- to those of us who saw the majority of their games. "RIDICULOUS NONSENSE." "It was amusing to me in the early clays of the 1024 tour to hear remarks from peculiar people that the operations of the All Blacks were open to question. Those arose from the fact that the New Zaalanders introduced methods of attack and defence that they had developed into a high art, which were until then completely unknown over here. Included in 'these was the so-called 'wing forward' game of Porter—a player who, regarded as a forward, did not even place a hand on the serum, and frequently undertook Ihe duties of a scrum-half. To the petty-minded critic these were sharp practices on the part of the New Zealand captain. What ridiculous nonsense! Porter was simply playing a game that was recognised in his own country, and even if ho were occasionally penalised for obstruction this was duo to his wonderful enthusiasm, and not to a desire to obtain an unfair advantage. "Any attempt to discredit the 1924 All Blacks, especially after such a lapse of time, is almost of an uuforgivable nature, and coming from one of their own countrymen, it is difficult to understand. Personally, I shall never forget the team led by Cliff Porter. It was a magnificent 'machine,' a combination of 'Hugger' men who opened our eyes to possibilities of an unusual nature, and they were sportsmen. Fancy n man like.'Mark Nif.hoHs being regarded as anything clscl"