SCOTLAND ANXIOUS

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 98, 27 April 1935, Page 22

SCOTLAND ANXIOUS

NEW ZEALAND'S VISIT

The fact that the New Zealand Rugby football team is to play several matches (including a Test) in Scbt■larid during the coming tour is one of the most welcome features of the plan, of., campaignA drawn up for the touring side and' published in "The Post" this week. In Scotland itself interest in the visit. pf the All Blacks is being stirred to the full, and Scotland's prospects against New Zealand are being keenly discussed, as shown by the following contribution by A; Wemyss to a Home paper:— "The victory over England at Murrayfleld was a much-needed tonic for Scottish Rugby, but it did not remove cause for concern—despite the plucky display of our pack-r-about the quality of our forward play. Our officials, I know, are gravely perturbed about the matter, and even the selectors, though their faith in the team was justified, can hardly expect that in a mere matter of months a New Zealand pack of forwards, probably the equals at least of the English pack in the matter of physique, will be nothing more than a heeling machine. "We know the quality of those Dominion footballers, both forwards and backs, and I suggest that H unless we Scots, though I dare say it applies to the other countries as well, can ■ revive the seemingly gone-and-forgotten arts of forward play—the wheeling of the scrummage and the dribbling foot rush then, when we meet those All Blacks, we are indeed in for it. "Specialisation, that canker in the game, will. doubtless still be there when we play the New Zealanders, but why do those eight forwards, 'who all dovetail into their particular places, never try to wheel? Why is it, we never see forwards sweeping down the field with the ball at their feet? NEVER TAUGHT TO WHEEL. "We may say that forwards are never taught to wheel nowadays. They have all their chartered routes to cover—one goes this way, another that, so, of course, • there is never a thought of trying to upset the opposition by even a little straightforward shoving with the ball. That might almost be said to be the first move of a wheel. Why not try one and then the other? ',■.■<■■ "And then, how can we expect to see a forward rush started even from loose open play when there are never more than one or two forwards on the ball, the others being away on duty elsewhere? The reason is obvious, and again it is because of the comical present-day duties allotted to the different forwards. Marking the man instead of the ball is the root of the trouble, and until we get eight forwards all chasing the ball and following up together we will never again see a crashing, devastating foot rush, perhaps the most powerful weapon we could employ against dry-ground overseas players. "At Murrayfield we saw at odd moments one, or perhaps two, forwards kicking the ball on and running after it as the roll of the ball dictated. Hopeless stuff, indeed, and if we are not to strangle the' game, then we must make some endeavour now to bring back all the variety of play and tactics of other days, and give our Murrayfield crowd reason for that resounding roar of 'Feet, feet, Scotland!'"