LEAGUE TOURISTS

Evening Post, Issue 28, 1 August 1936, Page 23

LEAGUE TOURISTS

WELLINGTON DISPLAY

NOTES AND COMMENTS

MANY FEATURES

It has been the proud, boast of England that never once has she sent a team to the Antipodes that did not measure up to the highest standards. The latest, the seventh Rugby League side to visit the Dominion, amply bears out that contention. Collectively, and in most cases individually, England had too much in reserve for the local players in this week's game with Wellington. On a ground totally unsuited to good football their display was one of machinelike precision, with weight, speed, and versatility nicely blended to display the code in its happiest guise. The ease with which the visitors turned defence into attack was often astounding. An illustration of this was the brilliant movement that gave Hudson, the 14-stoiie winger, his try late in the second spell; A dropped pass by an English, player near halfway; was snapped' up by McNeil, the home winger, who quickly-broke away. Veering infield the !/ movement was carried on by Swanberg;Atkins, and Cootes, the latter just failing to score. With seemingly indifferent ease England regained possession immediately on their own' goal line, the ball travelling along the" whole chain 'of backs in bewildering manner. ■ Hudson got it at the twenty-five and outstripped the defence in a powerful sideline burst, scoring between the goal posts. WINNING THE BALL, Apart from their decided Weight advantage, only four being under 13 stone, the visitors had the ability to secure possession when required. Each of the visiting packmen was a- solid rucker, more so .than the Australian team of last season, and combined weight and experience effectively. Particularly was this applicable to the "play the ball," in the intricacies of which the tourists were thoroughly versed. Momentary possession by Wellington became mostly an ultimate English attack. * In possession from the scrums, too, England were . dominant, winning; the ball on 33 occasions as against the ten of their opponents. Success in this department was usually followed by thrustful rearguard attacks in which scissors passing, reversing the movement, and clever variations' of pace were the usual order. FORM OF THE PLAYERS. The work of the halves, Watkins and Jenkins, the Salford pair, ■ was directly responsible for much of the later good work. Jenkins, the standoff half, after an indifferent start, in which period Lilburne worried him somewhat, rose to great heights in attack. His speed off the mark, swerving runs, and fine perception of a possible opening caused .Wellington more trouble than any other player. With Troup second row forward, and Ellerington breakaway, he had an understanding that was at times bewildering. Clever anticipation allowed him to carry on many a movement that seemingly had petered out. Belshaw, inside centre, who replaced Brough at full-back in two Tests in Australia, was another veritable will-o'-the-wisp with a faculty for being everywhere. Besides fitting perfectly into the machine he made numerous solo runs, wriggling in and out with ease. Atkinson, outside centre, was a straight and powerful runner who used his 14st 41b to break through where speed had failed. His experience and fine positional play were responsible for many openings for Smith, the left-winger, and lightest player in the team: Smith was.in fine form, swerving and- side-stepping very neatly. His bag of four tries equalled that of Ellerington, the breakaway forward, who was outstanding in the loose. VISITING CAPTAIN'S DISPLAY. Brough, the full-back, though the veteran of the side, played like the champion who has represented England at .both codes of Rugby. His handling and kicking were first-class, whilst he initiated many scoring movements from the full-back position. Though his speed over the wet ground at times was not the best, he made the extra man in the backs successfully on several occasions. On the day he did not quite approach the standard ot Jim Sullivan, his famous predecessor. In the second'spell, when they added 30 points to 8, the Englishmen were at their best, and the Wellington tackling, good as it had been, was powerless against them. So well placed was the English defence and so perfect their handling under " the .: conditions, that any attempt by .'Wellington to highpunt in the following wind rarely served any purpose but to give' away possession. Good rucking by the English forwards, led by Silcock, the 15st 81b Test "forward, gave the backs a feast of the. ball to perform as they willed. Despite the fact that several of the English forwards were at times a trifle unnecessarily hard, the game was clean and full of incident. TASK OF LOCAL PLAYERS. Wellington; though beaten, were not disgraced. Apart from an apparently foolish desire to adopt spoiling tactics in the beginning, to which England had ,too many, counters,, they stuck to their task. Inexperience in big games and' tlie finer points of the code, new to so many of them, was their chief failing. The weight disadvantage was a big- handicap and was not 'offset by any pronounced, understanding of the possibilities in attack. Their tackling earned them merited applause but took too much out of them. : Spencer at full-back handled and j tackled well, but his kicking could! not compare with that of his rival, Brough. For his first big game he performed very well under the circumstances. McNeil and Gladding, the wingers, had little to do except defend, the former keeping the giant Hudson down

to one try only. Gladding showed good anticipation in scoring the second Wellington try. Merson at centre was perhaps the best of the outside Wellington backs, although .none was prominent in attack. Atkins was subdued at fiveeighths, being fully occupied in keeping tag of Belshaw. ~'.'..■■[ Lilburhe ■ managed to. keep Jenkins fairly quiet in the opening stages but could not cope with the speed and cleverness of: Jenkins in the second half. Still, he got through a . useful amount of work in defence. Coman at half-back rarely gained the ball and play consequently suffered.: WELLINGTON FORTTA^rJS. . Cootes was the pick of the, Wellington forwards, closely follbwed by Moisley, who did excellent, work in the rucks. Cootes.must have enhanced his .prospects, for Test selection.' He was perhaps the only one who compared favourably in weight with the visitors. A good solo dribbling effort and several good runs could easily; with luck, have resulted in tries. Berry played well and should profit by the experience gained in such company. Todd and Pilcher were too light to be effective, though Swanberg, breakaway, at times showed the form that earned his inclusion in the team. The form of the Englishmen was such as to suggest a torrid time for New Zealand in the Tests to be played at Auckland on August 8 and 15.