INDOOR TRAINING

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 55, 2 September 1937, Page 11

INDOOR TRAINING

ALL BLACKS FIT

(By Telegraph—Press Association.)

CHRISTCHURCH, September 1

All the twentyrone New Zealand Rugby players who are in training at New Brighton for the Test against the Springboks next Saturday have passed the medical examination, so that the selectors' choice of a team will not be further limited. The only men about whom there was any doubt were. J. G. Rankin, the Canterbury forward, who was kept out of the first Test match by illness, and R. H. Ward, who eventually took his place but who suffered_a leg injury during the northern tour of his provincial team, Southland,

Intense public interest is being taken in the training of the AH Blacks. Wet weather again prevented outdoor practice today, but there must have been more than 1000 spectators at King Edward Barracks, to which players again had recourse for a short but brisk work-out. The hall is inadequately lit for the purpose, but its tancovered floor is dry and it enables the players to practice mechanical and tactical moves in reasonable comfort.

The forwards today worked under the direction of the manager, Mr. J. T. Burrows, and Mr. W. J. Wallace had charge of the backs. Tomorrow it is hoped that the weather will allow the team to have a run at Lancaster Park. If it is still wet, training will be held in the barracks again. ■

The New Zealanders are obviously a very happy party and they are the picture of. fitness and health. The keenness shown by the players in their practice certainly augurs well for the success of their big task on Saturday.

Although the rainfall has been steady since Monday it has not been heavy and, . provided the weather clears today or tomorrow, there is still a good chance of the Springboks being favoured by a fast ground and a dry ball, for which they are hoping. They certainly will not have the boardhard ground on which they beat Canterbury, but the park had dried so ■thoroughly in the weeks preceding that game that it will take a great deal of rain to make it really soft.

The training which the New Zealanders have been getting in the King Edward Barracks will stand them in good stead whatever the conditions in which the match is played. The floor is not a fast surf ace by any means and the varying depths and texture of the layers of tan and earth approximate fairly closely to a "holding" ground, one on.-which it is something of an effort to get up speed and on which the footing is never certain. New Zealanders play so often on wet grounds that they need, little practice in the art of handling a wet ball, an^art which the Springboks have been slow to acquire. Practice indoors will give them valuable training in handling a dry one.