SCORING OF POINTS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 19, 22 July 1939, Page 23

SCORING OF POINTS

FIRST DIVISION REGISTER

Penalty goals have been plentiful in this season's Rugby football, the fact that there were 138 in the first round of the Wellington senior first division championship competition being an indication. But that number of goals,, as it is, does not nearly repre-

gent the number of penalty kicks awarded. It rarely happens that even 50 per cent, of penalty kicks at goal in a match bring points, and then there i are the numerous kicks awarded out of range of the posts. So that penalHties are really becoming very high in number. During the first round of the top division championship 245 tries were scored by the twelve. teams, and of that total Wellington scored 34, Athletic doing next best with 27. In the matter of kicking goals from tries Wellington College Old Boys, Athletic, and Wellington gained excellent averages for the number of tries scored, and Eastbourne and St. Patrick's College Old Boys, without scoring heavily, also showed up well in turning tries into "five-pointers." Drop-kicking at goal has become ;sjuite a feature, and in the first round twenty-seven field goals were kicked —six of them by Petone and four each by Athletic and Johnsonville. j Most points in the first round were scored by Athletic, whose average of 17 per match was exceptionally good, with Wellington's only a fraction lower. Points scored by the top division teams in the first round were made up as follows:— Goals ! from Pen. Field Tries, tries, goals, goals. TI. Wellington .... 34 16 13 2 181 Athletic 27 15 20 4 187 Johnsonville .. 23 9 g 4 130 Petone 21 7 10 6 131 Marist. Bros. 0.8 17 7 8 2 97 Poneke 24 8 10 2 12G Well. Coll. Old Boys 18 13 17 1 135 Hutt 21 5 9 2 108 "University ... 19 6 8 1 97 Oriental 18 5 12 2 108 Eastbourne ... 11 5 12 79 St. Pat's Coll. Old Boys ..12 6 10 1 82