THE WALLABIES.

Evening Star, Issue 13162, 19 January 1909, Page 8

THE WALLABIES.

A DREARY GAME AVITH AIR HARNETT’S FIFTEEN. [From Our Si'f.cial Correspondent.] LONDON. December 11. A more litelces exhibition of Rugby football than the game between the Australians and the Ango-Vvelfh team that toured Now Zealand I have seldom seen. It was as though the gloomy spirit, of the dull, damp winter afternoon had entered into the players and melted their enthusiasm. It was a. very tired sort of game. It made the crowd gloomily wonder why they had been templed out to Richmond on such a dreary afternoon to watch such a dismal display. The truth is that no one could have anticipated that Air George Harnett’s Anglo-Weleh fifteen would put up such a. shockingly poor performance. Their display was really lamentable, and the effect upon the Australians wae bad, for it dulled the edge of their keenness, and made them slipshod and inaccurate. Had the Wallabies taken all their chances and handled the ball a little better their score- would have been nearer 50 than 24 to nil. liven an it was, however, they were vastly i.ujierior to the Anglo-Welshmcn at all points of the game. It was a one-eided, hollow, and tedious affair altogether, and the less said about it the better.

It is true that the Anglo-Wcl~h were not at anything like their full strength. Jackett and Da-vey, of Cornwall, were not playing ; neither were the three Welsh internationals. Some difficulty wae experienced in raising a team at all, and Alad-. docks and Rowlands, neither of. whom went to New Zealand, had to be brought in to make up the fifteen. Still, tire side was expected to make at least a decent show. Their utter failure was intensely disappointing to the spectators. The tackling of the home backs was simply puerile, and would have disgraced a team of junior | schoolboys. The heeling out was slow and | uncertain; the passing—when there was any at all—was-foeble in the extreme. The Australians fairly smothered their opponents, so much so that the game before the end became almost farcical, io careless arrd indifferent was everybody. The refereeing was by no means up io the mark in this game. Slow though the game was, it was too fast for the stout little man with the whistle to keep up with. The Australians were robbed of at least one certain try by the whistle going for a throw ; on, the referee being too far away to see that the pass. was a perfectly fair one. There was far too much whistling over trivial breaches of the rules, and the result was a long and dreary succession of scrums, most monotonous and exasperating to the lookers-on.-'

The Australians scored a. try in the first two minutes, and thereafter went on scoring at intervals. Russell got most of the chances, and ran in with four out of the six tries gained by the colonials. Wood, the scrum-half, played a gedd game, and ■ Ward Prentice, the five-eighth, had a liand in almost all the 'trice. Most of the gleams of brilliance in a very dull game came from Prentice, who is one of the cleverest and meet dashing of the Australian backs. Carmichael's lucking was another redeeming feature in the game. He punted extremely well, and also placed three fine goals. The teams were as follows: Anglo.-Welsh. —J. C. M. Dyke, hack; I l ’. E. Chapman, R. B. Griffiths, J P-. Jones, and H. T. Maddocks. three-quar-ter-backs; H. Laxton and C. F. Rowlands, half-hacks; A. F. C Harding, P. S. Down, G. R. Hind, H. Archer, J. F. Williams, W. L. Oldham, J A. S. Ritson, and L. S: Thomas, forwards.* The Australians. —P. Ca.nhichael, hack ; W. Dix, J. Hickey, K. Mandible, and C. Russell, three-quarter-back', ; F. Wood and W. Prentice, half-backs; Dr Moran, J. Barnett, Q. Gritfen, C. A. Hammond, R. Craig. A. Burge, P. M'Cue, and T. Richards, forwards.