The Evening Star MONDAY, JANUARY 5, 1925. LAST WIN, AND BEST.

Evening Star, Issue 18832, 5 January 1925, Page 6

The Evening Star MONDAY, JANUARY 5, 1925. LAST WIN, AND BEST.

We must go a long way back to find a fitting parallel to the crowning victory of the 1924 All Blacks, playing, as they did, a man short during practically the whole game. And in doing so we have to leave football and go to a sister sport. While fairly confident as to the date, lack of means of verifying it on the instant induces us to leave it blank; but on one memorable occasion a member of the Oxford crew broke his oar at or near the start. Not wishing to burden his confreres with his “ idle ” weight in the boat, be promptly dived overboard, and the seven remaining men in the Dark Blue boat were equal to the task of leading the Cambridge eight thence to the finishing post. What must Oxford supporters have thought the moment that ominous crack was heard, and they saw the limp and useless blade on the bow side'of the boat? And what gnawing, heart-searching anxiety would there have been throughout New Zealand had it been broadcasted from Bluff to Auckland during the night watches that the All Blacks were oven then fighting the last and toughest of their scheduled games minus one of the chosen fifteen? To have been beaten by England would have been bad enough. To have been within an ace of attaining a record unblemished, not only by absence of defeat, but by positive and almost invariably pronounced victory, only to see it snatched away by a referee’s decision, would have been diabolically cruel. It would in a way have been a case of history repeating itself. Their great predecessors of 1905 were deprived of a draw—possibly of victory—against Wales by the referee ruling Deans’s try as no try; and that was the only loss entered up against them. However, all’s well that ends well. England’s team fought valorously and Jkilfnlly, helped jby the .word-enforced superiority in numbers; but the All Blacks soon wiped out the early, unaccustomed lead taken by their opponents, and, if they did not actually romp home, they achieved a comfortable win against odds. It was a dramatic ending to a glorious tqurj on jyhich ,we hasten to

congratulate them unreservedly. And in doing this we ; feel no diffidence whatever in expressing our sincercst sympathy with Mir C. Brownlie. All twho have any acquaintance with football, whether from the player’s or spectator’s side of the touchline, will instantly corroborate our statement that the best of referees cannot see everything, and that sometimes what the referee does see is the complement of something much more important that he has missed seeing. “ I do think another man should have gone off the field besides myself,” commented Brownlie, after stating that ho was “ unfortunate to be dropped on as the second, man in the affair.” Of course, wo are aware that the Rugby code coincides with the Biblical code on the point of turning the other check to the .smitcr, but secretly wo think very litde the loss of Bnjivnlic for having for a moment forgotten the ethics of both codes. On tiie fooSwll field and on the field of life this standard of perfection is fallen short of by very many more than are found out and ordered off. Brownlie, we read, hung his head as ho walked the “ via dolorosa ” io the dressing room; but ho can rest assured that ho need not hang it when lie comes down the gangway of the steamer to set foot on New Zealand ground once again. Heads will be held high that day, and there should he a special cheer for Nepia, gallant holder of tHe citadel (and sometimes instigator of counter-assaults that pierced the adversary’s stronghold) on every’ occasion the All Blacks took the field.