WIN FOR SPRINGBOKS.

Evening Star, Issue 22686, 28 June 1937, Page 8

WIN FOR SPRINGBOKS.

On landing at Fremantle a South African Rugby official made the remark, apparently in the presence of a Press reporter, that in South Africa Rugby football was the national pastime, but that in New Zealand it was a religion. After Saturday’s test match between the Springboks and Australia the visiting captain, Philip Nel, was called to the microphone. Obviously broadcasting for the benefit of the “ folks back home ” and not for the hinterland of the Commonwealth, he said: “Thank God we won!” Doubtless Mr Nel, excited by his personal participation in a great forward game, was not at his phlegmatic best or else ho would have refrained from mentioning the name of the Deity in association, with a mere game, even though it assumed tho status of a test match. However, it should be easy to understand Nel’s point of view. On this occasion he would ho particularly anxious that his team should make amends for its clear-cut defeat at the hands of New South Wales the previous week. However sincere the tourists may be in their assertions that they are out to play football for the game’s sake and will not worry unduly about wins and looses, it may be taken for granted that they are only human, and would not have relished a second." disaster ” so early in the tour. Nel’s thanksgiving can be interpreted as no more than an inconsequential exclamation of relief; nevertheless we in New Zealand are entitled to form the opinion that, if indeed our Rugby be a “ religion,” there is little difference between South Africa’s enthusiasm for tho game and our own. If New Zealanders can overcome for the time being their natural affinity for their transtasman neighbours, the Australians, they should share, to a certain extent, Captain Nel’s relief. The Dominion looks upon this Springbok invasion as something to bo handled most effectively by herself, and would perhaps prefer the Africans to come here unbeaten in the tests. It is now clear that the visitors, in the game with New South Wales, were caught unprepared for wet contingencies. Big men, made bigger still through shipboard inactivity and the craft of tho healthy trencherman, take time to get properly fit, especially for a game under strange climatic conditions. In Saturday’s match against Australia they abandoned all attempts at the brilliance which characterised their preliminary and less difficult encounters of the tour, and picked the side best fitted to maintain their country’s reputation for solidity and “ safety first ” tactics. The selection of both de Villiers and Craven points to this, as does the steam-roller method of attack employed by the forwards. Sydney saw what New Zealand will probably see in all three test matches. It is not the typo of game that brings victories by large margins, but about it there is r -mething remorseless and indestructible that requires ingenuity on the other side to oppose it» with success. Speed and the capacity for performing tho unexpected should form the basis of the New Zealand stylo of play After all, this sort of thing should conform to All Black tradition, and if our players can maintain the abandon of the amended rules game, while at the same time adhering without confusion to tho letter of the international laws, they should do well. Much will depend upon whether they can effect tho sudden transition smoothly and efficiently. But whether we win, lose, or draw it would be just

as well if our enthusiasm stopped short of trying to worry the Almighty with petitions and thanksgivings, as llio case might be. Football, when all is said and done, should bo regarded as nothing more' serious than a romping kind of game meant only to amuse