AO TE AROA

Greymouth Evening Star, 4 December 1926, Page 8

AO TE AROA

THE DARK FERNS ON TOUR. 1 (By “Moko Moko,” 1926 “All Black.”) 1 If you look up a map of France, you L ‘ will see that-the plain of Languedoc 1 is in the south of France between the e Cevennes and the Alps. It is the name s that was given to the old province e west of the Rhone and bordering the 1 Mediterranean coast right to the > north-east of Spain. The name came 1 from an old French dialect. Narbonne, at which town we play the district, is 1 near the coast and south of Cette. It ’ has quite near, a great salt lagoon, ■■ with other delightful surroundings from cultivated stretches and blessed 3 .with the bluest of blue Mediterranean * skies. My last letter was written the 3 day before this. * ’ The Languedoc side had been held 1 out to us as a formidable combination, t and we were naturally apprehensive. 3 Well we had plenty of formal receptions: ” t Rugby Union, Racing Club, Athletic Associaion and the like, the warm--3 heartedness of these southerners putting us all at our ease in spite of our 3 having to think out our short senr tenc.es in order to be sociable with the good sports who are to be found in 5 every quarter of the globe. There was ; only one thing that disappointed the 5 big crowd—lo,ooo—assembled to see ■ us, and it was the fact that the Rev. ' Matene did not appear in clerical garb. The papers stressed this point. ’ And now to the game. 1 • MAORIS 8 v. LANGUEDOC 5. A hard, level ground, a blazing sun overhead and a slight breeze from the sea and —a much better referee. The game may be summed up as one of lost opportunities, and this especially so in the first half when we lost many chances of scoring. Indeed, on the general run of play throughout the game we. were very lucky to win. In ihe second half only the sound defence of the backs staved off a defeat. The team began brilliantly and all went as merry as a marriage bell for a few minutes until Barclay had to retire for three stitches to be made to close a gash on the forehead. The bulk of the forwards then went “stale,” and the backs had a. torrid time. Sting there was none in any of them. Barclay is a great leader and inspirer of iiif-r.; Stewart showed up especially well, proving himself to be one of the best forwards in the combine. One wonders why Otago dropped Stewart in 1924 after his game against Southland. Anyhow, he is now playing great football. The backs got precious little ball in this game, and they were hungry to do some attacking. On the day defence was their strong point. T’.e team that played against us at Narbonne got the ball three out of every four times it was handled and they passed all day, so our collaring and spoiling must have been effective. Our side was—after Barclay retired — Pelham (full); Falwasser. Potaka, Phillips, Wineera. Bell. Shortland; with forwards: Stewart, Olsen, Crawford. Rika. Matene, Manihera, Rolenson, and Hau papa as rover. Just after our kick-off Matene potted and produced a twenty-five. Smart attack by the Maoris followed. Potaka punting high to Falwasser who knocked-on, and the scrum ordered fed Shortland, who passed wide to Bell. Phillips dashing in ana picking up smartly. He then beat .1 man and transferred in to Bell who shot through to the full with Barclay in’attendance to receive and ground the ball under the bar. Potaka goaled. Maoris 5. Reds attacked to the wing three, but the line was in Blacks’ favour, the scrum that followed breaking up and Barclay getting his gash in taking their wing three-quarter. Give-and-take play followed, Reds passing frequently. Haupapa received the ball and then lost the tiy by not sending a pass to Stewart. The Reds came down to the Maoris’ line, but Haupapa broke away grandly and even beat the full-back, but unfortunately dropped the ball as he was swerving. The Reds came in to attack with their backs, Bell taking their first five, ball, and all, to dash into the open, the chaining going to Wineera to Potaka to Falwasser —a miss. Well, we were losing our chances and their’s came. A set-scrum fed half, first, and second five, the last-named passing to a forward who had a clear run over between the posts. Their full put the ball over and the scores read: Maoris 5, Languedoc 5. The evening up of points brought Reds into hot attack, Haupapa saving brilliantly to mid-way, where Bell and Wineera. had two passing efforts, the second of which broke down when Wineera dropped the ball—and a try-. Still the Maoris kept up the attack, and Stewart apparently grounded after some good hurricane rushes by the forwards, the referee deciding on a ten yards’ scrum from the spot at which S’ewart has crossed under the bar, rid the broken “two sevens" struggled into a rucking effort, a. kick from their line coming out to Phillips wh6 dive. - over t< score. Mated: faded with a very difficult placer a.i! the score was B—s in our favour. The half way Kick was retimed into ior.ii by Potaka and half time arrived.

The second half brought no further r score to either side. With our forl wards quite lifeless as a pack and t the scrummers as fresh as paint and as lively us Waironga our backs had ; the experience of a spell of co Harin-h ; But for the i.ac’ty of the rearguard i oui three p.h.t lead must have lm.,n - Sion cut off. ’• iu-ir backs tried jet- , ting, but no score came. Their c-Jltr-l ing was parc'.cv’.'uly hard. The speed ■ of the Maori inside backs prevented . Languedoc from going far with.their i transfer movements. Neither side • could push home the attack to the . point of scoring and a monotonous second spell finished with the scores Maoris B—Languedoc8—Languedoc 5. It was a close call, the luck being our way. The players were jubilant over their side’s showing, and on the play our fifteen put up, the Narbonne folk had a right to think —ten thousand of them—that the visitors had the luck. Barclay, who appeared with his head swathed in white, had a reporter at his elbow very quickly after the game. The Maori was reported to have said: The opposing team played a marvellous game, above all in the forwards, who were an excellent pack. They played hard, but not too hard for our liking. The refereeing was decidedly good. M. Lery, President of the French Rugby Union, was present at the match. He expressed himself as being extremely plea zed with the showing of the- team. He. had been tremendously stirred up by the possibilities of French football. The Languedoc team did most of the playing; the Maoris were too resourceful for the defeated fifteen. . Among some dozen signed brief criticisms was that of a member of the Jockey Club. He put it that morally Languedoc had won the game, since the second try made „by the Maoris was a lucky one. The referee’s dictum was that the Maori side was very speedy and was always on the alert to profit by the mistakes of their opponents. “The Maoris are not so powerful as were the “All Blacks,’’ but they play / beautiful, open game.”