SPORTS NEWS. Otago-Southland Shield Match To-day

Greymouth Evening Star, 3 August 1946, Page 7

SPORTS NEWS. Otago-Southland Shield Match To-day

INVERCARGILL, August 2

Great interest _is being shown in the Ranfurly Shield match between Otago and Southland, which will be played at Rugby Park to-day. The Otago invasion of Southland began on Thursday and already hundreds of supporters of the challengers have arrived in Invercargill, It is expected that a crowd of 20,000 will watch the game. The ground will be dry if there is no rain tc-day. The teams are as follows:—

Southland. — T. >R. D. Webster; A. G. Sutherland (captain), E.- G. Walker, Al Chandler; R. F. Waldron, N. J. Bennett; E. D. Calder; G, Spittle, J. A. Mcßae, G. Cameron, F. R. Pittaway, A. Budd, D. Brown, R. Hazlett, D. Stuck. Otago. —T. Kawe; I. J. Sotting, L. W. Deas, C. J. Moore; R. R. Elvidge, W. I. Perriam (captain); J. Haig; L. S. Connolly, A. Storer, T. Wallace, C. Willocks, L. Aitken, A. E. Hellyer, J. McNab, K. J. O’Connor.

To-day’s match will be the 102nd between Otago and Southland. Of the 101 so far played, Otago has won 52, Southland has won 42, and 7 have been drawn. The first five of the seven drawn games must have been grim and torrid struggles for supremacy, because it is on record that not one point was scored in those five draws.

There is no doubt about the retarding influence of Rugby Park on visiting teams, particularly if the turf is sticky, and that factor must not be lost sight of in weighing up the prospects for to-day’s game. In 13 games for the Ranfurly Shield at Rugby Park, Southland has won 11.

Grace Not Selected Comment on the selection of the Southland team by the man who goes regularly to Rugby Park and follows form has been largely confined to one channel —the preference of R. F. Walron, the Old Boys’ fiveeighths, to M. P. Grace, Marist five-eights and captain of Southland, South Island, and New Zealand last year (says the Southland Times). Many followers of the game have given full approval to the choice of the selectors; others, while not voicing disapproval of Waldron’s selection, feel that there was room for Grace in the team. Canterbury League

P. Smith (Hornby), the South Island captain and front-row forward, and A. Gillman (Addington), second row forward, have been instructed to report at Auckland next week with Newton, Mcßride and Aynsley, of Greymouth. This means that five of the South Island pack have been chosen to go to Auckland, but the New Zealand learn for the Test match, will not be announced until this evening. Southern Nominations

The following Otago players have been nominated for the South Island team to play th eNorth Island at Wellington on August 17: —R. R. Elvidge (University'A): Centre threequarter or second five-eighths. L. W. Deans (Training College); Centre three-quarter or second five-eighths. J. S. Haig (Kaikorai); Half-back, K. O’Connor (University A): Back-row forward. C. Willcocks (South Otago): Lock. L. S. Connolly (Dunedin): Front-row. A. E. Hellyer: Side-row. The Southland nominations are as follow:—Full-back, T. R. D. Webster. Three-quarters: A. G. Sutherland (Invercargill), E. G. Walker (Old Boys). Forwards: J. A. Mcßae and A. Budd. An Historic Match

Writing in the Otago Daily Times W. Ivor John says:—Cardiff Arm Park, Wales, will be familiar to Rugby enthusiasts as the scene of two interesting combats between the All Blacks (1905) and Wales, also between the Kiwi Rugby team and Wales. In connection with the Kiwi team, all Welshmen of the true sporting nature will deplore the unfair tactics and unusual behaviour of my countrymen. The terrible, nervewracking conditions under which the Welsh civilians lived for six years of a cruel war probably unhinged their minds. Of course other parts of Great Britain similarly suffered, but apparently they must have had a more disturbing effect upon the Welsh folk. Reference to the 1905 match will be of interest as coming from one who was a very keen witness of that memorable . match and of the disputed try. To »my mind Wales did not win, though I would have liked them to have made a decisive margin of score for victory. A drawn game would have been a fitting ending to a combat between two such redoubtable teams. That game was a thriller; it was hard and fast. And, because no quarter was asked, no quarter given. Far too fast for the referee to follow. I saw the late Mr Deans cross the Welsh line and ground the ball. He was hurled'back the whole length of his body with the ball in his hands. Referee’s decision —no try. 1 was on a stand within 15 or 20 yards of the line when Mr Deans scored. At the time I was 16 years of age—and keen. Can you imagine, sir, what a lad of 16, born in an atmosphere of Rugby football, would be like upon such an occasion? An uncle of mine was president of the Welsh Rugby Union that year and my cousin, Willie Llewellyn, was three-quarter in the team. „ „ My mental picture of the scoreboard for that particular game will read to posterity: All Blacks 3 (plus ?), Wales 3.

Otago Rugby Captain Willis Perriam, Otago’s captain, this season against the Kiwis and again at Invercargill to-day, is the only member of the Otago team who played in representative football before the war. He made his first appearance in Otago’s Shield , team in the 1938 season and between that year and 1941 represented the union on W occasions, captaining the side in 1941, Perriam-is a nephew of N. P. McGregor, the famous 1924 and 1928 All Black five-eighth.