Kiwi Touring Team Beaten

Greymouth Evening Star, 5 August 1946, Page 8

Kiwi Touring Team Beaten

Paewai Plays Brilliantly for Wellington (P.A.) -WELLINGTON, Aug. 4. Wellington, by its defeat of the Kiwis by 18 points to 11, in the final match of the tour by the Kiwis, well deserves the honour of being the most impressive provincial side of the season. Conditions* were perfect for the match at Athletic Park yesterday. There was an attendance of about 32,000. It was in the forwards and out to Paewai at half-back, where Wellington had the match- s winning strength. The hero of the match was Paewai, whose unsurpassed brilliance never waned. The Kiwis had the advantage in the backs with more versatility and co-ordination, but the Wellington defence was very sound and, except for great slashes which J. B. Smith at times made in the Wellington rearguard, the . Kiwis never had many opportunities to bring to full effect their characteristic tactics..

Dazzling Bursts. Paewai- excelled. At times he broke clean away in dazzling bursts, but he also showed a capacity for sound, cool Rugby. He also worked in magnificently with the forwards. Every' member of the Wellington scrum worked willingly and keenly and drove through in concerted movements. Outstanding were Dalton, Todd, Elliott, and O’Donnell in close play, while White and Wales were invaluable for the way they assisted to keep the Kiwi backs in check, as well as in eager following up. Any advantage to the Kiwis in the line-outs was about balanced in the set scrums, where R. Burke raked the ball back efficiently for Wellington in a greater proportion of them. . A noticeable feature of the Kiwi forward play was the exceptional anticipatory flair shown, especially by Finlay, who gave an exhibition of a calibre very rare in Rugby. Arnold, Blake, and Grant were others who were ever close on to the ball, while Thornton, on occasions, was getting the ball back from the line-outs to Saxton with seemingly almost imperturbable ease. Scott’s Fine Display.

The power of a full-back as an attacking unit was ably demonstrated by Scott in this position for the Kiwis. Often, instead of kicking, he came up into his line of backs and initiated moves or showed great resource in making an extra man at the critical moment. The Kiwi backs were undoubtedly well up to form and, save for hard, honest tackling by Wellington, could easily have got into their renowned penetrative, open-passing style of game. The Kiwis were first to score, when Smith scooped up a low-flung pass to send on to Boggs, who went over in the corner. Wellington were next, when Elliott received from Westerby after a forward thrust. Colquhoun increased Wellington s total with a neat field goal. Wishnowsky added three further points with a penalty, to give Wellington a 10-3 lead at half-time. In the second half, for the Kiwis, Arnold scored a try Scott kicked a penalty and converted a try. Paewai, with a try, and Wishnowsky, with a penalty and a conversion, scored Wellington s further points. I The referee was Mr. J._ Fitzpatrick (Wairarapa).