RUGBY.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 2 August 1924, Page 9

RUGBY.

NOTES. ‘‘As far as the Wairarapa is concerned,” said Mr Alf. Johnson at the Rugby Union farewell, it looks upon the All Black team as Quentin Donald, lan Harvey and 27 others. All eyes in the, Wairarapa will watch out for these two being Internationals. That’s the thing we want now. These two young fellows have proved themselves straight runners on the field of play, and straight runners in their, ordinary life. Being such they cannot possible fail to uphold the honour of New Zealand on the tour.”

The North Otago Rugby Sub-Union has had its attention drawn to the fact that objectionable language is occasionally used by irresponsible spectators towards referees and line umpires. The union intends dealing in a drastic manner -with any complaints of this kind which may be reported to it. When Kipling wrote of “the financial fools at the wicket and the muddied oafs at the goal,” says a writer of passing events in Sydney, he was angered because the public showed such a sad sense of proportion in regard to the really great events of life. One is reminded of it in reading that Dr Norman Boyd, of Sydney, has by patient research in the scence of surgery accomplished miracles. Iu effect he says to those sick of a palsy, “Arise, take up thy bed and go into thine own house.” And, as of old, they arise and depart to their houses. But do the multitudes hearing of it marvel and glorify? Yes, they, too, be sick of a palsy. If not, well one must be tolerant and give them a chance. They are so busy marvelling about and glorifying another fellow who is kicking a piece of leather inflated by wind. They are sick of a palsy that’s miracle proof—that kink in their sense of proportion.

One of the outside teams to play in the Olvmpie Rugby competition was that from Rumania, which went through to the semi-finals and then suffered a hollow licking at the hands and feet of the United States. At present Rumania looks to be a possible competitor with Russia in another sterner field of action. One can only hope that their soldiers can fight better than their footballers can play. In Olympic football the American half-back Hyland, is said to have shown form of outstanding quality. In the second match in South Africa the English Rugby Union team defeated Combined Universities of Capetown and Stellenbosch by 9 to 8. As they were narrowly beaten in the first match, they are finding the opposition sturdy. If we take a line through these results, alongside the form of the I Springboks in Australia three, years j ago, and of the All Blacks of the hour, the New Zealanders should have a highly successful career abroad. The British team defeated Griqualand West at Kimberley by 26 to nil —a very good win. The Frenchmen, their defeat by the United States notwithstanding, are getting in early with their dates for next season. Next season’s internationals are: January 1, France v. Ireland, in Paris; January 24, France v. Scotland, at Edinburgh; February, France v. Wales, at Cardiff; March 28, French Army v, British Army, at Twickenham; April 13, France v. England, in Paris. The match with New Zealand is not mentioned, but that will be played shortly after the All Blacks'finish in England, at Twickenham. There has been some talk in Europe of the French coming to Australia and New Zealand next winter. They would be popular, but in view of their fate against the Americans in the Olympic Rugby final, they might not prove a great public attraction here, after a match or two. The field is now so limited for gates in Australia for the Rugby Union that a tour would have to include a big programme in New Zealand if expenses were to be covered. AN HISTORIC TOUR.

i I There is a noteworthy significance in such an. event as the, sending of a team of athletes, picked from the very best of the young manhood of a country, away on a world tour. They go primarily to uphold the prestige of the country on the football field and to endeavour to show that they are no whit behind the giants of the game who three decades since went as pioneers, and later the team of nearly twenty years ago wlioi set the seal on the fame of the Dominion in the world of Rugby. It was a mission of very great importance and interest, and went a long way to put New Zealand, as it were, on the map o£ the world in the eyes of countless thousands at Home. It served also probably to prepare the people of the Old Country for the sterner tour taken by our young men, when in 1914 the call came to go out and defend all that was best and most sacred in the ideals of Empire. And it was significant that of the great host who formed, as it were, the Crusaders of modern times, the first to spring to the colours were the athletes, and it is on record that many of the Rugby clubs were, almost at once without senior players, so great and universal was the response to that great call. They accomplished their job with the same dash and thoroughness that marked the footballers. They alike set a standard of conduct on and off the field which has been the theme of commendation throughout the Old Land. So it is that the latest team setting out on a mission of the greatest interest have a twofold aspect of the job ahead of them. They have to show that they are at least the equals of the boys who went before them on the field of play. Of that we. feel confident there is little doubt. When they have had some weeks of constant training, get to know one another’s play aud peculiar traits of character and disposition, for we hold that this has a bearing on the play of the man, they will form a. combination to combat which will tax the very best the countries of the Old World can assemble. They have also to recall the standard of conduct set by the men of 1905 aud 1914 off the field. Those men gained high approbation for their bearing and conduct when not on the field. They were, known, as gentlemen as well as the sternest of lighting men. In this aspect of the great tour which began this week, when the 1924 All Blacks joined their ship at Wellington, we are just as confident they will not fail, and that their team will in years to come have a name which will be linked in honour with those of the men who have

preceded them. New Zealand expects great things of these young men; New Zealand will not be disappointed. They will leave with all the very best wishes of the thousands of enthusiasts who will follow their fortunes with the keenest interest, and who in imagination will be with them, as they would wish in actuality, through the whole of the great tour. “Bonne chance,” will be their speeding word.

WING FORWARD. ABOLITION ADVOCATED. ALL BLACKS’ ADVANTAGE,

The wing forward was abolished from Sydney football over 24 years ago. New Zealand, however, still includes the position as an integral part of the composition and functions of the team, says a writer in the Sydney Telegraph. The present visiting combination is no exception to the rule, though they qualify matters by explaining that the chosen wingers, C. G. Porter (Wellington) and J. H. Parker (Canterbury) are classified as “rovers.” Both have been seen in action in Sydney, and, whether they are called wing forwards or rovers, their duties are the same as those performed by their predecessors. Each man certainly brings his own individuality into play, but the basic principles upon which he operates are still the same as in other da vs.

One can easily visualise past contests, when such famous wing forwards as “Off-side” Mackenzie, the late Dave Gallagher, George Gillett and others carried out their programme of harassing the opposition attack, and hipping it in the bud at its inception. In later days, W. 11. Jacobs, the big, speedy Maori,, and E. A. Beilis, another great winger, have given the already over-burdened referee additional worries by their methods. The playing of a wing forward, as such, is a violation of the true spirit of the game even if he plays within the law'.

It is a distinct advantage to have a man, a specialist at that, whose sole objective is to cramp the wliok. of the opposition’s methods and to limit their sphere of work to purely defensive operations. It is not “sporty,” since the foundation upon which it rests is the prin-' ciple of spoiling tactics. “ONE-EYED” CRITICISM. Jimmy Mill, All Black half-back, is the victim of a great deal of adverse criticism by Wellington and Auckland scribes. But, so far as the Auckland | match is concerned at all events, the “one-eyed” stance seems very palpable. A visitor to Napier who saw the match states that the weak man was not Mill, but Badelev. the Aucklander, who gave a remarkably poor display, frequently upsetting the work of the other backs. There seems to be an undercurrent at work having for its object the discrediting of Mill at every available opportunity, and it now appears to be going further by attacking Nepia.—H.B. Herald.

THE ALL BLACKS. Comments by an old player, formerly of Canterbury and now of Sydney: — * Lucas and Brown must be included in the one simple adjectival description: “Worthy.” They make one feel proud that he is a Maorilander. That is all I can say. Ever since the day I saw the little, silver-haired Dailey, at fourteen, play half for Bovs’ High School against Christ’s College, when the crowd shouted in fearful yells: “Give it (the ball) to the little fellow!” have I predicted for him a great football career. And it is most comforting to an old man to see such a prediction come true. I make bold to say that Dailey is the greatest half-back New Zealand has produced for many a. day, just as I think that Lucas and Brown are the two finest three-quarters I have ever seen play.

Dailey was directly responsible for the majority of the tries scored in the last two Tests. That wonderful sweep to his backs, which includes the gathering of the ball and the accurate pass, is (piite new to, us moderns, arid came as a paralyser to the Aussies. A wonderful and courageous tackier, a quick thinker, and a boy gifted with the art of turning defence into attack, Dailey remains, after his performances in three matches, as the essence of football perfection. No man more reminds me of Billy Stead, who also could play half-back if need be, than this sunnyfaced bov from Canterbury.

Cooke, probably, is a resourceful a five-eighth as any we have sent abroad. His praises have been sounded sufficiently. It is somewhat striking that, with Badeley as his partner in strife, he did not shine as he has'since shone. I understand there was some talk in New Zealand about the inclusion of Mark Nicholls. With all due deference to good judges, I consider that. Mark Nicliolls, on his Australian play, is undoubtedly superior to Badeley, who had only the one match.' He takes a ball at full speed splendidly. His passes are nearly always accurate. He goes down to a pack of forwards as though he liked it. He tackles his man and never is fooled by the dummy pass. He certainly stiffened the. team in Australia.

Writing after the second test match “The Critic” football contributor to the Sydney Referee says: Sydney supporters of Rugby have seen the All Blacks in action in three matches against the best home players. The verdict must be that the tourists are far the finest combination of New Zealanders seen in Rugby Union football in this country since a few years prior to the. war. They disclose a distinct revival in the standard of New Zealand play, and with average fortune will uphold the peerless repuation of their country as finished exponents of Rugby STOP-WORK FOOTBALL. THE GREAT TREK TO EDEN. ATTRACTION OF “THE OVAL.” WHY AUCKLAND ENTHUSED. (Auckland Star.) Has it, ever struck you that the only thing that cun rouse Auckland and make it. move almost as one man is a great football match —and after that, perhaps a race meeting? Even in its palmiest days Auckland’s riparian area never provided such a perfect example of the stop-work meeting as that great exodus of Wednesday out to the aptly

named Eden, where the gods of the multitude struggled in the mud for what? We. show similar enthusiasm for no other t'hiiig under the sun, and as one watched the automatic emptying of the great city—men, women and children, heads, clerks and office boys—one v'ondered “why?” So this morning some of the twenty-five thousand or so that streamed out to watch thirty were asked about it. “I used to play myself when I was younger,” said the first man accosted, “and •would still walk miles to see a good game of footy; it makes a man feel ten years younger to see a good go.” “The spirit of the crowd, probably,” said another individual, who is found at such a gathering only at such times when an All Black combination takes the field or we get a visit from an English, or, say, a South African team.

“You think there is something of the bell-wether and the gap about it then?”'

“Yes, I do; all round you on Tuesday and Wednesday nn.rning everyone was talking about the A'll Blacks, and the collective suggestion was too strong for a lot of us, so wo just joined in the mob and made for Eden Park. Another thing is that even the ordinary man that does not as a rule go out to watch football knows that for the next few months after the All Blacks get to the Old Country lie will read regularly two or three times a week cables concerning the doings of the All Blacks before tremendous crowds in England, Scotland and Wales, and he will like to have some knowledge, no matter how superficial, of these wonderful All Blacks that are carrying the name of New' Zealand abroad. He knoivs fliat last time an All Black team went Home it brought back rosesj,, shamrocks, thistles—and very nearly, but not quite, a leek—and that if the same sort of thing were to be repeated by this, the second edition of the same name, lie Would be decidedly out of things, for the doings of the All Blacks would be sure to b<? discussed in every tram, bus and club in New r Zealand.”

“The primitive: instinct for watching physical endeavour of any kind,” was the solution of yet a third man who was appealed, to for an explanation of the great trek. “It is a reaction from the ordinary artificial city life. Man was intended to ‘scrap’ all the time — sometimes for his life-, and always for his food —but civilisation lias upset nature’s arrangement, and condemned man to worry out an existence, in the artificial circumstances ordained by city life, so that he never ,get,s a chance to exercise the instincts nature implanted in him.” When he was asked if it was a good instinct, this thirst to see physical endeavour of any kind, he answered unhesitatingly: “Yes, of course it is; if the crowd had no such instinct, it would finish altogether, and become physically limp and eventually atrophy. ”

“Because the crowd lias not the brains to recognise anything beyond sheer muscular brute force,” w r as the emphatic explanation of yet a fourth man who w r as appealed to. “The mob loves merely a deadly ‘scrap’; it must have brute strength. See it at a boxing match; the boxing may be perfect boxing, but if the meu don’t put some slog into it and knock one another about, the crowd gets peevish and clamour for something more exciting.” Then an opinion was asked of a citizen who did not go out. He said he was about the only one left in town; the place seemed so empty. “Personally, I think it is deplorable this worship of football, by all sorts and conditions of men and women. When I saw the crowd surging out of town on Wednesday I said to myself: ‘Great is Diana of the Ephesians! ’ I like to see a game of football myself, but this worship of t-lie game is not a good sign. If a man showed the same enthusiasm for some worthy matter, something that really mattered, he would be considered.eccentric.”

Last of all, a young lady was asked if she had any explanation of last Wednesday’s phenomenon, and she answered simply: “Well, personally, I went because Bill took me.” Which, after all, was perhaps the most understandable .explanation of the lot.

EARLY HISTORY. Football of a kind was played in New South Wales at a very early period in the Colony’s history, as the Sydney Monitor of July 25, 1829, reported" for the first time that the soldiers of Sydney barracks amused themselves with a game called football. The first real club, however, was not formed until 1871), when an advertisement appeared in the papers, calling upon all interested to lend a hand in forming a club to play Rugby rules. A club was formed, and the name of Wallaroo accepted. A difficulty was encountered in obtaining a ball. A local bootmaker, however, came to the rescue and supplied one, which, despite the fact that it was knocked out- of shape after receiving a few kicks, had to suffice until another was imported from England. Until 1874 twenty players constituted a side. AMATEURISM. (Observer.) What, is the English Rugby Union going to do about it? The lily white All Blacks—that is if All. Blacks could be lily white—came over from Australia in the same ship as. the English League team. We will have to prepare affidavits for the All Blacks to take Home to. the officials of the English Rugby Union (or is it the International Board now?) to sav that they did not fraternise on the trip across the Tasman, that they did not drink out. of the. same glass, eat off the same plate, or come out of the same door. Paradoxical as it may seem, the All Blacks travelled first-class on nothing a day, and, if the traditions of such English sports as cricket were maintained, the League players came over second class on ten bob a day. The New Zealand Rugbv Union should hold an immediate enquiry into the matter, aud drastically discipline the person who was responsible for such a dreadful arrangement. An All Black rub shoulders with a League player! Ugh! What will they think of us in England?