THE ALL BLACKS

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 24 November 1924, Page 5

THE ALL BLACKS

CARDIFF DEFEATED.

•BY 16 POINTS TO 8,

EXCITING CONTEST.

[ln a hotly contested game the All Blacks defeated Cardiff by 16 points to 8 on Saturday. ■ Itj‘ is interesting to note that the All Blacks had gained the 16 point* before Cardiff commenced to score.]

BY CABLE —PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT LONDON, Nov. .23. Th-i New Zealanders revisited Wales to-day, meeting Cardiff in the presence of 40,000 people, and after, an exciting game, which at times was very hotly contested, won by 16 points to 8. The All Black team was as follows Full-back—Nepia. , Three-quarters Svensoii, Brown, Lucas. Five-eighths—Cooke, Nicholls. Half—Mill. . Wing-forward—Porter. Forwards—Donald, Irvine, M. Brownlie, Masters, Richardson, White, Parker. Tremendous enthusiasm prevailed among the crowd. The weather was fine and the turf was in excellent order. Cardiff kicked off and made the initial attack, Lucas driving the Welsh,men back from the centre of the field with a fine line kick. Both sides opened out and exerted under great pressure. Play was for a time in New- Zealand quarters, but afterwards it shifted, to Cardiff’s line. Then Ne’pia got possession, dashed through his opponents and passed, almost enabling Svenson to get over. Nepia’s powerful kicking was a. feature of the play at this period. The Cardiff forwards were ,rather handicapped by over-keenness. After twenty-three minutes’ play a local man was off-side and tlie penalty gave Nicholls a chance to place a magnificent goal from ten yards from the centre. v All Blacks 3 Cardiff Q Strenuous play followed, a couple of Cardiff men suffering from injuries. Off-side play by Porter gave Cardiff a >: chance at goal, but it was charged down. After half an hour’s play Richardson gave a long pass to Lucas, who dived over.■ at the corner. Nicholls found the angle too much for him. All Blacks 6 ' Cardiff 0 _ . The form of the New Zealanders im. proved as the game progressed, the forwards being specially prominent. The passing of the Welsh backs was much too dilatory. Just as half-time approached White scored as the result of a fine bit of following up, and Nicholls made no mistake about the goal, the spell ending: \ All Blacks 11 Cardiff o On the resumption of play the pace , became tremendous. Parker, playing right wing, kicked across the field .under the posts, and Nicholls; who was right on the spot, scored a try, to which he added a goal. All Blacks 16 Cardiff o About this time Porter, who was playing aggressively, was caught offside, and Wallace kicked the first penalty goal for Cardiff. . All Blacks .............. 16 Cardiff .....;• 3 Delehy immediately afterwards scrambled round the side of the scrum and scored, Wallace converting. All Blacks 16 Cardiff .*.. 8 The players became somewhat heated and several were temporarily hurt. The game was intensely exciting to the end, but no further score was registered, and the All Blacks emerged victors with the score— All Blacks .............. 16 Cardiff 8 Cardiff played surprisingly well, although the. centre men and backs failed badly. The game was more virile than scientific. The New Zealanders were not predominent in the second half, and their'form generally was not up to the usual standard. Nicholls was outstanding player. Nepia was reliable, and Richardson, Porter, White and Brownlie were the most conspicuous forwards. COMMENTS ON” THE PLAY.

(By “Spectator.”) i The report of Saturday’s struggle with Cardiff does not make altogether good reading, and seems td indicate a decided day off on the part of the New Zealanders, although a remark that the play was “more virile than scientific” points to a pretty willing- struggle. The scores were all decidedly of the opportunist type, and not the result of that combined attacking play which has been associated so closely with the name of the All Blacks. Evidently the Welshmen were out to do their' very best, as was expected, and the./“overkeenness” showed how hard the forwards worked. It was certainly a struggle of the giants. One outstanding feature is that Mark Nicholls again showed his brilliance in placekicking, no less than seven points, nearly the difference between . the scores, coming from his ability in. this respect. Added to his try, 10 of the 16 points scored are credited to this fine* player. He is a wonderful asset to the team. It is disconcerting that nowhere in the report does one read of a combined passing rush, although it is stated that the pace became tremen-. dous in the second half. It is worthy of note that Parker was again put on the right wing in the three-quarter line. Apparently the captain was not satisfied with the. work of that line, for twice has the change been made, while on several occasions also Parker has played in that position. The Cardiff half must have caught the opposition napping, for he scored) a try from tlio blind side., The All Blacks won by a fair margin, but it was not a convincing victory. That the selection committee were out to take no risks is evidenced by the team chosen, which was pretty nearly as strong as they could put in the field. Play was apparently somewhat more than strenuous in the second spell. Probably, however, both teams were keyed up to a high pitch of excitement, and both were out to win, the Welshmen to recover lost laurels and the All Blacks to maintain their unbeaten record. The tremendous struggle put up by Cardiff will lend additional interest to the international match on Saturday. Anticipation of that result will be perhaps the keenest and liveliest almost of the whole tour.