Untitled

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 27 December 1924, Page 10

of the players, Who stuck it to 'the bitter eiid, told tlie writer some days afterwards that his recollections Of the last half of the gfim© Were practically nil. Hediad only a hazy recollection of being carried to the dressing tent. The Maoris played a second match at Carlisle three days later, when they inet and defeated a team designated East Cumberland, and woii a slay and spare hot match by 3 goals 3 tries and 6' minors, to one minor. It -Was in this match that BarlOw Madigan, the finest three-quarter of the New* eZaland team, had his ankle fractured as'-, a result of a tackle by a local player known as “Long” Bell. These Cumberland matches were both —to use pretty words—very strenuous, and produced an abundant crop of casualties on both sides. As to whose fault it was my view* was that it was a case of “six of one and half .a dozen of the other,” but though in the North the Maoris managed to - get the imputation” of being a murderous crowd the fact is that they Were quite content to play the other fellows at their Own ganie, and modify or intensify their methods acbdrdihg to tlie treatment they received frbm the other side. The 1905 All Blacks did not meet Cumberland. rugby in Wales. present games Compared witS the East. “Rugbyite,” Swansea, writes in the Sporting Post of that city • I hope ydu will find me a little space in ybtir valuable columns to refer to our Rugby friend “Astral’s” comnieiits .in the London Daily News. He maintains that Rugby td-day is fifty tier cent, faster than, it Was When the* last All Blacks visited this country. I rather think it is Vice-versa. Rugby in Wales Is lint ih the same street to-day. Where havb W© men to tike tlife. places of GWyn Ni'eliolls, Trew, Gabe, Bush, Dick JdribS, ,Biek Owens, and forwards iike Joseph, Hodges, Tom Evans and Billy Neill ?—VVe haven’t men to-day tthat c©n hold a candle to those mentioned. The reason the All Blacks scores are iibt great is because I think they, are not as good as the 1905 team, who Swept the board by huge scores. It should also be remembered that they met Wales, at the back-end of their tour qnd that they Only beat tlie Welsh team by the kick—Newport penalty goal, Cardiff converted tty, and Swansea dropped goal-goes to prove Rugby in Wales Was good. PHIL SOPKiN’S MEAfORiES. WALLACE’S DROPPED GOAL WAS ‘ A FLUKE.- . ' . • . • •- ft Two Pontardawe ex-footbaliei : s w r ho played against the New Zealanders at ' Swansea in 1905-6 were Phil Hopkins and Ford Scale.- This was at Swansea. The former partnered Dickey Given at half, and Scale was a. right wing. Ehii again played against the. New Zealanders for Glamorgan. The Swansea, •team was composed of Serines, w TreW, ’ George Davies (full-back), Willie Arnold (Morriston),. “Genny” Gordon- Fred Serines was a rover, and Phil says he ea’silv heat the famous Gallagher. • lit the forward department, w ill Joseph Parker, Colev Harry Hunt, aiid Thomas (Dunvant) were amobg the players. Speaking of the, incidents of this famous match, Phil'Hopkins gays that Wallace was a iSrormnent but his dropped goal, which gave the New Zealanders, the winning point, was a fluke. Wallace kicked towards the grand stand, and the wind took the hall between- the posts. The restilt of the match was a dropped goal to 1 try. (“Old Stager” in: South Wales News.) If the New Zealand tourists of 1924 do nothing beyond What they did for the glorification of Rugby football at Swansea, on Saturday, they Will have completely justified the expense and trouble involved jin. their Icing jjoOfhby to this country fi-olii “down under.” . Not one of the huge crowd of 40,000 Welshmen Who saw Swansea go down could shake off the feeling of surprise and regret at the emphasis which was laid upon the contention of those whb argue -that the days of. great Rugby plavers of Wales Have departed, hut, underlying their sadness, and transcending it in all the knbWn ways of expression. Was unstinted admiration for. the brilliance and skill of our Colonial friends. v For the greater nart of the 80 minutes during which the Battle raged they depicted to that- huge throng, pth ad the' cleverness of master affists. the unparalleled ©lories of Rnuby clearly showing that if the game is'prol nerlv handled by a hand of experts, it teaches gut far beyond the boundaries of any other game rtS a spectacle and a pastime. ‘