RUGBY

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 24 January 1925, Page 9

RUGBY

Writing of the All England match the Referee says that in the light of their having been one short throughout the greater part of the game, with only seven forwards against -\the English eight, the victory is a wonderful one. It indicates that tlie team is. great tactically as well as in the ordinary ways of combination.

One of the picturesque features of the All Blacks’ tour, to Englishmen, was their custom lining-up on the field before the match and giving their* lusty Maori war cry. It was possibly not surprising that while a Welsh crowd supported their men . with their national hymn. English critics were at first not well disposed to the New Zealand tradition (says the Christchurch Press). But the New Zealand tradition is a very harmless one beside the American. Few New Zealanders would agree to the deliberate organisation of the emotions and the rehearsal beforehand of various “yells” which are to be used later in a conscious endeavour to work up enthusiasm. This is a recognised part, however, of American college life. At the beginning of a new term, we aretold, freshmen are expected to attend “traditions day exercises,” at which they are introduced to the “cheer leaders,” who are charged with the duty of extracting from the onlookers at a match, by any means they like, the maximum possible volume of “yell” or cheering. Writing of the All Blacks young full-back the Referee says: “Nepia played in every match. His efforts as full-back are described in terms of very high praise. It is clear that the young Maori) either improved very materially in some aspects of full-back play or the old rules and the lack ofquick following up helped him to show his best. It is probable that he has improved much, as on Sydney form he would have been an exti’emely risky fulbback against highclass teams.”

In a letter to an enthusiast in Wanganui Mr, W. S. Dustin, who was one of the official party, was most enthusiastic of the forwards. He described the best seven as “each as good as Seeling; the 1905 team had one; 1924 has seven.”

On all sides, says the Referee, the football is acknowledged to have been inferior to that in which Gwyn Nicholls led the Home invaders nineteen years ago. Nevertheless, the All Blacks won so easily on actual points that it is clear that deficiencies in the football could hardly rest with them.

A special tribute is paid by the critic of the Morning Post to the reforee, Colonal Brunton, the old English forward of the season before the war, who earned golden opinions ol all sides bv the way in which lie handled a very difficult match. He was always with the ball, and as far as he could be seen made no mistake whatever. Writing of the ‘state of the game in France, a Home paper says: “Now we have the French giving the All Blacks as good a game as did several of the Home teams. France has beaten England between the goal posts, and if this is not twisting the lion’s tail with a vengeance, what is? To appreciate fully the 1 merit of France, a novise_ foe in the football field, it need oe said that the French Association Football Cup was founded only in 1918. and yet this year 326 clubs entered th© competition, the second round of which was played recently. Six years ago only forty clubs entered, but every year showed a big increase, and now there are eight times as many clubs competing as there yvere in the first year. Figures relating to the spread of Rugby, which is said to be more popular than Association, are even more remarkable. Only four years ago there were 230 clubs affiliated with the French Rugby Federation, but now there are 1240. \ There is no doubt •about the amazing keenness displayed in French sporting circles, a keenness also, shared by spectators.” , The All Blacks w r ill leave Liverpool for St. John on January 24 and proceed by the Canadian Pacific Railway across Canada.. En route they will break their joiirnev at Toronto, and pay a visit to the Niagara Falls, and at Calgarv they will inspect the experimental farm, Strathmore. At in the Canadian Bockie, they will see, and possibly take part in, the winter snorts there. At Vancouver thev will play a. match against the local team on February 14. and possibly another match on February 18. game may he arranged at Victoria, RC. Proceeding to San Francisco, hev will .probably play a match there cefore sailing for home on February

BRITISH RUGBY TEAM

TO COME IN 1926. Writing of the British Rugby team likely to visit Australia a?id New Zealand next year, the team to include Scotch as well as English, Irish and Welsh players, The Cynic in the Referee says it has the sound of a very healthy project. If the organisers get together a truly representative party, embracing the best men in all the countries, the team might, easily develop into, a combination of rare strength, and by its achievements in New Zealand and'Australia surprise Rugby . Union enthusiasts in the Old Land.

An ably-selected, keenly-organised, shrewdly-captained touring team develops astonishing combination on a tour of this character if ordinary good fortune, smile upon it. A very welcome fact in - this prospective tour is that Scotch players will be included. Official. Scots are th ePuritans of Rugby, and very hardsouled gentlemen. But the Scots in sport are great fellows, and the colonial Scottish will be delighted beyond words if. some of their kith, join in with their rnggedness and pep to make this team thoroughly representative of the Old Land. W r e do not forget that rare type of forward, the late D. R. Bedell Sivright. He Was a dour sotrf of chan, hut a reallv wonderful player, after the style of the great- Australian and New Zealand forwards, a man with a, forward’s strength and .ruggedness, and a wing three-quarter’s cleverness. He was of the Frank Burge. Charles Seeling tvpe. but as these two differed, so he differed from them. Wc will, see more men like Darkie Sivright. but T never expect to see another forward like Frank Burge.

GREAT W'INNING RECORD. In the course of an interesting resume of the town, the Auckland Star saps inter alia; The All Blacks of New Zealand have been at once the inspiration and the despair of Rugby players of Britain and France in the course of their concruerinq- career of the past four months. They have played and won 29 matches. Tt is generally recognised that the French players have made great strides in the game during the past twenty years.

| THE ALL BLACKS. SOME NOTES ON THE TOUR. (By Spectator.) The All Blacks,. as we confidently expected, finished off the tour by a second handsome win over the elect of France, and thus completed an unbeaten record. Rugby has grown in popularity with the French people, and no doubt the enthusiasm shown over the visit of the New Zealanders will have no inconsiderable part in still further spreading interest in the great game. It is somewhat remarkable that whereas other teams touring France have been badly received and much bias has been evinced, there appears to have been nothing but the best and friendliest feelings to our men. They must have had a great time in the capital and in other centres. . The partisanship shown is causing a little anxiety (says the French correspondent of The Sportsman) to the authorities as a result of serious incidents at recent football matches, and the question of taking out insurance policies on behalf of referees is being considered — a remedy which may strike the English football follower as not being without humour. France is thus only a baby in the game, but if they train on and the interest continues, the next All Blacks —colours, not caste —may find each foe in the field a. veritable Napoleon in the‘art of manoeuvre in the battle from post to post.

THE TOUR REVIEWED

The All Blacks were created on the King’s Birthday, 1924, after a final trial match at Wellington, when to the first sixteen wbo- had been announced three days before were added the final thirteen required to complete the touring party of twenty-nine. Twenty of the party made a preliminary trip to Sydney, where some consternation was caused by their defeat in the first match against New South Wales by 20 points to 16, but the All Blacks made amends by winning their remaining three games handsomely. Early in the tour their form was not such as to prepare the British players and critics for the invincible games they played later on. Their first win against Devon by 11 points to nil stirred an old player to announce in the Press that Devon had shown the world that British Rugby was not “going to be trampled on by the All Blacks as it had been in 1905,” and wins by 6 —o against Somerset and Gloucester appeared to support this idea. But these were the, best things that the English county teams were able to do against the All Blacks, who thereafter jumped tlieir winning margins up to between 20 and 30 points, and set the seal on their quality by beating Cumberland, the champion English county, by 41 points to nil —the biggest win of the tour.

The club matches in the All Blacks’ programme consisted of four in Wales and two, against the two Universities, in England. It was here that the British sides appeared at their best. In the international matches the All Blacks played with 'their luck against them, and showed themselves at their best, and played the game to such purpose, that, after Ireland and Wales had been disposed of, the English enthusiasts freely conceded before the game that England had little chance of success.

The only football tour comparable in winning record to this New Zealand conquest of Britain is that of W. E. Maclagan’s British tour in South Africa, when tlie Rugby game was in its infancy there, and the Britishers won every-match, having their line crossed only once. In figures that tour is comparable with the All Blacks’ feat, but in actual merit, the exploit of the All Blacks is immeasurably ahead of that pf Maclagan’s team. After the Welsh international match the London Times, while acknowledging tlie triumph of the All Blacks, gave it as their opinion that the "Welsh team, especially in the backs, were not the equals of the men of 1905, for had the latter had the same share of the play, they would have won to-day as they did twentv years ago. Then as’though thev had said too much the critic adds: “This must not he taken as an attempt to belittle the quality of the present All Blacks, who as a- team cam well compare with their famous ogiginals, and as keen snortsmen are magnificent, hut it i s the" stating of a sober fact.” ,

INTERNATIONAL MATCHES. In recent international matches England lias beaten Wales, and Ireland has beaten France. In Paris, on New ..Year’s Day, Ireland defeated France by 9 to 3, and, according to the cabled messages, the French crowd took the defeat with bad grace. The referee had to leave the field among the players. The French crowd took the defeat of France by America in the Olympic Rugby contest with .similarly bad grace, and their players were very little better. Evidently the spirit of sport has not. yet permeated the Frenchmen whenever the event of the hour sees them up against representatives of another. Country on French soil. We are all prone to talk about the brotherhood of sport, but, 'apart from the Englishspeaking countries, the true spirit of sport does not seem to flourish in many places. In view of this and other reports, it is remarkable that the All Blacks had such a wonderful reception. ■There, is a good deal in a name, despite what William Shakespeare says to the contrary. When the present .All Blacks dubbed their wing-forward as a half-back, no doubt their inspiration was a result of .the following written by the late Dave Gallagher, the famous captain of the 1905 All Blacks. He wrote: “The wing-forward’s task for a variety of reasons is a very thankless one, and it was never more thankless or really unpleasant, than in the case of our tour through Great Britain. . . We cannot help believing that, if when we first came over we fad relinouished this name (wing-for-warcß, and simply called our winger a half-hack, there would have been li+tlo or no c.biection to him. As we called him a wing-forward, it was taken for granted that he was part of the scrum, and this mistaken idea was never eradicated.”