RUGBY

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 31 January 1925, Page 10

RUGBY

THE ALL BLACKS. MORE HOME OPINIONS. So much has been said by the smaller frv among the critics at Home that it" is worth quoting again some more of the statements of the men whose opinions count. A writer in one of the leading Welsh papers says after the Llanelly match: —“W. J. Davies spen most of the afternoon lying off-side, not only when his own side were attacking, but on every other possible occasion. The referee was so intent on watching irregularities from the All Blacks that lie was not spotted.'’ . , “Of the All Blacks, Nepia, Cooke, and Porter were the outstanding men in the backs, but all played up to their usual standard of excellence. Dailey, at the base of the scrum, got through an enormous amount ot work, and deserves a decoration for going down to the forward rushes. Porter was here, there, and everywhere. and put up with a good deal of obstructive tactics with admirable ternPe 'i ; he condition of the ground and ball was all against good and accurate passing, but the AH Blacks persevered to tlie”end to try and open up the game. It would have paid them much better to have gone in*for forward rushes and the indiseriminating kick-and-rush game adopted by the Scarlets. Of the forwards —and they looked tired men—the Brownlies and Richardson stood out. The New Zealanders depart from Wales leaving behind them a record of fine sportsmanship. They have shown their ability to take hard knocks, and what appear to be unfair decisions without the slightest trace of ill-feeling.”

BEFORE THE WALES MATCH

AN APPRECIATIVE CRITICISM. In the London Sketch of December 10, H. F. Crowther Smith, a wellknown critic, wrote before the match with Wales:—“The All—Zeal—unders need have.no anxiety as to avenging the defeat which Wales inflicted on Gallagher’s team in 1905. We do seem to be very slow in learning the lesson whi«h the score board of the All Blacks keeps on so plainly indicating. It is that speed, in its intensive form is the essential feature in attack. Every man moves in support of the attack the second it opens, and the ball instead of being passed mechanically merely among the three-quarters (such as we practise) changes hands repeatedly and so unexpectedly that tbe defence is. bewildered. In other words, the New Zealand method of attack is one jn which practically the whole team takes part; and the only way to stop such wholesale aggressive movements is for their opponents, every man-jack of them,, to take part in the defence. It will be no use England, on January 3, playing the game on the same "lines as they would against Scotland or Ireland or Wales. Once the ball is out, our forwards must realise they are no longer forwards. For they will find that the seven men they have been shoving against are at once transferred into very fast, very clever individulas who take and give’ a pass equally well with the three-quarters and the five eighths. And when they go for the man with the hall, let there be no half measures about the tackle. Such big men can onlv be put out of the attack by a hard low tackle.”,

PRAISE FROM SOUTH AFRICA. All the way from South Africa comes a surprising admission: “From the manner in which the New Zealand Rugby team is hammering the best teams in Britain, it would appear that no combination that South Africa could get together would be capable of beating the All Blacks” (says a South African writer). From what one reads of Porter’s team, I think that it can be taken for granted that they are about the finest combination in the world to-day, and I do not think for one moment that South Africa is breeding such capable exponents. As a matter of fact, though the Springboks beat Great Britain in the tests in this country, their form was nothing to make a 'fuss of, and probably we triumphed because of the weakness of the opposition. Certainly the All Blacks, ;by their pronounced victories, are setting a standard which, I am afraid, would be beyond South Africa, who, before they pay a visit to the Old Country, must find some centres. Personally, I do not think for one moment that South Africa, had she been playing in England, could have, done to English county teams what the New Zealanders have succeeded in doing.”

PRINCE A FOOTBALLER; The Prince of Wales, as a boy, says a Home paper, was fonder of football than, of cricket. At twelve be was captain of a football eleven at Sandringham, in Norfolk, where King Edward spent so much of his life, and where the aged Queen Alexandra now resides. It is a moving thought that out of the eleven small hoys in that team, nine served in the Great War and all were wounded exception of the Prince himself and one other who was invalided out of the army. Four of them were killed. The Prince escaped illness and wounds alike throughout his four years’-ser-vice, although he had soihe narrow escapes of death. Eearly in 1915 his car was destroyed by a shell during his brief absence, and he returned to find his chauffeur dead. IN SOUTH AMERICA. Football of an international character is evidently a very serious affair in South America. A few extracts are appended from an account of a match between the Argentine, and Uruguay.

“The great match to decide football superiority in South America was duly brought to a bead recently”—a very judicious piece of phrasing in view of subsequent events. “The playing area, was encircled by wire netting and the attendance was limited manageable proportions.” The game was very rough, and one player had his leg broken, “but the* most unpleasant aspect of the match was the behaviour of the spectators, who, undaunted by the wire netting, threw stones and bottles at the Uruguayans. This enraged the Olympic heroes, who retaliated in kind,” and one of their forwards “added further lustre to the honour of the Olympic champions by kicking a policeman” and getting taken off to the calabozo. The Uruguayans eventually marched off the field in a body before time, “leaving the Argentines master of the game and situation.”