RUGBY

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 11 April 1925, Page 9

RUGBY

IN HAW ERA. ■ .v * ’ ' : There is a distinct air of optimism about the prospects of. the game in and around Hawera, and a spirit of enterprise in the club which promises well for the season and for the general success of the game. The formation of the new Saturday club has been a very good move, and has benefited both clubs, for the competition will stimulate the to renewed activity, and it is probable that many more players will be brought out. The prosoects of both clubs, as indicated by the preliminary canters and ' the pricking of the cards, as it were, are shown to be very good. Both clubs have enrolled a lot of new members, 'and the- fact of a senior fixture every ,Saturday in Hawera will also add greatly increased interest. WEDNESDAY CLUBS. The indications, as shown bv the annual meeting of delegates ' are that there will be a very satisfactory number of teams entered for the competition It is expected that Hawera will run ' two, ,and* atogether it is hoped there will be about nine teams entered This means that mid-week football will be very keen and interesting. The season bids fair to be quite the best j they have had, and a distinct advance on ’last year. I REFEREES. I The unions will require an increased j number of referees to control the i larger number of club fixtures, and it J is to - be hoped that old players will; volunteer to "help. The unions can do | with all the assistance possible. j THE ALL BLACKS, i (Farmers’ Weekly Notes). One of the Canterbury At| Blacks classes -Alf West as the best line-out forward. “The English forwards are very good,’’ a Southern forward said, “and they taught us something, especially in dribbling.” '“Son” White is adjudged by some of the All Blacks as the best iorwaid in > the team. Maurice Brownlie was as good, up to a point. \\ bite was “headier.” Whereas Brownlie, by hanging on too. long, or by some > other defect, would spoil some of Ins; work, White got the utmost out of j everything. Swenson was the most reliable and best all-round back. After.him some of the All Blacks declare, came McGregor, who improved wonderfully, and was the best on , defence. Next to him ranked A,- E. Cooke. ~ Charlie Seeling and ~ George Smith, two of the 1905 All Blacks, were among the first to congratulate the the team on its unbeaten record. One of the most interesting disclosures made on the recent All Black tour was the fact that England knows no referees’ associations as we have them here. Perhaps this is why our men are keener on the game and better in administering the rules.

-A- Good one. —'One of the !. Blocks |told this: A certain referee .... one of the big games blew for a tor the All Blacks, but when he saw how near the goal was he changed the decision into a scrum for fear the crowd took to him. Not bad, eli! THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL MATCH. A verv interesting account is given in the Free Lance of tbe first international match in the JJouiimon, uu.t between Wellington and . Nelson, by Mr. C. J. Monro of Pa.inerslon .North, who played wun me »v«n team. Inter alia, he says: “When in Wellington, during the Parliamentary session or IBIU, t received a letter from the hon. secretary of the Nelson Club,' asning if vit woi.lu !be possible to arrange a match with Wellington. There was no rootball club in Wellington in those days; but there w J as plenty of raw material, some of it very raw* indeed. There was a sprinkling of young fellows fresh from English schools who knew all about the game; and there were others, native to the soil, who had never seen a football match, or kicked a Rugby bail. But thev were strong and active, and willing to try if we would only show them how to do it. Raising a Wellington Team. , I immediately set to work to gather j | together a team from the material at j 'hand to do battle with the represeniaitives of my native province, and was j able to report in a few days that the I project could be carried through. But I the finding of a team was merely an I ■ initial difficulty, “and the best-laid' [schemes of mice and men gang aft iagley.” The question was how were ithe Nelson men to be got to Wellington. Wellington in those days bad a population of about 601)0; there was no Union Company then, and no ferry i service between the ports, as in these comfortable times, and the coastal steamers were infrequent and uncertain in their movements. Most fortunately it chanced that the Government steamer “Luna” was on her way to Nelson, with stores for the lighthouse, and would return in the course of a few days. A Friend of Mr. Julius Vogel. | This was on Js chance, if we could j only work it, so, screwing up my cour-I age", I called upon Mr. Vogei, the Colo-1 nial Treasurer and Minister for Mar-1 ine, and blushingiy asked him, in the name of sport, to give the Nelson team a passage in the Luna. To my surprise and joy, he not only consented, but he immediately telegraphed to Capt. Fairchild to bring them over. In the language of the modern dapper, 1 thought it was “rather sweet” of him, more especially as he was iust then in | the throes of propounding his great j immigration and public works scheme j —a scheme that would have ruined the country but for the fortunate arrival, of the refrigerator and separator. I think it is an incontestable fact that those two wonderful inventions saved New Zealand from bankruptcy. But that is another story, and I musn’t ; wander from the track. ; ' Finding a'Ground. The next question was, where should the match be played ? There was a vacant section, off Hobson Street, and another at Te Aro, familiarly known as Johnny Martin’s paddock. But these were both too small; and as for the Basin Reserve—the only recreation ground—half of that was a yellowlake, “a place for the* bittern and the stork,” rather than for an athletic!

j contest, whilst the ollim halt' was oi’ i;i variegated kind, being u eo.y sprin- ! lded with kerosene bru.v-uats, i noop-iron, “dead marines, ’ and suchlike jetsam. It was therefore decided to look farther afield, i may mention, .incidentally, that soon ~tter inis tne I Wellington Football Ctuo was formed, tho Basin Reserve received a good spring cleaning, and we played there regularly. Uu Saturday, September 10, I walked out to the Lower flutt, in quest of a field of battle, Mr. Harry Goring bearing me company and having obtained permission from the late Mr. Ludham to erect our goal posts in one of his paddocks, we footed it back to town. So meagre was the traffic in those days that neither in going nor in returning did we have a single opportunity of getting what in Scotland would be called “a cast along the road.” The same day the Luna arrivea with the Nelson team on board, and on the following Monday we hired a couple of Prosser’s drays, and the two teams were driven out to the flutt. A good deal of rain had fallen meanwhile,' and the ground chosen was considered too wet, go we drove back to Petone with our impedimenta, and there, on a dry and rather stony fiat near where the Railway Station now stands, fought it out. j The Wellington team having been !chosen by one of t'h<r"Nelsou p.ayers, land several of them being novices at 'the game, it seems almost unnecessary |to say that Nelson had an easy win. j There was no crowd to watch our.game |and cheer us on to victory; nor was | the referee there with his confounded 'whistle, to check us every time we j were on the point of doing something heroic, fie would have been quite superfluous, for each man trusted to his neighbour’s honour, just as in these days von trust to the honour of your opponent when playing a round upon the breezy golf links. The Story Told. Now that is the story of the first inter-provincial Rugby match evei played in New Zealand. It took place on September 12, 1870. Where were the All Blacks then? The Wellington team was led by Capt. J. C. R. Isherwoocl, who has long since passed to the Great Beyond; Nelson by that great allround sport, Alfred Drew. Only Six Left. So far as I have been able to trace them, of the two teams only six of us remain. We are all old and withered, and so far as football is concerned are without the pale, but thank God we have got a kick left in us yet; and are we not told upon the very highest authority that we must look upon our hoary heads as “crowns of glory.”: How little we thought in those far-ofi times that we formed the nucleus c: what was to become the great national game of New Zealand, or that more than fifty-four years inter a hand of uir successors and fellow countrymen would receive a great national welcome home, because they had proved themselves the greatest Rughy players that the world has even seen!”