1935 MAORIS PUT UP EXCELLENT RECORD

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 24 August 1935, Page 14

1935 MAORIS PUT UP EXCELLENT RECORD

The 1935 Maori team has probably put up the best record of all the native teams which have travelled across the Tasman. From a playing point of view, the 1922 team, which toured New South Wales only and .played six games, finished up with the best average, with but one loss and an average per game of 28 points for and 16 against. The 1935 team had a far more strenuous tour of ten games for two losses, while the average points for were 24, and 13 were run up against the team. »

not maintained its former high standard. But a visit to the big Maori tournaments has always dispelled this belief. In Hamilton and in Gisborne, where the two big trials were held this year, it early became patent that the Maoris of 1935 were just as good as the Maoris of former years.

TRIBUTE TO PLANTING ABILITY. What greater tribute could be paid any Maori' team than the comment which came from the pen of W. S. Hamilton, the Rugby editor of the Sunday Sun, who said: “It is difficult to understand how such men as H. Harrison, C. Smith, Nepia, Rogers, G. Harrison, P. Smith and Cooper failed to get into the All Black touring side.” This tribute, by the way, also reacts favourably toward the All Black selection.

TREASURED MEMORIES OF VISIT. However, so ±a? as Australia is concerned, memories will be treasured of the visit of the 1935 team. Not only was magnificent football played in every game, but the team also became so popular off the field that the phrase ‘ ‘Wallace’s Maori fashion plates,” invented by the Australian press, became a byword. It is not so long ago that the New South Wales Rugby Union got hot under the collar over the visit of the Maoris. New South Wales had had twm games with New Zealand during the 1934 tour of Australia, and in those games had held the All Blacks down to tw T o and three-point winning margins. The New South Wales Rugby Union could not imagine any Maori team being capable of giving the pride of the metropolis a keen game, and after a long discussion a> majority of but one decided in favour of the tour. It is highly probable that New South Wales to-day is thankful that the Maoris were invited. Queensland certainly is, as the trip to the north was a money-spinner for the authorities in Brisbane.

There were 25 Maoris in the touring party, but trouble commenced shortly after the team had left New Zealand. Ivotua -developed poisoning from an injury received in the last trial at Gisborq#, and was not Jit until the seventh game. He played in the eighth game, and was then unable to play in- the remaining two games. Kotua was one of 1 the three five-eighths selected, which accentuated the worry so far as the joint managers, Messrs Ivingi Tahiwi and W. J. Wallace, were concerned.

The team had no sooner arrived in Brisbane than trouble commenced with influenza. First J. C. Reedy went down, and he was followed in quick succession by Whiu, K. Reedy, Chase, C. Smith and H. Harrison. Whiu made a quick recovery, but at one stage the team did not have one of its selected five-eighths available. It was during this period of illness that the first defeat at the hands of Queensland was met with. NEPIA AS GOOD AS EVER. George Nepia, after a long rest from the international Rugby field, went back to Australia to confound those :rities who would not place him ahead

New Zealand has always been strong in Maori Bugby talent. With the passing of years more native players have come from the country districts than formerly. The “stars” have not been seen in the metropolitan areas, and in' many ways this fact has contributed! ’to the opinion that Maori football has

Australia Treasures Memories of Side which Played Fine Football

of Ross as the world’s best full-back. New Zealanders who saw Nepia in- Australia and in England in 1924 agreed that the Maori full-back had not produced the goods across the Tasman, but this season the highest praise has been bestowed u,pon him, and Australian critics are now prepared to admit that Nepia in- his best form ten years ago must have been a really wonderful fullback. Nepia played in all ten games, and, from the cabled information, which did not give complete lists of scorers in every game, scored at least two tries in spectacular movements from his position as custodian, converted at least seven tries, and landed a number of penalty goals. W. J. Phillips, the King Country six-foot winger, and George Harrison, the magnificent forward of the All Black trials, also played in all ten matches. Phillips was pressed into service as a five-eighth in the first game, but after that lie gave .some scintillating displays as wing three-quarter. Harrison was the outstanding for-! ward of the tour, and from private in-, formation received -was one of the four best seen in action in Australia during the season. Even the best Australian forwards always found him a handful.,

The team owed' a great deal of its success to the coaching of the 1905 All Black, W. J. Wallace. Mr Wallace has behind him a wonderful record both as a player and a coach, and he is welcome i as the flowers of May in Australia;! where he has earned a niche for himself, in the hearts of sport-loving Cornstalks. • Wallace is &. tactical genius and a; maker of players. The higher the class of team he coaches, the better the .results lie obtains. It must never be for- j gotten that Wallace set u,p a record in points scored for New Zealand in his playing days which is in no danger of being surpassed even at the moment. J Wallace scored 367 points, comprising 34 tries, 111 conversions, two goals from marks, nine penalty goals and two field goals.