WALES WINS.

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 23 December 1935, Page 6

WALES WINS.

As a result of Saturday’s Rugby test between New Zealand and Wales, rivalry between the Principality and this Dominion will be intensified, but this should not alter the fact that among the first to offer congratulations to the winners will be the people of New Zealand. Wales may be rightly termed the cradle of Rugby; the game has a greater following in the Principality than in any other part of the world. New Zealand excepted. To a Welshman the game is almost a religion, and in a match such as that played on Saturday, the team, spurred on by

the fervent enthusiasm of the Welsh people, might reasonably be expected to rise to superhuman efforts. Under the circumstances the New Zealanders. did well to hold the Welsh fifteen to one point. More especially is this so when it is remembered that the tourists’ test, side was depleted by injuries, and that an almost entirely new back division was necessary. However, there is no need for New Zealanders to shed tears of self-pity concerning the result. In 86 matches played in Great Britain and Ireland over a period of 31 years, New Zealand has lost only three matches, and all three have been lost in Wales. In 1905 Wales defeated • the “Original” All Blacks by 3 to nil, and then there was no defeat until the present team met Swansea, the, third defeat coming at. the hands of Wales on Saturday. As far as the international matches are concerned, Wales has now won two out of three, for in 1924 the All Blacks avenged the defeat of 1905 by winning by 19 points to nil. The Welsh victory in this last, test will ensure that a great team will again be waiting for the All Blacks when New Zealand next sends a team abroad, no matter how many years elapse before another New Zealand tour of the United Kingdom takes place.