Football

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XIV, Issue 201, 2 August 1924, Page 11

Football

(By “Touch.”) | As far as Hastings was concerned, I last Saturday was an off-day for j Rugby, all interest being centred in ; the All Black match at Palmerston, i and the senior and junior rep. matches ' at Napier and Masterton. j The showing made b v the senior rep. I team at Masterton may be written ’ down as satisfactory, and the pending ‘ matches for the Ranfurly Shield jnay now be awaited with a certain degree J of confidence. Wairarapa’s performance against Wellington had shown that the wearers of the Green were a good combination. and in the present depleted state of the Hawke’s Bay team it would not have been at all surprising had Wairarapa revenged itself for the crushing defeat of June 3rd. Wylie, I the new front-ranker, played very well indeed, and fitted in well with Kirk-I Patrick, the backs being well supplied with the ball. The forwards as a whole went exceedingly well. Corkill made his appearance at half, and if all tales ' be true he will take a power of shift- ' ing. He sent the ball out smartly. ; varied his play effectively, and his defence was tip-top. The weakest point in the team seem s to have been a certain want of understanding between the five-eighths and the tlireequarter line. Barclay played very well, but in the all-important matter of combining with th© centre three-quarter there seems to have been a weakness, with the result that the passing had a tendency to break down at this point. Barclay played very finely at centre three-quarter in th© Poverty Bay match, but his last two games in Hastings wer© not at all impressive. Some means of improving the combination at thi 8 point must b e found if th e team is to do itself justice.

The junior representative match in Napier was a good game, and the football shown was of a high standard. Hawke’s Bay quite deserved their win for their play was decidedly more finished than that of their opponents, and some of their passing would have done credit to any team. Potaka’s talent for doing the unexpected on attack was a great asset to his side, and a great deal of his work was delightfully clever. H© made some fine openings with sharp diagonal bursts to the blind side followed by a sudden check and a long throw to the open. South and IM*. Btuth also went well, the former particularly s o. and their former association with Potaka in th© High School team gave them a good understanding of his somewhat unorthodox methods. Th e Hawke’s Bay forwards were a very good lot, who followed up fast and worked honestly.

Til© Wairarapa men were a long wliil© finding their feet, and it was late in th© first half before they really settled down. Their forwards took the ball along at. a great pace in the loose rushes, and th© backs handled well at times, but there was lacking that spice of the unexpected which was so large a factor in the play of their opponents.

The play of both teams in th© junior rep. gam© would seem to show that for some years to come there need be no fear of a falling-off in the standard of play ip either Wairarapa or Hawke’s Bay.

As a curtain-raiser to th© junior rep. match a game between the Technical Colleges of Wanganui and Napier was played, but it was a most disappointing affair, chiefly for the reaso;‘< that th© Napier bovs were not big enough.. nor good enough, to extend the visitors. The Wanganui team, which has made great strides in the last few years, and is now looked on as among the best secondary school sides in the Dominion, gave a rather listless display, and seldom rose to the heights of which they are capable. They defended chiefly on a fast and powerful set of forwards who showed good footwork at times, whil© their play on the line-out was excellent. Their backs gav© a very indifferent display, being badly served at half, th© diminutive incumbent of that position sending out some very wild passes. Ill© second five-eighths ran strongly at times, but was decidedly and the centre three-quarter, a hefty Maori boy took a power of stopping, but was uncertain in his handling. One would hav e liked to see this team meet Napier High School, and on their Saturday’s form, which was ppssibly not true, the Napier boys would win.

Wednesday’s gam© between Hastings and Waipawa was on th© whole a very interesting one. and a much better exhibition of Rugby than the match with the East Coast. The Waipawa team included some very fin© players, and the whole side tackled soundly, whil© th© kicking was first-class.

Barney played very finely at full for Hastings, and in addition to powerful and well-judged kicking, he ran strongly at times and was very hard to stop. If h© had remembered his supports on these occasions he would have added immensely to their usefulness. Th© three-quarter line wer© in great form, and they ar© working up their combination to a very high pitch indeed. Falwasser gav© of his very

I best, and the way lie ehided tackles, ' even when apparently well and truly ' boxed, was wonderfully clever. He j had the whole field paralysed for pace i once h e got dear. He is a “find” of ■ th© first water. Jack Blake was dash- ; ing and elusive to a high degree, and I his work throughout was exceedingly clever. Grenside was handicapped by a badly-damaged hand, but did good work for all that, and his two tries were the result of strong dodgy runs. Tait and Macken, at five-eighths, both . played poorly in the first half, handling ! badly and kicking without judgment. ; Both improved alter the interval and : sent the ball out well. Macken did a j lot of good defensive work. Shortland, despite an overfondness for running, | played well behind the scrum. H© was > badly handicapped by the offside play I of the Waipawa wing, who was allowed a lot of latitude. Tairua improved on ; his display against East Coast. Jn ; the absence of Manihera_ Cairns got a show as hooker, and he played a really good game. Kirkpatrick was again in great form, and there are mighty few better forwards at his weight in New Zealand. McNab, as usual, played finely, as did Miller up , to the time of his retirement. The ; rest of the pack worked hard and i cleverly, and they would make most rep. packs shake a leg to beat them. The young Celtic forward. McDonald, came on in Miller’s place, and though i his inexperience was manifest at I times ho did a lot of good work, and ; should develop into a clinking good •' man

Waipawa had a very sound back in Russell, whose tackling and kicking wag of a very high order. Mclnty.o was also smart, and hig try was a good piece of opportunism. Parker is a smart winger, but was allowed a lot of ropi© by th© referee, especially in th© matter of putting the ball in the scrum. The fair-haired Nicholls played a great game among a fin© pack of forwards. Th© great weakness of tho sid© was a lack of straight-running by the backs, tho passing gaining little ground.

Some of th© criticisms of the All Black team mak© great reading. The Wellington and Auckland papers make a dead set at Mill, their bia s bcmg painfully evident. All these critics carefully overlook the fact that Mill, in both his games in the preliminary tour, was behind a pack which, owing to the sea trip, was in no condition to play, and was as a consequence, badly beaten. However we may safelv leav© it to Mill himself to confound his critics, and th© present writer for one has no doubt that he will do so.

Mr. Georg© Tyler, a member of th© 1905 All Blacks, has th© doubtful distinction of putting his name to about th© most ill-natured and biassed criticism of the present team that lias so far been put on paper. According to this gentleman, there is nothing any good in th© team, for thev ar© “weak” in th© scrums, weak on defence, and lacking in pace/’ and “it i s doubtful if th© material i s there for a first-class combination,” All this, apparently, is based on th© showing made in Auckland by the team, when not 24 hours off the boat after a fearfully rough trip. I wonder if Mr. Tyler, for all his experience, ever had the joy of playing a hard match under the conditions which faced the All Blacks ? Tyler comes in for a sound and wholesome castigation at th© hands of the “N.Z. Times,” which says, among other hard things: “The test of a football critic is always 'his choice of men, his estimate of form, and a man who boosts Johnston (Wellington) without seeing him in really big company would convict himself of being a fool, if he were twenty times an All Black.” Tyler, being an Aucklander, naturally sorts out the Hawke’s Bay men in th© team for special castigation, and mentions a whole array of Aucklanders, including our old friend Kir wan, to take their places.

Th© fact is that these old hands who have been so busy of late belittling the present team see the" old teams through a haze of glory, and nothing that has happened in football since about 1907 has been any good according to them. The present writer has met a good many of th© old All Blacks at one time or another, and is quite convinced that th© forwards in th© present team arc mor© than equal to their predecessors, and that the backs, though lacking in experience, will at least equal th© previous team before tho tour is ended.

Th© frantic efforts of certain Aucklanders t© foist Wright upon the New Zealand selectors are a fine example of j Erovincialism run mad. Surely football ’• as never seen such a spectacle as the ; Prim© Minister of a country being ■ asked to use his influence to secure a j place for the favourite of a clique. , The attitude of these Aucklanders is j in sad contrast with th© dignified way i in which th© Otago people took their : meagre representation in the touring ; team. i

Th© Christchurch “Star” of last Saturday cam© out with a sensationally headed wire from Wellington to th© ■ effect that Wright had been selected to join the All Blacks, “in view of Mill’s failure in th© half-back position.” Til© whole wire was a most 1 circumstantial affair, and it would bo interesting to know who inspired it. i

Th© “Manawatu Times,” speaking of last Saturday’s All Black game in Palmerston, is very complimentary to Mr. W. O’Neill, of Hastings, the refere©, who. according t© the “Times,” “took a bull-dog grip of the game from th© start, and never lost control.”

Mr, L. Guiney. a Christchurch pressman who accompanied the AH Blacks to Australia, comes in for a great deal of praise for his refereeing in a great school match which lie controlled while there. Th© Sydney “Referee” speaks of Mr. Guiney’s exhibition as tho best shown in Sydney for years.

Mr. Guiney, by the way, ig very sever© on som© of the refereeing which th© All Blacks had to endure in the Test matches in Sydney, and says that some of th© decisions were quite inexplicable. In th© final test Irvin© and Munro wer© penalised so often for lifting their feet that they became actually afraid to hook, and Porter was threatened with ordering off for offside play.

The “Bulletin” thus sums up the Australian performances of th© All Black team. Its comments have at least the virtue of beinp- free from provincial bias :—Having trounced N.S.W. in two of the three fine Sydney contests, the AIJ Blacks have gone back to Maorfland, where they will play two matches, and b© joined by three backs and three fqrwards before heading for Europe. They have satisfied all th© critics qn this side that they ar© a class combination. The forwards combine height and weight with remarkable pace, and th e backs ar© uncommonly tricky and clever. H. G. Munro’s splendid hooking, combined with his dash and opportunism in all th© outside work, mad© th© pony forward exceptionally useful all round in a batch of sterling performers. Certainly Nepia, the full-back, showed form far below that of Joe Warbrick and Sergeant-Major O’Brien of old, but he tackled well, and his linekicking was good on the whole. His failur© as a place kick is ascribed by some to th© lighter and livelier ball, due to th© drier grounds and olimate. The three-quarter line ha R a star centr© in Brown, and Svenson though he played, on the wing here, is another exceptionally good man in th© middle, while Lucas is a fine, hard-running winger. And there is Cooke, at fiveeighth, whose elusive, kangaroo-like hop is reminiscent of D. J. Nelson, one© of Sydney Uni., N.S.W., and Queensland. Dailey, th© number two scrum haif, gav© a great exhibition in th© last two matches, his passing out being particularly fast and accurate. H e was well guarded by Porter, but i 8 full of devil in the open, too.. Porter, though some of the critics fell foul of him, played as much onside as is possible for a wing forward, who is born to trouble as th© sparks fly upward. Pity Maoriland doesn’t put Porter in the pack, for .he is a great player enough in th© legitimate stuff. To sum up, from the three-quarter line onwards, these All Blacks look more lik© the real old Dominion stuff than any side that has crossed the Tasman since the Armistice. 9 Before th© All Blacks sallied out for th© second t©st, th© captain for the day, Jock Richardson impressed upon the sid© the. necessity of rushing a score in the first low minutes of the game. Th© All Blacks were over in exactly one minute from the start. Th© Sydney “Daily Telegraph” says Sv enson and Lucas were great wingers, and centred the ball when cornered with judgment. That’s not so bad as being blinded with science, anyhow! Th© . following uncanny phenomenon tears Hawke’s Bay’s chances of retaining the Ranfurly Shield this year. At Napier early one morning last week a small cloud, exactly lik© a human hand, was seen low down on the horizon. The forefinger wa s pointing straight at Napier, and a lusty forearm could be seen coming up behind th'hand. There is not th© slightest doub* that th© hand was reaching for the Shield. But where did it come from? —(Christchurch “Sun.”) * • « Th© Auckland representative Rugby team last year had no fewer than live centre-threequarters in th© back line. They wer© selected because they had the natural football style, and results justified the selection. The players were: K. Ifwerson, F. W. Lucas, V. Badeley, A. E. Cook© and Molloy. Before he left for Sydney, AU Black L. F. Oupplcs had played but two games of iootball this season. He made a good impression on the tour, and can b© expected to uncover a greater blaze of form when he settles down to things in England. It is said that K. Ifwerson gave the Rugby League th© go-by becaus© he wanted to show an example to his young brother. Karl thought that League circles were a bit too giddy for thos© of tender age. Young N. Ifwerson seems to be on the verge of blossoming out lik© “Big Brother.” Good luck to them both! * * * Th© Christchurch “Sun” says: “It wasn’t due only to “mal-de-mer” that the All Blacks failed against Auckland on Wednesday. From th© psychological point of view as well the physical, the advantage lay with the province. for the desire to defeat the great All Blacks must have proved a super-stimulant calculated to bring th© very best football out of the players. On the other side, the All Blacks, sickly and temporarily * out oi training, had no great issue at stake. Had the conditions been reversed, ha* th© Auckland players been the tourist*.and th© Blacks th© giantkillers, the ■ latter would have won by 20 clear ( points. What about th©. English League team. They came over by, the | same boat as the All Blacks and played and defeated South Auckland on the ' same day that th© former went under

to Auckland. And yet we have not been, told th© Englishmen wer© sick! Th© third test against New South Wales shows that G. Nepia is a great full-back all right-—when things are moving well for his side. Judgment is postponed on th© other Maori lad, half-back J. Mill. Th© writer e aw him in the first test match last season. He then failed to impress. But the big New Zealand forwards then did not protect him. And reports show that in the first test this season, he was not adequately protected. On th© other hand, W. C. Dallev in the NewSouth Wales matches, was well covered by his van. In an ordinary club match a half-back has a pretty sultry time when tho forwards are breaking through, and the temperature must go up when international forwards are crashing over him. Probably. B. Wright, of Auckland, is a better half, but it would be well not to b© very unkind to Mill—(Christchurch “Sun.”) ® ® 9 ASSOCIATION FOOTBALL. (Notes by “Centre-half.”) Whakatu practically decided the resting place of th© Sachs-Johnston Shield for the next twelve months by eliminating Hastings United last Saturday on Cornwall Park. One spectator remarked that he had not seen so many players “laid out” as he saw in last Saturday’s game and the peculiarity of it was that all the sufferers were Hastings players. With a strong referee the game would have been one the best seen this season, but as things turned out the Whakatu defence “put the wind up” the Hastings players.

Lowe was injured by a kick in the knee in the first twenty minutes and was off the field some time and when h© returned he was a cripple and a passenger, so the United practically struggled through with ten men.

Every member of the Hastings team was more or less badly knocked about and bruised, Evans and H. Clark getting it pretty bad. *’ • •

The sort of game put up is not calculated to enhance the popularity of any sport and should be drastically put a stop to.

Y.M.C.A. and Rangers .again failed to come to grips last week.

The Rangers have thrde games still to play off (two of them w-ith the Y.M.C.A.) and the Y.M.C.A. have four postponed games to play, so it appears as if these tw r o teams will finish the balance of the season on their own.

Hastings United play their last game to-day at Cornwall Park against Y.M.C.A., hut will probably, have a very mixed team in the field.

I understand that Clift and Watkins have retired after last Saturday’s game against Whakatu, and Lowe may not play again this season.

What is the association doing? They arrange fixtures and then the clubs seem to please themselves when they play. This more particularly applies to the Napier teams.

Hastings United hold a special m.ecting next Wednesday evening (St. Matthew’s Hall), when various matters of urgency will be dealt with. All club members should make a point of attending as th© business is of vital interest to them and the welfare of tho club.

I hear an invitation is offered to the Wairarapa Association to send a team up to Hawke’s Bay on August 23rd.

The Hawke’s Bay Association is to be congratulated on making a profit on the Chinese game, even although it was on the small side.