BRITISH RUGBY TEAM DEFEATS MANAIANAWMENUA.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 29 May 1930, Page 7

BRITISH RUGBY TEAM DEFEATS MANAIANAWMENUA.

Defeated But Not Discredited.

A Record Crowd.

A great deal, of the visitors success in the liason between their forwards and backs. This was evidenced by the fact that while the majority of their points came from rearguard movA- . suonts, in two instances tries were scored, by forwards from movements initdat•ed by backs. The British packmen never lost an opportunity of feeding the men behind them, and in cense; quence, though a table showed that Manaw’henua wen more set scrums and Jin e-outs than the visitors, the British backs had a much greater share of the ■ball in general play. Another factor ■contributing to this condition of affairs Was the fact that the heme side endeavoured to make the game tight whenever possible. TUm the Tables. There were occasions when both collectively and individually the home backs went well but in every instance the movements were quickly broken up end the übiquitous British rearguard , would turd the tables. Perhaps the outstanding back of the British side was the Cambridge Star, C. Aarvold who was responsible for a ■groat proportion of the opportunities ’■which the visitors exploited. Jennings .at full-back, was remarkably safe and very accurate in his touch-finding, ■■while the comparatively diminutive scrum half, H. Poole, was also a very -useful itiefliberT His clever reverse passes boat the Manawhenua . men on several occasions while his transfers from the scrum were very safe and well judged. In the first spell, J. Reeve and A. L. Novis were the wing-three-quarters, but after the interval Novis was brought in to centre and T. •JonesdDavies sent out to. the wing. This ■arrangement proved an improvement .although Novis was inclined to be a little erratic'as an inside man. Reova proved a very dangerous scoring man. ■■while Jones-Davies after a rather patchy start quickly'found his feet and conformed to the high standard set by the remainder, of the flying squad. Bowcott at stand-off half was very elusive '.end made a number of useful opportunities. The outstanding forward of the British side was the captain F. D. Prentice, who not only- converted five tries, -.cored one and kicked a penalty (a wtai of 16 points, but was always in the thick of the work in tight and loose. As in the backs, however, it was hard to particularise for every member of the fifteen played a sound game and there were no obviously weak •links. Manawhenua Players. The Manawhenua backs were rather •eclipsed by the opposition but on the whole did weld under difficult conditions. Johnson, a-t full-back was uncertain in his handling at first, but as the .game progressed played very sound and at times brilliant football. Ho was largely responsible for Manawhepua 's ■first try which he initiated with a sole ■break from his awn twenty-five. Th« three-quarter line, Page, Fletcher and Strange, did not see a great deal (of the ball but was called on for a lot of solid ■defensive work. Page and Fletcher in ■particular tackled with deadly accuracy i in many tight corners and generally acquitted themselves well . The same may be said of the remainder of the homo backs with special mention of Akuira who on defence was a tower of The home pack, without exception toiled hard and fought an uphill battle without losing heart. In view of the fact, that they were playing against a tricky wind, Manawhenua did well to hold the visitors tc 11 points in the’first spell. The home forwards began well in the . &e *t scrummages but as the visitors settled down their weighty pack was. pushing the opposing hookers off fch‘ ball. • . .In general, the Manawhenua forwards did very well, their dogged persistence and sweeping rushes m the loose holding the visiters at bay and gaining valuable ground on a number of dccasi'ons. - The British forwards got the greater '■ share of the ball in general play but ' tbg home pack was not badly beaten in • -axis respect. T. Parata, the wing-for-made himself very useful m "breaking up incipient attacks but he was caught offside on a number of occasions. ' The British forwards used dribbling

In a game which must be considered to bo the best exhibition of the three which they have so far played, the British touring team yesterday defeated Manawhenua by 34—8. Particularly in the second spell they demonstrated an amazingly versatile and speedy rearguard working in excellent co-ordination with a powerful forward pack and both fore and aft dominated the game. But Manawhenua, though beaten by 26 points, was far from disgraced and could take no discredit in being beaten in such a manner by the British side. As at Wanganui and New Plymouth, there were periods when the home side more than held its own but before advantages could be pressed home, the visitors would be turning defence into bffence and carrying the battle into their opponents' territory. It was very evident that the Britishers are improving with each game they play, for particularly in the backs their movements had all the finish which in many cases they lacked at Wanganui and to a lesser extent in the Taranaki game. There were weaknesses evident, of course, but they were passing phases and not deep-seated. Their improvement can be guaged from the fact that though Manawhenua played a better game than Wanganui, the latter were beaten by 16 points and the former by 26.

rushes with great effect and made the play for their backs. Several members handled well in passing movements.

The Game

There were no alterations in the teams as published. They were:—■ Britain (dark blue and gold lions): R. Jennings, J. Reeve, T. Jones-Davics, C. Aarvold, A. L. Novis, H. Poole, H. M. Bow T cott, S. Martindale, D. Parker, H. Junes, J. L. Parrel], M. J. Dunne, H. Wilkinson, J. McD, Hodgson, F. D. Prentice.

Manawhenua (red, white and blue): M. Johnson, M. Strange, E. Fletcher, R. Page, R. Akuira, G. Riddell, W. Parata. T. Parata, M. Henry, Fitzgerald, 0 Galpin, A. Conrad, T. Miles, A. Satherley, W. Tatana. Prentice opened the visitors’ scoring account with a beautiful penaltygoal, following on T. Parata being caught off-side. 3 —o, Jones-Davies scored at the corner. 6—o. Shortly afterwards Aarvold got across the line and Prentice converted. 11—0. This was the score at half-tipie. Prentice scored a try and converted it in the second spell. 16—0. Manawhenua.’s first score came after a kick by Johnson. Fast following up by Conrad enabled him to take the ball to the line, where T. Parata beat Jennings jfor possession an'd scored, Akuira converted. 19—5. Novis was the next to score for Britain, Prentice converting 24—5, and this was followed by Hodgson racing over the line, the British captain again making no mistake. 29—5. Britain’s final score came from Novis and again Prentice’s boot was sure. 34—5. The final incident was a try by Manawhenua, as the result of good work by Page and Fletcher, the game ending— Britain . * . .. 34 Manawhenua 8 Mr J. King (Taranaki; was referee.