THE RUGBY FIASCO AT CHRISTCHURCH.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLI, Issue XLI, 10 September 1921, Page 9

THE RUGBY FIASCO AT CHRISTCHURCH.

- (By Aristides Redivivus). ' * Ever since the tour of the New ] South Wales Rugby team was first 3 • mooted there has been an uneasy « feeling amongst many football-enthusi-Asts that the extraordinarily contempt- , 1 nous manner in which the ty.Z. Union, < has treated the affair ;that New Zea-' '; land rßugby> was riding for a fall, and , it .was. witli considerable satisfaction, ] albeit tempered with regret, .that .many saw'the culmination of tlwbusi-" v ness in the terrific drubbing dealt out .to New, Zealand by j tEe .Welshmen, at Christchurchi" on Saturday, last. Eyi'dently^ in spitQ^of J the cage" with which were walking through the i"sitfalls,*» - ihe New" Zealand ITnion' in Its 'fatuous self-conceit » (which one would think was well shaken previous- t -lyj at: Dunediii in the "first Test against South Africa.' wEen, in spite of ■victory, %hexe wasn't very, much, to wrii* home about, arid again in. the second test\ when tTie Springboks j^on at,!Au<*land) -thought them • only>'-good-enough to throw a' bone' fo* instead of a .^- S°°d square meal. What sense or reaSf"" son was there in insulting a visiting international team, by placing against it in a Test match, a team which was •feot fhe best one obtainable, or thesup- " posedly best one,-as was the case in "Chrlstchurch? Had New' Zealand been. en tiie same day' playing-a Tejst match against 6«uth Afrie«, then, well and

good, nothing else could have beea done, liul such was not tho case. The second Test with South Africa had been set down to be played the previous week, and the third is to played on tho 17th. Such being the case, there was nothing to prevent the Australians being decently treated and matched, as I have no doubt they would have preferred to be, against our beat team, ferhaps it's as Veil they weren't, however, tor now the powers that be say "pooh, it was only a scratch teasiu «nyj way," but if it had been the pick of N.Z. and then had been beaten, oh my, the fat would have been in the lire. Added to all this, the unfortunate members of the N.Z. team that were not even given a decent chance of doing anything, bui? were led like Jambs to the slaughterhouse, and apparently arrived in Christchurch at the eleventh hour and fifty-ninth minute, with no chance to have a practice together or any special coaching whatever. Oh no, New South Wales was a joke, and must be treated as a joke, but methinks the joke is on Ne,w Zealand, a thing which not infrequently happens when peole's heads outggrow their hats. " It only requires South Africa now to win the tLird Test match and then there will be a fluttering in the dove cotes. It has been apparent to many that "some people's opinion of the present day quality of our Rugby is much too high.* When people «ro looking for trouble they usually find it looking for them, and so it happened last Saturday, and New Zealand ltugby got it where it needed it, "in th<» "neck."