"COMING ON."

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 23 June 1923, Page 3

"COMING ON."

I__ FRENCHMEN AT RUGBY. | I ! I France lias never beaten England m |an interantional match, but it has come very close to it, and it is quite en the cards that in a season or two on Ell - -. lish fifteen will have to t.ke second [ place to the reprssjn^U-res of the nation • which tooic up tin. game not i much more than a do/en a ears a^o. } '• The Frenchman is tremendously overtrained, and in that respect has set 1 other countries an example. Rugby is , pnrt of the French Army training, and the players are looked after with as mncS care as the professionals who tnlce -^art in professional cup-tie games.; Spe'i.'-t'a-tors' at the last match between France "ml England speak enthusiast tically of . the fast, low passing of the French thre^-ouarters. and the speed of the whole b.ick division. Indeed, it was so much faster than the English, that Davies, tStC captain, ordered the.

forwards to keep the ball close, and so won the game. JLyen then, the Frenchmen got more ol the bail from the Kui'um, but they were badly beaten in the Loose. After or during the All Blacks' tour of l£ngUiiid next ijtJi'.sou a match againsfe Fiance in Paris would bo a most popular fixture, and it would pave the way for a visit to New Zealand of a French iifteen —a visit that would create even more interest than that of the bpnngboks.