FOOTBALL.

King Country Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 178, 2 August 1909, Page 5

FOOTBALL.

The inter-I'noin match between Maniapoto and Auckland was played at Alexandra Park Auckland,on Saturday last, and resulted in an easy win for the city representatives by 54 points to 3. When the match wat first arranzed it was understood that the local repre- ; sentatives were to meet a B team at ; Auckland, but the executive of the parent union evidently assessed the i powers of the local players on a considerably higher level than was warranted by their performances. When the names of the Auckland team were published it wax at once recognised that the Maniapoto representatives had small chance of winning, and itwai merely a question of putting up as good a fight as possible. It was thought locally that the backs selected for Maniapoto wculd come out of the ordeal with credit, and that the chief weaknes of the team wculd lie in the forwards. Strangely enough the reverse wa3 the case. The local vanguard held its own in scrum work and loose play, but in line work and the finer points of the game was outclassed. Still the forwards made a very creditable showing, and had the backs played up to the same standard the score registered against the team would have been very much smaller. As is indicated by the score the match was a soft thing for the city players, but while condition lasted among the country players the game was fairly even. This is shown by the fact that at the call of half lime the game was Auckland 15 point 3, Maniapoto 3. During the greater portion of the second spell however, the Auckland men were fa'-!y running over the visitors. For the last ten minutes of play, however, the country team rallied surprisingly. The forwards swept down the field, and penned Auckland on their on goal line. Several times a score looked certain, but lack of finish to the attack spoilt the chances, and when the whistle blew to cease play the battle was still being waged in Auckland territory. The first Auckland score was a fluky sort of try; in fact the movements which resulted in nearly all the tries being scored were initiated from the line play, the ball being frequently hit back by Seeling to the half who opened up passing runs. The country backs made the mistake of waiting for the attack to come to them without endeavouring to get among their opponents, and spoil their passing. The result was that two Auckland backs always came to the last local defender together, and it was an easy matter to hand the ball from one to the other and score. The Maori team of footballers touring Australia have not yet tasted defeat. On Saturday last they met and defeated Australia by 16 points to 14. The Ponsonby team, winners of the senior district championship in Auckland, arri\*ed at Sydney on Saturday morning, and in the afternoon met and defeated the Metropolitan Union rep resentatives by 13 points to 11.