The Lyttelton Times. MONDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1905. THE REVERSE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXIV, Issue 13935, 18 December 1905, Page 6

The Lyttelton Times. MONDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1905. THE REVERSE.

The " ‘ intellectuals ” who have been declaring for years past that the British race was taking an altogether excessive interest in athletic games might have found convincing evidence at Cardiff on Saturday or in New Zealand yesterday. Judging from the faces of the football enthusiasts who had -assembled in Cathedral Square yesterday morning, a national disaster might have occurred. It was not until yesterday,, probably, that Now Zealanders realised how keen . an interest they had been taking in the tear of their football representatives. The extraordinary success of the team has been impressive, even among those who know nothing ox the game itself. By Saturday it had played twenty-seven matches and had won them all by margins varying from 5 points to 63 points. It may -well have seemed, invincible to the English experts. Club and county teams met it only to afford fresh evidence of its remarkable versatility, its clover ne&s, its pace, its accuracy and its staying power. Even the staid weekly journals

were compelled to comment on its methods and to speculate, as to the reasons for its manifest superiority. We are bound to say that a great deal of nonsense has been written about the men. When they left New Zealand opinions differed pretty widely on the wisdom of some of the selections, and though the team was unquestionably a good one there was no reason for hailing it as absolutely perfect, and no one expected it to bo invincible. It proved better, no doubt, than its critics anticipated and, meeting the English clubs, as it did, at the commencement of the season, it quickly scored a huge number of points. Amateur football seems to be decadent in England, and there are not many teams in the country capable of “extending” the New Zealanders, but no doubt a picked English team, given a few matches to perfect its combination and “find itself,” would give it a hard fight. The team is, after all, a human tiring, liable to variation and vicissitude. Cambridge University found it on an “off 1 ’ day and made quite a good stand against it. A club team ■ slightly stronger might, under similar conditions, have beaten it. But Wales is at present the real home of amateur Rugby football, and it was in Wales that the team looked to have its hardest games. Unfortunately the brilliant backs and fast, powerful forwards of tire Principality are being encountered at the end of the arduous tour when the > travellers must be feeling the effects of journeys by sea and land and many hard-fought games. For Saturday’s game the Welsh Union “resurrected” seme international players who had retired from the game and selected a team containing probably the finest three-quarter line ever seen on the football field. It means a great deal to footballers that tho New Zealanders were asked to meet Llewellyn, Gabe, Nksholls and Morgan in combination. Moreover, the Welsh team had the advantage of a few games together and the match was thus a real and equitable test. That the Welshmen won is proof of the strength of their side, though the margin was so narrow that a lucky accident of the kind common in all games might have equalised the scores. We are all disappointed, of course, that the New Zealand team has not gone through the tour without a reverse, but it is perhaps as well for tire health of the colony that its 'representatives have not carried* all before them. The record of the tour, even with this defeat, is probably the most remarkable in the modern history of field sports, and the local enthusiasts need not be inconsolable.