"DE PROFUNDIS.”

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 13948, 3 January 1906, Page 4

"DE PROFUNDIS.”

_ EMOTIONS AT A FOOTBALL MATCH. ; o. (By a NEW ZEALANDER.) LONDON, November 24. Usually a placid sort of individual, I never got really excited at a football match in my life, until last Saturday. And then, much to my subsequent astonishment, I went through a whole gamut of emotions, hope, confidence, anxiety, despair, suspense and joy! It was the New Zealand versus Scotland match, at Edinburgh, and my hopes and fears, as I need hardly say, were centred on the “All Blacks.” I wanted to see them win because they were fellow-countryman, because it was their ; first international (to lose which would 1 have seriously damaged their great reputation), because they had a clean sheet as regards defeats, because they played such good football, because the Scotchmen were so confident, because my Scotch friends would have _“ crowed” so unmercifully had their side won. There were other reasons, but that is enough to go on, .with. Financial considerations, I 'may add, were entirely absent. j They toll me it was one of the finest games ever seen in this country, and I can well believe it. It was a privilege to be present at a contest which will be famous in the annals of Scottish and New Zealand football. Yet I have no wish to repeat the experience. It was too thrilling altogether. The relief at the end was all right, but the suspense, before the climax came, was terrible. For that matter one was kept on the keen edge of excitement throughout the game, as the play swept now to this end of the field, now to that._ There were moments of anxiety at the start, when the Scottish forwards, a very dashing lot, seemed to tie thiBlacks’ defence up into knots. However, our side got clear of that, but presently they were desperately hard pressed again, and Scotland scored a goal from the field. Thb Blacks had four joints up against them! However, that did not worry us much, and the Blacks Soon justified their supporters’ confidence by running up a couple of tries, putting New Zealand two points ahead. But before half-time oame the sensational charge which gave Scotland a’try, and left our boys in a minority of one point at the interval. Wo had not calculated upon this, but even so the position was not serious, considering that there still remained forty minutes’ play. Our side were getting the ball in almost every scrum, and' itrivas only a matter of time before their backs must go through. ...So we colonials settled ourselves down to watch the scoring begin. : But the time sped by, and no score came. Our bovs seemed to be struggling against fate.' They held the scrums, they got the ball out, they out-manceu-vrecl the ,enemy, but , always something happened to prevent that anxiouslyI awaited score. Now it was a bad pass, now a knock-on, now a throw forward, now an unexpected tackle. It was their unlucky day, surely. Wallace tried for a penalty-goal a lovely lack. We watched with bated breath as the ball soared high up, and straight for tlio goal. But no! it struck the further upright, and bounced back* The New Zealand forwards had the line at their mercy, as it seemed, on one occasion; there was only one Scotchman with pace enough to beat them, and he was there to do it! K. Q. Macleod was first in the race for the ball. The crowd rose to their feet as one man, and yelled themselves . hoarse. M’Lecd picked up and ran back over his line, chased by the Blacks. Round behind the pests, he went, his opponents in hot pursuit, over the lineagain into the field of play, and so to safety, the ball finding touch well , up the field. • The cheering broke out again m one mighty roar, save where the colonial students sat in gloomy silence, hoping against hope. Would Now Zealand never score? It seemed like it, for the game was nearing its end,, and the Scotchmen had plenty of life in them yet. v Mv heart at this.stage was sinking Slowly, but surely,,lnto my boots. The one crumb of consolation was the splendid energy our boys displayed.' If cnlv they had passed as well as. they ran, and kicked, and tackled!' Time after time it looked as though they must score; time after time the movement ended in failure. The Scotchmen relied on their margin of a point, and played for safety, with exasperating ouccess. Their long kicks into touch absorbed the precious minutes in a fashion that threatened the colonial onlooker with heart-failure! x ■' “ Only ten minutes more,” said someone near me. I had no watch, and the minutes that followed seemed like seconds. Every moment I expected the final whistle to go. Despair had reached its lowest depths, with just one last faint glimmer of hope to lighten the gloom. If the team felt that the ganie wjie lost, they never showed it. ■ It was at least Consoling to see that they still strove with -desperate energy to utilise every precious moment. But the outlook" was black indeed. Defeat was staring us in the face. Twenty thousand Scottish throats were acclaiming a victory for Scotland in one loud, continuous roar. Anothet attack, another failure to score. . Maddening! The Blacks were driven back upou their lines. Desperation! Surely the-whis-go any moment now, and rob our boys of the victory they uryioubtodly deserved.. Oh, for a-.watch to tic the last few ‘seconds off ! At last tho Blacks began to move up again, and then-—and then— And then the thing that- seemed impossible occurred. It only took a few seconds, but in that brief while the match was lost and won. The Blacks attacked, as they had done so often already. Out came the ball from scrumhalf ’to five-eighths, from five-eighths to centre, and so to George Smith, on tho loft wing. It was now or never, surelv. Would he take the pass? Yes, beautifully, • at top speed! ,And now he was racing for the line, With the touch-line close on his left, the Scotch three-quarters racing up on his right, and Secular, the ' full-back, straight ahead. Would he got through? For one tremendous moment the vast crowd hung breathless upon the issue. My heart was out of my boots now, qild in. my month instead! But only for a moment. Smith, the greyhound of the to — v haro of -many a . hard-won

game, was equal to the great occasion. “ Good old Smithy I” He was past the three-quarters, past the full-back, oyer the line. The game was saved—and won 1 Phew! what a feeling of relief that was. For the first time in half an hour I sat hack in my seat and breathed deep and long. Then it was, and not till then, that one realised what a strain upon the-nervous system those anxious minutes had* imposed. I felt as weak as thought I had been juggling with heavy dumb-bells for the lafit halfhour. The feeling of intense relief swallowed up all other emotion®. I saw the “ All Blacks ” embracing their deliverer, and heard the fearsome yells and cheers of the colonial students. I saw the final try scored in_ the last couple'of minutes. But all this seempd vague and inconsequent after' that momentous climax. New Zealand nad won, and that was all that mattered. With that refrain running in my head, I was glad to get away from the place and walk back in silence into town. Later in the evening I compared notes with other colonials, and found that they, too, had gone through, much the same experience. They also had tasted the bitterness of prospective defeat and the joy of victory. “I had given up all hope towards tire end,” said one, “ and was sitting in stony silence, with my eyes glued on tire field of play. I watched ‘Smithy’s’ great run in a kind of dream; and when I came tp myself, I found myself waving both arms, and shouting like a madman.” The All Blacks who were off duty that clay—“ breathers,” _ they call themselves—had a had time of it, too; but they put a brave face on a black business, and exhorted their team to “ bung it In, Blacks 1” \ And the Blacks lid “bung it in,” with a vengeance. To get so excited oyer the issue ns we all did may seem foolish, enough to some who read the story in cold print. , But if these superior ones could have been there to see-the All Blacks give their grand object-lesson in pluck and perseverance, they would have felt as we did. t . ■ Yes, it, was a thrilling match, and a novel experience for me, though I have seen Rugby games innumerable. But I would not like to go through that last quarter of an hour a sfefeo&d timfe. My heart isn’t strong enough 1