RUGBY CONTROL

Manawatu Standard, Volume LI, Issue 209, 5 August 1931, Page 9

RUGBY CONTROL

MANAWATU DISTRICT COUNCIL. The weekly meeting of the management committee of the Manawatu Rugby District Council was held last night when Mr L. Arnott occupied the chair. Others present were Messrs Eglinton, Fitzpatrick, Hands, McHerron, Clevely. Skoglund, Crawford and Hardie. Apologies for absence were received from Messrs Colquhoun, Pagan and Joblin. . Mr Clevely pointed out that, in the event of Massey College juniors de-

faulting on Saturday, Bunnythorp© would he standing down without a game for three successive weeks for, prior to last Saturday’s postponement, the suburban team had secured a defaiflt from United. Unfortunately, he had been absent when it had been decided to proceed with a further round in that grade. He would have preferred that the competition be divided into two groups —six and . four teams respectively. It was pointed out that ,in the event of United again defaulting,. which would result in the team dropping out, and the defection of Massey College, there would only be two teams to play one another in the second group. ’ _ Mr Crawford pointed out that Old Boys’ B who had been unlucky to be beaten by Kia Toa —one of the leading teams —would have been included in the lower group. It was decided, with a view to meeting the wishes of the Bunnytliorpe Club, to amend the fixtures, for Saturday so that Bunnytliorpe could meet Old Boys B. , „ A grant of £7 was made to the Referees’A ssociation. FIXTURES FOR SATURDAY. Seniors. —Feilding Old Boys v. Feilding, Johnston Park, Feilding, Mr E. Seeker; United v; Kia Toa, Oval, Mr A. McKegg; Palmerston North Old Boys v. Massey College, Oval, Mr F. Garner. Juniors. —Palmerston North Old Boys v. St. Patrick’s,, Showgrounds, Palmerston North. Mr A. Gordon; Palmerston North High School v. Feilding Old Boys, Johnston Park, Feilding, Mr Holman; Bunnytliorpe v. Old Boys B, Showgrounds, Mr L. Cope ; United v. Massey College, Showgrounds, Mr G. Cooksley; Kia Toa v. Woodville, Recreation Grounds, Woodville, Mr H. Dorrington. Third grade.—St. Patrick’s v. ' Y.M.C.A., Park Road, Palmerston North, Mr I. Ross; Kia Toa v. Palmerston North Old Boys, Park Road, Palmerston North, Mr D. Heggie; Kelvin Springboks v. Feilding, John-

ston Park, Feilding, Mr H. Hughes; Feilding High School v. United, Park Road, Palmerston North, Mr H. Hands.

Fourth grade.—Palmerston North High School v. Woodville, by default; Feilding High School v. Kia Toa. High School grounds, Feilding, Mr I. Robinson.

Fifth grade.—Kia Ora v. Technical, Park Road, Mr H. W. Kerr: Sixth grade.—Gordon v. Phoenix; Albion v. Technical B; Kia Ora v. Technical A; to be arranged. Midgets.—Milson v. Hokowhitu.

MANAWATU’S PREPARATIONS. TWO LOSSES RECORDED. (By “Cross Bar.”) Manawatu’s second appearance for the season —against Horowlienua on Saturday—brought with it y£t another defeat. However, whereas at Ekctaliuna Bush had proved themselves superior on the day, Manawatu were unlucky not to gain the day on Saturday.

It was exceedingly unfortunate that the conditions on Saturday \vere far from what were desired and a real trial of playing strength became out of the question. With the ground covered in patches with surface water the handling of the leather was naturally uncertain.

When the early spectators arrived at the Showgrounds there was little to indicate that a Rugby match was due to materialise at 2.30 o’clock. At the appointed hour there was no sign of anv of the principals and it was not ti 1 f 3 o’clock that they took the field. The delay, to at least some extent, was unavoidable for Horowlienua had arrived without any jerseys and Mana. whenua’s colours had to be secured.

Probably quite a few of the spectators compared the playing conditions with those which had prevailed on the occasion of Taranaki’s Ranfurly Shield challenge a few seasons back. There was less water on Saturday, but there was probably more mud. Many a player executed some beautiful slides to the delgiht of the small hoys in the stand. With a driving rain to assist them for the first couple of minutes, Manawatu early secured an attacking position and it was from a splendid frontal drive that Le Quesne followed through to charge down a clearance and go on and score. There is an art in taking the right line when charging a kicker and many are apt to rush too square with the opponent, not allowing for the hall coming from the outer side of the kicker’s body.

The early advantage secured by Manawatu was retained although it was not long before Horowhenua reduced the deficit when Roddick finished off a drive in the south-eastern corner. Following “lemons” the homesters were again the first to penetrate, but once again Horowhenua recovered the leeway all but the two

points from Manawatu’s one conversion. There the game promised to terminate till Johnston proved himself once again to bo a match winner. There has been some controversy as to the correctness or otherwise of the referee’s ruling that Bramwell had been offside when Johnston was given the opportunity to pull his side through. The ball had been kicked

past Bramwell and a race ensued be- 1 tween L. Moffatt and Broughton, j They appeared to arrive at the ball to- ' gether only to over-run it and Bram- ' well got back to it to be ruled offside. ‘ Unless Moffatt touched the leather as 1 it lay on the ground, Bramwell could not have been offside. In the early stages of the season there is probably some uncertainty as to which player can be considered the side’s kicker. At Shannon when Horowhenua were opposing Te Kawau the southerners tried out several before giving Johnston a shot, despite the fact that he has been tried repeatedly and by no means found wanting. The same thing happened on Saturday and it was apparently the weight of voices from the stand which finally effected it. Unfortunately for Manawatu, the change was immediately successful. As on Saturday, Johnston had proved himself a match winner at Shannon when, to all appearances

confronted with defeat, the wily | veteran raced up to the end of the lino to take the final pass and go over the line and then ca)> matters by registering a magnificent field goal. Presumably by way of strengthening their five -eighth line last week, Johnston was moved further up, but his successor in the last lino of defence, Ryder, ably substituted; indeed on the day probably Johnston would not have filled the position so ably. While there were many of the old faces in the ranks of Horowhenua there were some new ones, and the recruits shaped promisingly, particularly Broughton, on the right wing. While not tall, he has a raking stride which covers the ground very deceptively. while his handling was also of a high order. Gee, on the opposite wing was not so impressive, but Winiata (half-hack) and Enoko (fiveeighth) both did fairly well under the circumstances. Graham, the burly centre, displayed a vast improvement

on his previous displays on the Show- 1 grounds. • Big Tama Parata was hardly in the 1 picture until the late stages of the 1 game when ho brought off a couple of his bursts of speed which required considerable stopping and, on the day, Le Quesne, his vis-a-vis, outplayed ; him. Of the other Horowhenua forwards, Roddick, Payne, Gordon and Tatana showed out prominently, but even Satherley, Ransfield and Fitzgerald leant very able assistance.

THE HOMESTERS. It was pleasing to find Fletcher, who was an eleventh-hour inclusion, play such a prominent role for Manawatu, the length in his kicking being remarkable for one of his light build. In this respect he recalls another former Old Boys player in I>. Brophy. Fletcher’s form of late has been indifferent, but there now appears to be distinct hope that he has regained Ins old confidence. The going hardly encouraged the backs to throw the balL about, but there were occasions when the greens did so quite successfully. Shapleski whipped the leather away from 'the base of the scrum in good style, but he displayed a disclination to go down on the ball. However, this is a general weakness of the majority of our inside backs. Allowance must be made for the fact that it was not a day for testing out talent and it was not surprising that mistakes were made. M. Moffatt did not handle the greasy ball as well as one might have expected, while even S. Bramwell, at full-back, did not display his customary certainty in that department. The Feilding Old Boys

player was, on the whole, quite sound, hut Ire was outshone on the day. by Ryder. 'Neither of the Manawatu wing three-quarters, L. Moffatt and Griffin, had many opportunities to display, their paces, but they did on occasion make bold bids for the line. At a critical stage Griffin made an unfortunate mistake in turning infield instead of going wingwards and he was smothered, a good chance to recover the lost advantage vanishing thereby. A weak point in the play of the Moffatt Bros was their tackling and they should endeavour to-curb the tendency to go high. Save a front-on tackle, there is little danger to a player who goes low for his opponent —not round the hips, but round the knees or even a shade below. The honours of the day were due to the Manawatu forwards, who displayed much more dash and vim than they did against Bush. While it may be almost unfair to discriminate, the heavy work of Henry, the dribbling

efforts of Williams, and the fast breakaways by McKenzie and Findlay brought those players into prominence; but Might, Dalziell and Yendell each performed well although the latter pair appear to prefer the top of the ground. Tlie local set, with Lo Quesne to direct their forays, went like a roal pack. There was, however, the customary tendency to kick too hard thereby materially assisting Ryder in the halting of their onslaughts. It is to be hoped that better conditions will prevail for the return match on Saturday week when a true test of the playing talent availo lila «rnnl/l Ko FWlSiSlhlo. *' *

INTER-SCHOOL RUGBY. The annual Rugby match between the first fifteens of the Wairarapa and Palmerston North Boys’ High Schools will be staged at the Showgrounds to-morrow afternoon at 2.15 o’clock when the opposing combinations will be represented by the following:— Wairarapa.—Cameron, Peterson, Lamb, Wilkins, Hallowav, Todd, Cambournc,. Taylor, Raymond, Medley, McGregor. Watson, Halsc, Chesterman, O’Connor, Welch. McWinnio (capt.). Palmerston North.—Hoffmeistcr, McCorkindale, Apatari, Gardner, Hatch, Roach, Lang, Smith. Crawford, James, Chin, Waldegravc (capt.), Muir, Moxon, RobI ertson.