Manawatu Daily Times MONDAY, JULY 28, 1924. The 1924 Crusaders.

Manawatu Times, Volume XLVIII, Issue 2434, 28 July 1924, Page 4

Manawatu Daily Times MONDAY, JULY 28, 1924. The 1924 Crusaders.

Saturday was a national day in !'Palmerston North. The unrivalled .gcoi graphical position of the town made jit possible for a gathering equal to the ibig o'ty crowds, and. the welcome jgiven to the 1024 Crusaders was worthy or the great occasion. The game naturally did not roveal the full strength of the combination, on e reason being that a number of the most brilliant players were not seen in action, and the two (Inal tests in Australia gave a better indication of the possiVdlities of these hefty exponents of our national pastime, to have beaten New South Wales so decisively In the second test and to have followed that with a record margin in the third test gives good ground for confidence in the future doings or the team.

1905 Versus 1924.

The respective merits of the 1005 and 1924 All-Blacks have been very much canvassed. Taking a calm and dispassionate view of the personnel of the teams we are inclined to think that the praise for the original team is being a little overdone. They were not all supermen to start with as a matter of fact, the public had a verypoor opinion of some of them. And the fancied ones were not all successes, and the doubtful ones were not al! failures. A point that should not be forgotten, too, is that they won only one of the last four games played in Australasia before embarking foi England, Home and Glory!

What Practice Can Do.

The team undoubtedly worked into a brilliant combination; gained an understanding of each others faults and fancies and played accordingly. The team work was well nigh perfect as was to be expected from continuous practice and association. Starting with a wonderful quintette of backs from Roberts at scrum half, through Stead at five-eighths to Deans at centre-threequarters to Smith at wing-three-quarters and Wallace at fullback there was something- to bulla on and one of the results was the amazing development on tour of the Taranaki pair, Hunter and Mynott. The pack saw the development of the greatest lock, Cunningham, the Dominion has ever seen and three wonder-forwards, Casey, Seeling and Gallaher. There were others almost equally as good but these men were the stars, and again others, back ana forward, who were rank failures, purely passengers, carried one at a time by the team in the loss important matches. The 1924 All-Black team Is composed of better material than tilie 1905 team and it has greater traditions behind it. The fact should lot he lost sight of that since the

1905 team was lot loose on the foot, bailors of the United Kingdom, a N.Z.E.F. team cleaned up the best of the United Kingdom service teams which is a very fair line to work upon. In view of the performances of that team we havo not much fear for the fate of the 1924 All-Blacks.

Wanted, a Coach.

The Australian tour has proved that we have some star players and that w e can still put in the field a pack with plenty of dash and devil, A little coaching will soon remove some of the faults shown in Saturday’s play, one of the worst of which appears to be tackling. Wonders have been worked in a team in a week in this direction and, no doubt, the authorities will insist that something be done to improve tackling by members of the team. With every man in the side from hookers to full back tackling low and sure—putting his man out of action —with the ,forwards learning to handle the ball and take part in passing rushes, with the backs running straight and unselfishly, and with the double line of defence being brought into play, N'w Zealand should have an Irresistible attack and an invulnerable defence. In our opinion the All-Black team of 1924 will, provided that the team is properly handled worthily represent the Dominion on the playing fields of the United Kingdom. But there will undoubtedly be trouble unless the coach question is tackled by the New Zealand Star Chamber and Mr J. W. Stead sent Home.