Second Test on the Horizon

Manawatu Times, Volume LIII, Issue 6667, 21 July 1928, Page 7 (Supplement)

Second Test on the Horizon

New Zealanders Kept on Move

are tho first four clauses of that historic document; —

(1) In a scrum a player may hook with either foot provided the ball has passed feet of a man on either sjfie, and the other requisites with regard to “fairly in the scrummage” are fully complied with. (2) The front line of the forwards is the lino formed by the ordinary normal stance of players in the front rknk. (3) A player in a scrum may lift his foot from the ground before the ball is fairly in the serum provided he does not advance such foot beyond the front line of his forwards. (4) Packing should take place alternately, man for man, and two or mOro players arc not allowed to pack with their heads together. New Zealand A B South Africa X Y Z It will be observed that the ball is “fairly” in when past a man on either side, sO that it is one All Black against the remaining two Springboks and not vice versa—otherwise why is not N.Z. getting the ball from 9 out of 10 scrummages? Also, one South African report of the opening match eulogises the efforts 'of the first South African front-row man in having used all his weight against his vis-a-vis. Por what object—to prevent him from any effective attempt {to hook, more especially as the “contract” permits this first Springbok to lift his foot. AS ytho ball must go past the New' Zealander (A) towards the centre of the scrum what is Springbok X “lifting” for? Certainly not ’to hook, but because he has been give* an invitation to “shoot his foot across” to block the New Zealand opposing him. This might easily apply on both sides of the scrum, leaving the South African middle man (Y) with nobody at all to beat for possession—clause three does not prevent Z from lifting when the ball .is going into scrum ffom X’s side. Even without ad vancing their feet across the “front line” X and Z can play havoc with “knots up” (one of them always has the loose-head, too). It looks as though Kruger ,(Y) has the easiest job in Africa. , Outstanding Individual Efforts. , There are no published rugby records in ’ the sense tlfart the mighty deeds of cricketers ' of all countries'are recorded in that publication “Wisden.”;ln the task of getting to ; f ether the following half-dozen or so oats that, in any way compare with Benny Osier’s paralysing performance at Durban (when he gave the Springboks 14 of the 17* points by which South Africa annihilated New Zealand in the first test on June -30), “Ponty” has had to rely more or less on Ms memory, on which, ■ however^,some ov these great scoring; efforts i-vd been indelibly impressed. ' ' 1 ■ That, of Jerry. Shea, the . Welsh, centre atr-S.wansea* {against 'England'"inf 192.(7' will take a power of beating. Wales woptby 19 pftints to 5;; Shea potted two goals, kicked one from a penalty, scored a try .and converted the only other try registered by his side—his'tally thus being- 16 points. 1 Chance played a strong hand, in this very wonderful first appearance, for Shea. li»ad originally been chosen as a winger/dn which position he would.hardly have, been likely to have, got mtich oppoftiiuty of demon-, stfating'.his drop-kicking powers. Erie Hammett, the Newport centre, had an English birth qualification, and it resulted in the extraordinary spectacle of both Wale's and England selecting him for the" Swansea international. *Jie elected to' turn out for the country of his birth, and this caused the Welsh selectors to move Shea: in and replace the latter' with another winger. Frank Fryer in 'the N.Z.—Queensland tost at Brisbane in 1907 accounted for 15 of the 17 points-by which the Bananalanders were ' 'beaten pointless. The Canterburyifin’s bag was five trios. K. Starke in the fourth test at Capetown in 1924, when the South Africans disposed of the Britishers by 16 points I to 9, got into double-figures with three tries and a potted gdak Duncan McGregor ■ scored the only | two tries of tho New Zealand-Great tain match at Wellington in 1904, when I the Dominion fifteen won 9—3. In . his very nest appearance in an international fixture tho dazzling CantorburyWellingtonian (ho played for both Islands) rattled up four of tho five tries by which the All Blacks boat England at Crystal Palace. ; : . Y :■ . . f When the Bov. Matthew Mullineux's 1899 Britishers came to, Australia they played four tests (the first of which was refereed by that great New Zealand rugbyite W. G. “Gun” Garrard of Christchurch). England lost tho opening international > against Australia 3—13, but won the , remaining three games If—o, 11—10 and 13—0. S. A. |Spragg, one of New South Wales’ many sterling threequarters— perhaps Australia’s greatest—with a try and two conversions got more than half of Ms side’s thirteen points in the sole' Commonwealth victory,A' And in the third test with two converted tries,' he was tho vanquished side’s only scorer. Thus of the 23 points registered by Australia in the test series Spragg rang on 17 of them. The sterling calibre of this performance will be more readily recognised when it is stated Ms vis-a-vis on the British side was tho great Gwyn Nicholls, who skippered Wales against tho, 1905 All Blacks : and 1906 Springboks. In 1899 the Welsh idol, was at the zenith of his powers—one could hardly say fame, for that was capped by Ms leadership of the only fifteen to lower New Zealand’s colours' in 1905. W. M. Llewellyn, who was out in the Antipodes with BedoU-Sivright’s 1904 Britishers, once scored the whole four tries registered by Wales against Ireland. J. V. Maekay was the only scorer in the Auekland-Wcllington flutter in the Queen city in 1912, when in a Banfurly Shield challenge Auckland beat by four tries to nil the strongest side Wellington ever'put into the field. His vis-a-vis at wing-threequarters was T. M. (“Harmi”) Grace—killed at Gallipoli. In tho Wellington-Otago Eanfurly Shield game played at Carisbrook on the 16th September, 1920 (four days be-

fore the Wcllingtonians lost tho trophy to Southland at Invercargill), Toddy Roberts—only just home from Australia where ho joined the very select band to score a century for Now Zealand—potted two goals for the North Islanders, and very narrowly missed a third drop from tho field. On tho New Zealand 1884 pioneer tour of New South Wales the unbeaten All Blacks settled Northern Districts by 29 points to nil. Maurice Baldwin (nowadays secretary of tho Queensland Turf Club) in a very comprehensive annual—apparently last published in 1902 —while stating that Jack Taiaroa scored all New Zealand’s tries and kicked a goal from, the field, observed that tho newspaper records of this particular match wore very incomplete n.nd did not publish tho teams ot names or tno scorers., He had therefore relied on mr formation supplied by a Newcastle enthusiast. The late Mr. Ike Hyams (who had a genius for rugger history) advised “Pontjr” eight years ago that taiaroa’s figures for the whole Hour wore 9 tries and one conversion. This seems to dispose altogether of the potted goal in the Northern Districts game and as Mr. Baldwin’s statistics for th# other seven matches of IBS4 skew Taiw roa’s tries to total seven, tjho maximum number of times that most renowned of all Maori rugby players could have notched at Newcastle was a couple.

SIGHT-SEEING Or Rughy Preparation

Oh Saturday week this Writer expressed the opinion that, as there was no mid-week gaino after tho first test, the All Blacks’ best course was to put their test fifteen in the field against Northern Districts, and then pack their test men off back to Johannesburg for a fortnight’s training for tho seeona international. Instead, what do we find?. ’ „ ,_ . (1) Ten reserves wore fielded "at Kim* berloy, and the match almost presented to Northern Districts. (Although' it is a certainty that New Zealand would have won but for Kilby’s mishap). - (2) The whole of the party then hiked off to Victoria Palls and Ehodesia from which latter country it took the team three days to get back to Johan-nesburg-—tho veniio ' of the second test, (3) .Thus, the object of the' week’s “spell” before tests has been signally defeated, and while the New Zealanders were cooped up for three 'days on an abominable —and unnecessary for the test fifteen at all events—train journey, the Springboks have been snug in camp preparing for Saturday’s battle. ;« ‘Y..-

(4) The Falls and Ehodesian trip, might even have waited until the conclusion of the tour, while the Pretoria match should have been fixed for July 18 instead of July 25, so that the All Blacks need never have left Transvaal the week preceding the test..;,.; . (5) Now, we have the ,spectacle-of.a team having spent the best part of a fortnight in the torrid zone coming down to tho veldt for a three days’ “spell” before a test match tb 'bo played a mile above sea-level. , i - Thiis, all along; the line the South Africans have attended tolerably ,-wcll to “number one.” But the N.Z.E.F.U. apparently doesn’t worry much about all tho handicaps it has permitted to be imposed on tho All Blacks —they will certainly require to be supermen to sec their full programme out at all; as for doing it without further loss the thing’s a • rugger impossibility. % A Taranaki View. t ? ; ■ An old Taranaki (rep.) player ..has forwarded from New Plymouth a list Of 15 Now Zealand players which he .con-, siders superior (“it would beat quite easily” is the writer’s phraseology.) to that fielded by New Zealand in., thesecond test.' Apart from the fact that if.-contains the whole of tho five Auck-. land provincial players, “Ponty” commends it to Aucklanders .because;’-?Old Player” has seen fit to exclude the 100 per cent.. Taranaki representation. Here is the “team”:—' '■ • Full-back, Lindsay; three-quarters, Grenside, Sheen, Lucas; five-eighths,-Nicholls, McGregor; half, Dailey; rover,Stewaft; hookers, Swain, Hadley; lock, Alley, suports, M. Brownlie, Finlaysdn; back-row, McWilliams, C. Brownlie. (“Old Player” says; “Why,the South Island should predominate gets well past m’% A Kevolunticnary Scrum. “Enthusiast” (Grey Lynn, Auckland) writes that ho is of opinion Now Zealand’s wedge formation is a superior scrum to the 3-2-3. Though our average weight is . higher than tne Springboks our total serum weight is lower, dub to our light hookers and packing of seven forwards to their eight. For that reason; “Enthusiast’;’ would like to Zealand’s scrum packed this way (because he says the only way to get tho ball is by sheer weight);— Front row, Alley, C. Brownlie; lock,' Harvey; supports. M. Brownlie, Finlayson; back-row, Hazlott, McWilliams; rover, Stewart —to use his weight between two back-row men when it is tho opponents’ turn to put the ball in. Beaten in the Scrum. ■ ■; Said F. M. Howard in the Cape Times ofJuno 4:— , ' - ■ . , j “ The All. Blacks yrere very badly , beaten in the set scrummages. Even ■when G. Daneel, the,best forward of a 'great pack, was taken out of the scrum land detailed off to the left wing, the seven. Town forwards, with three ineh ,up in tho front row, secured the ball three times out of four against the ; New Zealanders’ two hookers. Aid even when the latter, did obtain possession the ball hung about in their scrummage and gave Dailey, when; at last it ’ did , come out, no real, chance .of .setting ibis, backs going with any great hope |of success. ~ ; A',"'.' A; ■■' * 4 '! “Thus once again, and if I have seen ■it once I have witnessed it.a score of times or more, was the inferiority of the* New Zealand scrummage formation emphatically demonstrated. I think about it as I have thoughf for a long time now, that their retaining of it is with them purely a question of tradition and a point of , honour. Against any good pack, who really know how to scrummage, it is bound to fail as I have invariably seen it fail. “On Saturday this formation lost the All Blacks the initiative practically throughout the match. And, as it happened, they were not able, as they had been against the Country, to make up for this at tho line-dut. Hero again tho Town forwards secured the’ ball rather more, often, though the difference there was nothing like so pronounced as it was in tho scrummages.” ( Possibilities of Eight Back Formation. Three other extracts from the Cape Times report of the match in which the All Blacks suffered their first reverse 3—7 are more than usually interesting, (1) “At one period Brownlie tried packing 3 in the front row but after .ten minutes he discontinued the formation, (2) “The tackling of the Town forwards'was smacro and-in tne terrific

Some Outstanding Scoring Feats By “Ponty.”

clash of giant against giant, which characterised almost 85 pot cent, of the play, the local repesentatives wore superior to tho flower of Now Zealand Eugby manhood; . . ‘‘ln this connection I never expect Eugby to be a parlour game, but certain regrettable incidents in the course of the mauls were very evident. It is easy either to gloss over ugly phases or. to refrain from any reference to them, but by so doing I feel I would do disservice to a game that should teach us to curb tempers in the heat of friendly rivalry, and I would stress the word “friendly;” Thus early in the toiir a few words offered will bo accepted, I feel sure, in the spirit they are meant. (3). “Tho injury to B. Osier’s ankle in the closing stages of the first half was the indirect means of providing a most interesting object lesson to the close student of the game. . ’(‘During the past three years H. W. Cardiff'(vice-captain of original Springboks, 1906) has advocated at least a trial of the eight-back formation. I do not propose hero to discuss at length What hef has argued, so clearly in the colunibs .fff this paper. Wh must admit, however, that, the scheme ho pro pounded—which he persuade kloovreesburg to adopt with considerable success—was never exploited, and most people (rather airily dismissed tue suggested,Change as ‘the weird ideas of a has become a crank.’ These were thovery words used to me by an ex-International player-when I discussed with hiin the merits of the proposed innovation.

“With* B. Osier limping, it was docidodto play Daneel (a forward) .09 the : tying, and Stanley went fly-half, with Rousseau as'Centre, and Bennie merely: acted as extra stand-off. “Do you begin to perceive what I moan? With seven Town forwards, mark you—not , South Africa’s best' seven—we got the ball from the set scrums iin the second half exactly 12 times, .'as compared with New Zealand’s 5. \ • “Wo had ho rover causing so many penalties that: the good' ho did a,ccomTlish Wj»S ;Offset completely by the advantage We gave the opposing side from numerous J free-kicks. No, wo simply had an. extra. back, far from fit, who: 'into ..the, lino; bn tjio attack; had passea:been..heid-a3.tyo expect them. to? be by class players, New Zealand would •have suffered a defeat by double figures.,, “Id the fewest possible words, is it too latqto consider Oarolin’s scheme? For long he has been a lone voice appealing for even some scant recognition. Is, the policy of playing against the All Blacks in the tests with seven forwards’:;'And two fly-halves impracis it a sound suggestion? fleet for a moment.' Sow* did Pienaar get His fry, even admitting his splendid headlong body fling over the line? How did -George Danoel (acting wing-three-quarter) almost get in? Why, because of thh extra back who gave the wing on both occasions the Opportunity which it is only right should be offered. “ Thai was why, in the closing stages the crowd,was brought, to its feet madly yelling encouragement as the line swung in the traditional manor wfiich has made Province Rugby respected and honoured .throughout the world;.- : ‘‘lt is because of what I saw in the second: half on Saturday that I now advocate attention being paid to the eight-back formation. I do not want the rover type with the functions iff a Scrimshaw. I would like merely to \ see .two fly-halves like the brothers j Osier, and the usual two centres, scrum-1 half and wing. " j “On the conclusion of the match l! had the pleasure of half an hour’s talk I with Phil Mostcrt, and when I state hero that South Africa’s foremost forward-—and a man who is‘ no tactician—told me that he had come to the ronclusion that South Africa should.! play two fly-halves,— I was —well, perhaps there is no necessity. .to .’.say more. It needed a mishap—to point’the way, and it now rests with the Selection Committee.

I know full well in this case, is ringed around with the steel bars of tradition. Tho stock old argument that ‘ South Africa prevailed from 1906 onward with eight forwards and seven backs will be offered immediately; but who can say. what she Would have done had she played eight backs and seven forwards? We hafl a concrete case on Saturday, and it gave us .victory. Surely that is a sufficiently cogent argument for a degree of experiment. With these words I leave the matter for a time.’’ Is South African , Style Legal? “Tho question arises, is tho South African style of hooking legal? They have three men in the , front row against bur two. If the scrum is worked strictly according to tho rules, then tho ball cannot bo hooked until it has reached the centre, which is tho South African middle man. Then, if there is no' blocking on thq part of the South African outside front row men, we should get possession nine times out of ten, because our two hookers have to boat only one South African. 'S “Many strange things happen in the scrum in South Africa. When 1 the ball is hooked, it is certainly heeled by the South African middle man, but it appears, in many cases flagrantly, that the two outside men shoot theiri foot across, blocking our men from hooking. In that fact, as far as I can sec, lies the failure of the All Blacks to get possession from scrums.’’ The Now Zealander, who penned the above for a chain of Dominion papers, reckoned without the “fourteen points” signed by the All Blacks management at Capetown on May 28. .Hero