Gilbert As Winger,

Northern Advocate, 19 October 1935, Page 2

Gilbert As Winger,

The team was to be officially welcomed in the town at 3 p.m., but it was 3.30 before they arrived, so the reception was waived. The crowd at the Park rose to sing “En-Wlad-Fy-Nhadau” ten minutes before the match. Oliver, Caughey and Sadler proved to be the heroes of the day and 1 with their sparkling play the game was never dreary. Gilbert has not shown form in place kicking since the first match at Devonport and today was particularly off; so much so that the kicks were later handed to Oliver and H. E. Brown, but otherwise he played a great game. He converted one try only, the last. from the touch-line. 3 At half-time. Hart retired to fullback position, having hurt his leg rather badly in the first spell, Gilbert taking the wing position, and proved he was a very hard man to bring down. Lost at first he was caught out of position several' times and let his man through once, but he soon became accustomed to the wing and went well. He is not very fast, but he was always dangerous to ■file opposing side, and took all types of passes. He” went over the line, but was recalled for a forward pass by Adkins. Brown Proves Himself. Hart, playing on the right wing in the first spell, went as well for his side, as he did ill his other two matches. He is undoubtedly the fastest man on the side. Ten minutes after the start we saw the first real passing rush amongst the backs and it ended in Hart receiving from Caughey to run away from his man and score quite near* the posts. He received his injury before half-time, and when in the full-back position filled the place as well as possible, but was limping badly and kicking poorly. _ He will probably be out for a fortnight. Brown, On the other wing, proved himself in his first match today. Obviously nervous at first, he watched his man too much instead of the ball, and handled rather poorly, but the first stages over, he showed what he was made of. Whenever he got the ball, he set his teeth and ran with a marked determination, which made him a hard, man to tackle. In this way, he made no mistake with the two tries he scored. His defence was good and he should prove an asset to the, team. His show was good beyond all doubt. Oliver’s Day Out. Oliver once again was the mainstay of our side. He is full of ideas, which come off. Today, his defence and attack alike were perfect. He had a sure pair of hands, a good boot, and his tackling and backing up were beautiful to watch, while the way he threw his shoulders and hips around' in avoiding tackles delighted the spectators. Many old hands here consider Oliver the best centre they have seen and they have seen many good ones. I’liked his play decidedly better than that of Caughey. But Caughey struck form today with a vengeance. His attack was wonderful to watch. His main strength lies in his swiftness at snapping opportunities, and picking the weaknesses in the opposition’s der fence. He did some very clever things in this match, and by lightning dashes' scored two tries and made several •others. .. ■ Tindill did not shine, but his defence was good. He gave Abertillery three points by getting off-side in front of the posts. Sadler took the fancy of the crowd by his splendid play all round. He had a hand in most things. I heard him called a little man with big notions, always attempting something new. Round the scrum like a shot when Abertillery hooked, and always down in front of their good pack of forwards, he was the ideal half. Manchester On The Line. The captain was on the line today and with Mahoney out also, line-out play was not so good. Scrums were about equal, perhaps slightly in favour of the All Blacks. Lambourne. McLean, Collins and Pepper all played their usual sound games. McKenzie and King were outstanding] It was a fine try of King’s, whereas following up gave McKenzie his. Wynyard finished tip a nice dribbling rush by kicking hard, but the ball was mishandled by Abertillery on the line and McKenzie, on the shot, forced. Wynyard also figured in a ■ passing rush of note. But I expected more in the line-out from this tall Waikato man. After this match, the opinion is that the All Blacks will develop into a fine side. There is no doubt about it they have improved out of sight. They expected to meet a strong team.. The forwards were, but the backs, who included Ivor Jones, of 1930 fame, were decidedly weak. Two penalties kicked by their full-back, Brown, were good ones. New Zealand crossed the line seven times and many passing efforts embraced forwards and backs alike, the forwards often proving as fast as the backs. Combination did everything today. Clean handling was one of the features of the side. Oliver converted four tries and Gilbert one. The score was.—All Blacks 31; Abertillery 6.