Critic's Candid Review Of Northland Challenge

Northern Advocate, 23 August 1947, Page 7

Critic's Candid Review Of Northland Challenge

(By Athol D. Cook) IN reviewing Northland's Ranfurly Shield challenge eliort, j realise how easy it is to be wise after the event. But if Northlanders as a whole and the North Auckland Rugbv Union are to benefit from the experience gained in 1947, at a cost of over £IOOO, it is essential that the tour be reviewed with candour and honesty now. It must be obvious to the thousands of Northlanders who follow Rugby closely that mistakes were made. What has been'done, however, is done, and although it gives reason for regret, the only attitude that can be adopted is that every care must be taken to ensure that the same mistakes are not made again.

The reports of the manager (Mr R. G. Murdoch) and coach (Mr I. Finlayson) were revealing enough, particularly that of the manager.

Of the front row men picked, there was not a suitable prop for the hooker, Te Haara. In size and build, they were an uneven lot and no match for each other as the Northland front row. Northland paid for this mistake in every match, including that against a Whangarei side before the tourists went away.

But let us get back to the source of the stream which carried the seeds of failure for Northland’s shield challenge. The chairman of the NARU management committee (Mr D. K. Ross) hit the nail on the head at the last meeting prior to the Northlanders going South.

When coach Finlayson set about fitting his second row together, it was found that the best way out was to place Mcßae on one side as breakaway. Mcßae had never played as breakaway before in his life, but apparently a Ranfurly Shield breakaway was to be produced overnight. The backs were no worry. It was always felt that they would pick themselves, including Keith Pearson,, who had every reason to be disappointed. From the outset, it was obvious that the Northland forwards had to undergo a rigorous course of training and coaching.

He decried the “jockeying for positions’’ among delegates, the tense atmosphere at the committee meetings and the fact that only a small spark was necessary to blow the whole business to pieces. Unfortunately, Mr Ross made these ominous remarks several weeks too late.

Until delegates to the NARU realise that their job is to care for the welfare of the game throughout Northland, little can be expected in the way of success. i

Why the tense atmosphere at the committee table ? Why is it not a committee working in harmony for the good of the cause it represents? Why the jockeying for positions ? Why cannot Northland Rugby be conducted in something like the same manner as it is down South, where success is the keynote ?

The match at Kensington Park the day before they went South proved that. The Auckland game also showed that the North pack had to learn to scrum and ruck.

FORWARDS NOT TAUGHT I do not consider that they are entirely to blame for the exhibitions put up in the South—for the manner in which our backs were crucified. They did not know the fundamentals of the forward game and no real effort was made to teach them. The NARU and sub-unions must invest in scrumming machines. They must also attack this question of coaching in a thorough and businesslike way, and let club teams benefit from it.

BROADER OUTLOOK REQUIRED It is high time Northlanders saw to it that this state of affairs was rectified.

It can be done through the subunions, by cultivating a Northland outlook and making every effort to get Northland Rugby somewhere. Jealousies and prejudices must be tossed overboard. Whangarei is not Northland—neither is Dargaville, nor Kaikohe nor Kaitaia, nor any other sector of the whole.

Junior club teams all round the North have packed better than the Northlanders did at Dunedin and Invercargill'. There was no binding in the eight, no weight, no cohesion, no harmony —it was just a cluster of eight forwards.

Whangarei may be the logical headquarters through being the main centre of population, but that does not mean that Whangarei should have more say in the administration than any other district and vice-versa. Cooperation and mutual trust must be the basis of the NARU constitution.

The Otago and Southland forwards taught us how to pack in tightly with jieads down looking for the ball with the eyes and heeling it out with the feet.

The sooner all sub-unions accept this logic and then go about the business of Northland Rugby with aa open mind the sooner can we expect to reap the fruits of success which seem to fall at the feet of the Olago and Southland unions. This “jockeying for positions’’ has been apparent in the NARU for some time.

They went in as though their backs desperately needed that ball, and that is the idea behind rucking. All that the Northlanders learnt about these vital phases of the Rugby game came from the bitter school of experience instead .of from the preparatory school. The result is that the shield remained in Dunedin where it had every right to remain.

The appointment of representative selectors, of officials for the Ranfurly Shield team, the fixing of venues of certain matches —all these factors have been decided in a tense atmosphere and after considerable “jockeying.” And yet those appointments were of vital importance to the sufccess of Northland's shield challenge. The next vital step was the selection of the 21 players for the trip south. MISTAKES COMMITTED The system of trials was proved wrong and the manner in which some players were pushed into these games and others left out showed that it was by no means a full Northland effort. The final selection included the names of a few players who were failures in the trials and who proved failures on the tour.

BINDING OF PACK ESSENTIAL The next Northland pack must be balanced. The front row must not have a 6ft hooker and a sft Tin prop. Better to have the hooker a little shorter than his supports, provided those supports are even and strong. The locks must know how to lock. They must bind the scrum and give their hooker the weight .at the right time. The back-row man must do exactly the same—bind the scrum and give the weight at the right time. He is really a back-lock and if that term is used in Northland perhaps it will help players in this position to realise what their main job is. A successful hooker must get the weight through the centre of the scrum—that is, through the back-lock and the two centre-locks. The Otago and Southland packs pushed the Northland eight back a foot every time the ball was thrown in. And yet Te Haara got some ball for his side—he must be a first-class rake. The Northlanders did not apply the weight at the psychological moment. There was no call from the half, no call from the hooker when the opposition had gained possession, there were none of these elementary but most important methods adopted at any time. With one exception, the Northland forwards who played in the all-im-portant shield game are not being blamed as individuals. On the whole they were good material but as a pack they failed.

Better men were left at home to listen in and learn nothing. Eventually the chosen 21 assembled at Kensington Park, Whangarei,, for training. Just how fadlty the selection of forwards had been was proved when coach Finlayson set about packing a scrum.

THREE SUCCESSES IN BACKS It is true to say that only three shield backs were a success. They were the two Smiths and Cherrington.

Hook gave little away but was uncertain, due no doubt to a knee injury suffered in Auckland. Rika was too slow, Proctor was slow and right out of gear with Paewai. who played so brilliantly at Auckland, firing out those beautiful long passes and only occasionally running with the ball.

Chcrrington was one of the real successes of the tour, but he has not been taught to think when throwing the ball in from touch, nor does he support his fullback on defence when he is the blind-side winger.

He is an All Black in the making—the proper encouragement from a good coach would work wonders.

The general attitude of the Northlanders after they set foot on South Island soil proved that the win against Auckland was a bad influence.

The Otago match was looked upon more as a formal ceremony, lasting 80 minutes during which delivery of the shield would be taken. The lessons which should have been learnt at Auckland were never applied in the final preparations. Training amounted to little more than dilly-dallying, with no emphasis on the weaknesses revealed in the opening match. At this stage 1 would like to point out that Sid Pausina, who consumed seven dozen oysters at Invercargill, was not an offender in the matter of diet.

Neither were most of the Maori players. My renort from Invercargill concerning Sid’s liking for the oysters has been misconstrued. I know. If all the Northland forwards had tackled the shield challenge in the same spirit as Pausina, the shield might have been lifted from the bus in Whangarei last Saturday afternoon. LEADERSHIP IMPORTANT FACTOR The record for oyster-eating by a visiting footballer, by the way, is 16

dozen, so Sid's effort was a very mild one.

As could be gleaned from the reports of the manager and coach, there were shortcomings in team leadership.

Johnny Smith is a wonderful player and excellent chap but I consider his chief fault as a captain is his modesty.

He does not talk enough on the field —by talk I mean giving instructions, giving orders, giving the team the full benefit of his knowledge and experience.

When Johnny docs this he should make the ideal captain, since he certainly sets the example in his own play. This is where Stan Young failed as leader of the forwards. Forwards cannot be led from behind. One only has to recall the deeds of Pausina at Auckland when he was appointed vice-captain and was out in front leading them in their devastating onslaughts which won the game. A competent Otago judge summed the Northland side up thus: 70 per cent Johnny Smith, 20 per cent Peter Smith and 10 per cent Nau Cherrington.

May the experience of 1947 be an education to Northland and its army of football fans. May the £IOOO prove a sound long-term investment.