THEIR BATTLES FOUGHT OVER AGAIN.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLI, Issue 51, 13 March 1906, Page 4

THEIR BATTLES FOUGHT OVER AGAIN.

In the course of . an iiabc-rvlew, Deans (Canterbury) and Hunter . (Taranaki) stated that the Rugby. ■ groumls at Home were about equal ' to those in New Zkialand — certainly, ' not better. In fact, aomie of tluan ] wens worse t. an many of the grounds in the colony, Referring to the match against Scotland, they, .described the Scottish forwards as being very clever with their footwork, with good pac<i and solid defence ; in fact, they were equal, | man to man, to the New- Zjbalandors. In the .scrums the New Zea- j land forwards gained the advan- • tage, but tho Scottish players counterbalanced this in tho lineout and dribbling. The Scottish backs were a fine lot, especially the McLeods, and the half-back Simpson, who was considered as g6od . as any half-back met with On trltj • tour. The Scottish d.foflef. wafe brilliant and the attack good. The . Only fault apparently was\. that • the backs lacked combination. i The Irish forwards ; were found ; to be a clever lot, especially in footwork, but the strong, point of the New Zbaland pack \yas in thu tackling, in which veryfew mistakes were made. During the whole tour the New Zealand for- | wards saved their banks a tre- ' '■ mendous amount of work ifl. thia j I respect, and tho backs wero en- | ! ablcd to keep comparatively fresh ■ I and put thuir whole strength into ! attack. .. ( The passing of the Wel&h International toam Was good, but their kicking w * s brilliant, the . fullback, Winfield, i_-pt— g> strong. This kicking was an important factor in the match, for • it saved the Welsh forwards a lot ' of work, and saddled the New Zfealauders with more, and, in their condition, they were 'apparently least able to stand it. Hunter and Deans unreservedly . declared (although both ar« backs) | that one of the main reasons for j the success of the tour was t'ho . tjrilli'ant work of tho forward*, and I sufficient praise could not bo given j them. Asked whether he thought the New Ztealanders should have ! won the Welsh match, Hunter said that, on the day's play, ho did j not think they should havo Won. To use his own words — "''Wo playod a horrible game, especially the backs. The forwards did not tackl« as they had btecn doing— they did not have the ginger they had bten showing -in the earlier part of the tour. It was not one or two of tho hacks that messed things up— it was every one of the •backs." "Was that because you were stale, or suffering from tha strain of the tour?" was suggested. '.'I do not know,'-' replied Huntor. ("It seemed like it. It seomod K'ko one of thog. days when every-, thing went wrong."