THE ENGLISH FOOTBALLERS

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12609, 25 June 1904, Page 6

THE ENGLISH FOOTBALLERS

TIEIR PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS. HEAVY FORWARDS, LIGHT BACKS. INDIVIDUAL MEMBERS CRITICISED. [FROM OCR special COBESSPONDKNT.] SYDOTtT, June 17. THE noble sires of Britain of 200 years ago would have scoffed and have observed " gadzooks," *' Avaunt." and "hence, deranged one," and a lot of other things, if it had been hinted that their descendants would one day journey 15,000 miles to decide on the fields of the antipodes the question of supremacy in the manipulation of the football. Yet here we are with a cheerful, ruddycheeked, band of sturdy young Britons, stout of heart and confident in their skill, halting in Australia before they continue their career towards the southern end of the earth to decide the fateful question of the Bugby supremacy of the Empire The British team has already created a favourable impression here—off the field. What they will do in their warpaint we must leave till to-morrow. It is the quiet demeanour of the men that has created such a favourable impression, and I think New Zealanders will, when the team comes your way, endorse the Australian verdict. There is absolutely no sign of the " rough" element about them. There are one or two broad-shouldered, heavy limbed, square-jawed gentlemen among them, who look as if they will fight to a finish—they are the forwards— but there is nothing of the burliness, nor of the characteristic granite facial appearance of the raw, hard, colonial. It cannot be said either that there is any of the " Johnny" about the visitors, but still they are " quite English you know " in their queer cut jackets and their loose flapping weather coats. " A decent set of fellows," is the enthusiastic comment yon hear of those who have travelled with them. There is no objectionable frill about them, and take them for. $11 in all, they are much quieter in appearance and manner than the average representative Bugby combinations of Australasia. As appearances are deceptive it would be wiser to adopt the .American plan of not prophesying until you know as to the physical quality of the combination. One thing, they do not look anything like their reputed weights—the forwards are sot down at averaging 13st lib— with few exceptions, they are generally small in stature—indeed, Morgan, the brilliant flyer, credited with even time, and of being the roost dangerous i threequarter living, is a wee chap, whom New Zealanders will have seme difficulty in finding. But, if the Britishers are to bo believed, he rivals an expert monkey in his trickiness. We shall see.

As the team marched into the Town Hall at Sydney with the quaint cries of the song of welcome given to them by the Te Aute boys ringing in their ears, they looked anything but a likely lot to face some of the star forward divisions of New Zealand Bugby. " They are light," said jut. George Stephenson, the old Otago player, who is now a prosperous theatrical manager here, " Why," he continued, as more of them filed in. " New Zealand will walk over them." Whoever could tell what sort of a man Sandow was until he was stripped ? It may be so with Britain's Kugby players, who may prove that they are not nearly so inoffensive aa they look. An opinion was ventured to " Tom" Pauling, who towered over the company that " Wairarapa would eat them"—physically, of course. Pauling did not seem to think so. " Take my word for it," said the old New Zealand player, " these men will strip well." So we shall therefore have.to leave the question of their physical prowess, which means a good deal when they have to meet the men who are hardened up with polar blasts, until they strip. One thing, however, stripping will not do —it will not put inches on to them, and with the exception of several yards of Welsh bone and muscle named Sharland, and one or two others, there are not many tall men amongst the visitors, 'this six-footed gentleman from Llaandywllylldryllwgnadr, or something to that effect, tips the beam at 14st 101b.

The captain of the team, D. B. Be-dell-Sivright, is a splendid type of young Scotsman. His voice, when he responded for his team, revealed his , heather-land nativity—a Scot tinged with the culture of an English university. I shall be very much surprised if this lusty Caledonian, with his big beaming face and great width of shoulders, is not what we Maorilanders would call a tip-topper in the scrum. Bedell-Siv-right is a fine-looking man, with large dark eyes, a keen expression, and a jaw that looks like business. If beaten." he says, "we will take our beating well; but it must not be thought that we have come out to play skittles." , The physical surprises of the team are the stars of it—the great Welsh four-threequar-Llewellyn, Morgan, Gab© and Jowett. Not one of them is over list, and the famed Llewellyn and Morgan are only 10st 6lb each. It is astonishing to a New Zea--lander to learn that so little beef and bono can be so wonderful in the field. Jowett. who is actually mentioned in the same breath as Gywnn-Nicholls. acknowledged both in. Britain and Australia to be one of the.greatest of threequarters, is only 10st. Absolutely the heaviest backs in the team, except the aristocratic-looking Stanger Leathes, who is a real heavy-weight, are the ex-New Zealanders, O'Brien and Mcßvedy, their weights being list 61b and list 41b respectively. This lightness of the bock division, which is the strength of the team,'sets one thinking. Are we in for a revelation in Rugby ? Can men of that small stature display so much skill as to beat the sturdier and clever players that we produce in New Zealand? If you hazard the opinion to the confident Britisher that his star threequarters are light he meets you with the response " Yes. they are little fellows, but they are full of tricks. If we can only get the ball we are sure there is nothing in New Zealand to stop our backs."

Forward, the team is very weighty. There i are eight men over Wat, and they are 1 credited with some foot—but here again the ; New, Zealander is set thinking harder than ever as to what the struggle on the Rugby fields of New Zealand is going to reveal. | England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland all ! tumble into the scrum together. The firs? man up puts his head down. Edwards of Ireland. Sharland of -Wales, and Trail of Scotland, may bo the front-rankers in one scrum and in the next they may be in the hack row. I fancy I hear a huge chuckle across the Tasman Sea. What would a pair of hookers" like Swindley and Young, or Tyler and Gallaher. say to this ? " You astonish me," said a New Zealander to one of the Britishers. " Why, the scrum is one of the basic principles of our play in getting possession of the ball." The gentlemen who are travelling from one end of the earth to the other to play Rugby probably do not want to be taught anything in the fascinating art of extracting sustenance from eggs. So we must leave it until August 13 so far as they are concerned. If the Britons with a scrum formed on this higgeldypeggildy principle can secure the ball from a team which has men trained for that special purpose, then we are in for a painful discovery. The Britishers all seem to recognise that the real test of their strength will not take place until they cross the Tasman Sea. Their inquiries about New Zealand are those of anxious, deeply interested men. A tremendous interest, too, will follow them from this country to New Zealand. At present one hears far more discussion as to their Chances against New Zealand than against the Australians. However, to-morrow's contest may alter all that, and with the Britishers in a soft condition the New South Welshmen may make a good show. One of the Britishers who thinks more of St. David's Day than any other in the calender has been gleaning a little information about New Zealand. The Sydney grounds are very hard. Were the fields like that in New Zealand? Did it ever rain there? " Well—yes—sometimes," responded a simple-minded Maorilander who has lost sight of tho sun in his country in the heavy mists of Antarctic squalls for weeks together. The Britishers want something soft to play on. It would be a pity to disappoint them. The Britishers have set their faces against all Sunday entertainment, and consequently excursions to Hawkeslmry on the Sabbath do not appear on their programme. The members of the team, it is stated, are only) allowed 2s ? day for extras. Not much opportunity for roystering on that allowance.