FOOTBALL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume L, Issue 15482, 13 December 1913, Page 11

FOOTBALL.

THE RUGBY .GAME. ALL BLACKS ON TOUR. AMERICAN PRESS REPORT. American sporting writers are nothing if not, enthusiastic, and in commenting on the play of the New Zealand football team, they have given their powers- full play. The following extracts from Calilorniau journals will, no doubt, prove uglily interesting to followers of Rugby in the Dominion: * Oalifornian's First Score. The invincible All Blacks were scored on for the first timo since their arrival on the Pacific Coast in their contest with the University of California yesterday afternoon. Thirty-eight to three was the outcome of the fiercest game that the silver terns have played here. The 'varsity of the, State University crossed their opponents' line but once, but this was just enough to offset the reputation that the -New Zealanders were establishing. They have rim up a total of 270 points in the contests they have played, and none of their opponents have succeeded in crossing their goal-hue. lint yesterday this marvellous record was infringed upon, when Abrams, the. husky front ranker for the blue and gold, broke away from the lineout on the 10yd line and dropped over the goal for the three highly-valued points. Hie score 38 to 3 comes far from representing the day's contest. Manager Mason of the All Blacks says that yesterday's game taxed the ability of his men more, than any since his arrival. " From their showing," he said, "I believe that the collegians have improved wonderfully since our game two weeks ago." The All Blacks scored eight tries, two of which were added without any resistance from their opponents. Six of the total points were gained on free kicks. There is a certain haziness surrounding the three points scored against the victors. Not that there is doubt as to whether they were earned or not, but certain chain of odd events occurred which left the 8000 people present in a rather mysterious atmosphere. The California varsity came on to the field at half-time. Without any apparent resistance from their opponents, the All Blacks ran completely through the blue and gold, effecting two scores. The collegiates seemed glued to their footprints, presenting an indifferent attitude as to the addition of any more tallies. But just as the antipodeans seemed to have relinquished the strong defence that they had previously been maintaining, the Californians, imbued with new vigour, started a dribbling rush, carrying the oval to the All Blacks' 10vd line. MeKim receiving the ball on the line-out, broke away from Cain and Dewar, passed to his partner, Abrams, and the latter front-ranker went over the line. Just why California slowed down is the mystery. Some claim that it was a trick play, and that the inaction which permitted the visitors to roll up two tries without resistance was to take them off their guard. Others claim that, fearing injuries, the coaches had instructed the Californians to take care.

Visitors Resent Rough Play. Apparently the strenuous game that the California men played during the initial period was not altogether to the liking of the New Zealanders. A palpable inter ference with Wylie in front of goal when he was not playing the ball, and which the referee did not see, aroused the men from the islands. They started to play a strenuous game, and the things that they know about playing hard football wero worth while watching. They did not infringe on the rules, but wnen they hit a man they hit him hard. They tackled the California boys by the necks of their jerseys and, the material not being made to stand such a strain as the grip of tho New Zealanders, parted M left the California players standing stripped to the waist with nothing but their harness concealing the shoulders and collarbones.

• • McGregor's Zig-zag Run. "Gallery play," said Manager Mason, but the crowd deemed it the best bit .of Rugby they had ever seen. The drummer of the Stanford band grew so. enthusiastic that he smashed a great hole in the strong skin of his instrument. The cause of the excitement was a run by "Duggie" McGregor of the All Blacks at Palo Alto on Saturday. Securing the ball, with the Stanford fifteen facing him, the little wing-three-quarter discarded the usual ways, and sprinted _ through the whole team alone. He provided a weirdly melodramatic spec tacle. The other All Blacks, for once were onlookers; the solitary small dark figure darting through the grey-clad ranks, the vast crowd, hushed into silence by the colossal audacity of the deed. A dozen hair-breadth escapes, and he was over the line and had scored a try between the posts. Roberts's run against the Olympics was better Rugby, perhaps, but "this was more of a thriller, and how a crowd, even one versed in football technique and lore such as gathers &i Stanford, does like to be thrilled. The manager of the All Blacks declared that he would have to lecture "Duggie," but even the classical traditions of New Zealand Rugby may be forgotten occasionally just now to show the boys what brain, pluck, and pace can achieve. The youngsters in the schools for 20 miles around Palo Alto will talk about the run for months and it will lend zest to their play. For the rest of the afternoon the rooters had "Duggie" on the brain. "That's 'Duggio's' brother." they shouted when an All Black scintillated. " Don't let ' Duggie* get it," they warned the cardinal team.

For fifteen minutes tho -Stanford second team—that was practically what tho fifteen was on Saturday—made a fine fight. Perhaps the university people thought they might repeat last year's result, when the second team beat the Australians, but All Blacks are different. The visitors did not score quite so rapidly as on Wednesday, as 40-mimite halves were played, but they got 56 points, and it is the largest total of the tour.

"The Football Faculty." It lias been suggcfied that the Al) Black fullback bo provided with an armchair during the games. His is such a restful job. Cuthill, who holds down this job, on Saturday at the big smoking con cert, reforeed a boxing match between two of Stanford's fistic experts. Like his fullback work, the duties simply entailed looking after a few break-aways! The New Zealandors are justifying their title as the " football faculty." Last week Gray and Sellars were coaching Santa Clara and Captain McDonald and Dick Roberta are doing it now. On Saturday morning New ZeaJanders were putting a polish on the Palo Alto High School team. Later the Palo Alto High School polished off their San Matea rivals by 31 to 0. This shows that the winners quickly acquired the All Black statistical touch. Captain McDonald declares that California boys pick up new ideas more rapidly than any youngsters be has ever met. "Mac" lias been all round the world playing the game. At the smoking concert Stanford put over a good one. A group of apparent All Blacks, but with shoulders, calves, and chests that looked suspiciously like pad ding, came on the stage and gave a highly. humorous rendering of the All Black veil. They also sang special verses composed about the visitors. It was the hit of the night and they had to give an encore. No one enjoyed the joke on themselves more heartily than the real All Blacks, St. Mary's College Play Well. With less than 150 students to draw upon and only four years' experience of Rugby. St. Mary's College boys gave an astonishing display against the pick of New Zealand yesterday afternoon. The boys'came within a hair's breadth of scoring. For some desperate minutes the ball hovered on the All Black goal-line, and throughout the game the collegians played with fine pluck and an evident determination to score if it were humanly possible. St. Mary's has only sustained two defeats this season, and it can inscribe the second battle, with the All Blacks, as equal to many a victory. For fifteen schoolboys to play the game they did against an invincible collection' of

internationals was a fine performance. Where all did well, Guptil at five-eighths and Saner at halfback were the shining lights. Roth stopped the All Black rushes time and again with deft kicks. Guisto, Oescharger. and Montgomery were the most conspicuously good of a hard-working band of forwards. More Mud. The All Black had another quaint surface to play upon. The mud at St. Ignatius was not quite so stodgy as it ' was on Monday at Berkeley, but what it } lacked in stodginess—and it did not lack j much— mado up in slipperiness. Pass--1 ing was not quite so impossible as in the ' Monday game and the backs delighted the '■ small crowd with some lino bouts of hand--1 to-hand work. Dick Roberts, Teddy Roberts (no relation), Cuthill, Loveridge, and McKenzic were constantly in the limelight. 1 Rut two games on mud in three days was I a hit thick, even for All Blacks. i Captain McDonald played another spleu- ' did game, and is evidently quite back in i his old 1905 form—the form that so won ' the admiration of the people of Scotland ' that they presented him with a gold medal, - though he scored three tries against their • country and caused her defeat. McDonald > is considered one of the greatest forwards ' in the world to-day and he played up to > his reputation yesterday. He contrives to f play a strenuous, hard game, without ever ; descending to roughness, and this is one • of the hall marks of the really great footi bailer. Not a little of the 'fine lighting > of the All Blacks is inspired by the per- ■ sonality of their captain. Player Sent 03. The game was marred by an unfortunate 1 incident, Montgomery of" the St. Mary ' team being sent off 'the field by Referee ! Reading for striking Graham. The spectators called loudly for the expulsion of ! the All Black as well. The Bulletin re- ' porter did not witness all tho incident, but | those who did claimed that Graham pushed 1 Montgomery back because lie was offside • in the scrum, and that the St. Mary man ' hauled off and hit him. . Graham then struck back. Graduate Manager Nevis of ' St. Mary was indignant that Graham was ' not treated in the sanio way as Mont- ' gomery, and the affair is likely to come ' up at tho Rugby Union meeting. 1 Apart from this little storm in a puddle, the game was.contested in a vigorous, but ' friendly, spirit, and the teams cheered each other at the close. Santa Clara Match. Santa Clara University has reason to ' be proud of their Rugby fifteen. They ' played grand football against the All ' Blacks yesterday. ' The adjective grand" was used by one - of the New Zealanders, and these tersetongued athletes from the Southern Seas 1 are not given to exaggeration. Against an international team, with an awe-inspiring record, the college boys declined to be dopressed, and instead of confining their ; efforts to lukewarm defensive operations they launched their attack after attack, and for the first half at any rate, had ' more than their share of the play, and for ten minutes actually penned the All Blacks beneath tho shadow of their own ] goal posts. Tho clean, breezy, brainy tactics of Santa, Clara called forth from their superiors their best exhibition. Those who saw the California and Stanford games think this far-fetched. "How could the All Blacks play better?" doubters may ask. The answer is they did. Good at Berkeley, better at Stanford, tho AllBlacks wore best of all at Golden Gate Park stadium yesterday afternoon. There were various estimates of the dimension of the vast crowd that occupied the banks of the stadium, forming a deep, black mass at the two ends of the playing field, but ten to twelve thousand is a conservative figure. Unfortunately, most of the spectators had necessarily to be too far away to descry the finer points of the play, but their interest was attested by their thunderous applause and the more eloquent fact that they stayed until the end in spite of a bleak, fog-laden afternoon. All the superlatives in the language and several improvised specially for the purpose have already been lavished on the play of the All Blacks* themselves, and yesterday they surpassed their own high .'standard. . i The backs, to a man, played well, but Roberts was undoubtedly the most conspicuous. His exquisite balance enables him to swerve an opponent and travel down a foot of fairway without going into touch, Ho scored all three tries in the first half and took part in the securing of most of the others. "Duggie" McGregor was at it again. " It" means that zig-zag run of his, which begins with tho dodging of half a dozen or so men and terminates in a try. A j player who is less picturesque in his methods than some of the other All Blacks, but who is an all-important part of their machinery, is Gray. In New Zealand he is recognised as one of the most polished and resourceful men in the game and fully sustained his reputation yesterday. Both contests yesterday were fought out with stern keenness. There was nothing of the "after you, Alphonse," about the methods of the combatants. But the best possible spirit of sportsmanship was shown by all. That great old 15th century sportsman and sailor, Balboa, himself would have approved if ho had been there to see. The winning teams were presented with handsome silver-bronze models full-size Rugby footballs to decorate their club sideboards, and each player received a gold medal, also in the shape of a ball, attached to silk ribbons in the Portola colours. The All Blacks arc almost as proud of theirs as those silver ferns they invariably wear. The All Blacks Hate Mud. It is the ruin of their favourite scheme of play, but yesterday proved that they can evolve methods to suit the conditions. Even at ono mile an hour the backs contrived in tho second half to do some passing, and ono try was the result of their favourite elimination process with the attack of each man drawing one of his opponents on to him, until " Duggie" McGregor, unmarked, was able to step across the lino with a try. Eleven tries on such a day was gargantuan. The next big game the All Blacks play will be against All America Saturday a week. This is the match of the tour, the one Now Zealand, every man, woman, and child, wants to hear about. America will have a fine team. There is no doubt about it. The All Blacks have been participating in the popular pastime of picking tho American representatives, and admit that they had a stiff task in hand. Baseball fans who have seen the visitors play and marvelled at their skill have asked for a line on their class in baseball terms. To collect an aggregation of ball players of the same calibre as the All Blacks it would be necessary to pick tho best of the National and American leagues, and let them practice together and then send them abroad to play countries where baseball is in its infancy. There are only a million peoplo in New Zealand, but in the words of Manager Mason, "Rugby is a religion." In the city of Christchurch where the population is only 80,000, there arc 60 men's clubs and many boys' organisations, and they have to play on different days because there are not enough grounds to accommodate the games.

NORTHERN UNION GAME. TOUR OF AUSTRALASIA. TEAM LEAVES IN APRIL. By Telegraph— Association—Copyright. London 1 , December 11. The Northern Union team for Australasia will possibly sail on April 17, and certainly not later than April 24. Players participating, in the Cup League finals leave by the following steamer. The union has agreed that colonials nonresident hi England shall be eligible to play for the league against the tourists.