FOOTBALL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17205, 5 July 1919, Page 11

FOOTBALL.

THE RUGBY GAME. TO-DAY'S MATCHES. TWO REPRESENTATIVE GAMES. Two representative games will be played to-day under the Auckland Rugby Union. Auckjand will play Thames, at Thames, and the "Under 20 Reps." will meet a combined King's and Grammar team on the Domain, in a match in aid of local charities. In- ' dications are that Thames is able to put a good team in the field, as the game has been flourishing this season. The other game will certainly be good, as the college boys and the reps, have been playing consistently during the season. Pritchard, of King's College, will nos be able to play in the College team. His place will be filled by the selectors this morning. NEW ZEALAND CHAMPIONS. DEPASTURE FOR SOUTH AFRICA. | [FROM OTT& OWK CORRESPONDENT.] LONDON, May 23. At the invitation of the nign Commissioner for JNew Zealand (Sir 1 nomas Mackenzie) tne members of the executive of tne iNew Zealand War Contingent Association met at his office on Tuesday afternoon to | say farewell to the New Zealand Divisional football team, which has had an almost unbroken series of successes in this country, ana finally won tne King's Cup in the interservices competition. Sir Joseph \Vard congratulated the team on the way they had upneld in the football field New Zealand's reputation as a fighting country. When they defeated the Mother Country the other day the thought that was uppermost in the mind was that after all the people of the Mother Country were not so far behind them in that form of sport which had done so much for the stamina of our men in the fighting front. (Applause.) He congratulated Sir Thomas on the manner in which he had carried out the duties of High Commissioner. It showed that a few years' absence from New Zealand had net made him at all inferior to those who had remained behind. Mr. I. "W. Raymond thanked Sir Thomas Mackenzie for the opportunity of meeting the team, all the members of which were introduced by Major Cameron. Major Cameron himself replied' on behalf of the team, and expressed his confidence that their future record would equal their past. The captain of the team, Sergeant-Major Ryan, also thanked the gathering. The team had always shown its form in the second spell, and it could only do this by careful training and by looking after itself off the field. Several times they had been down on the first spell, but they had always come to their own in the second. They realised they had a duty to perform to New Zealand, and they also realised that they themselves set the standard of Rugby in this country now-a-days, and that they had to play up to that standard. (Applause.) Lastly, he wished to say how much they owed to the fact that they had never been meddled with. It was recognised at Hornchurch that they had a duty to perform, and they had been left alone to get fit for it and to keep fit. (Loud applause.)

UNDER LEAGUE RULES.