THE ALL BLACKS

New Zealand Times, Volume LI, Issue 12022, 27 December 1924, Page 8

THE ALL BLACKS

WILL THEY BEAT ENGLAND; WONDERFUL RECORD TO DATE. Interest in the national game of young Now Zealand has been lost ■with the advent of eummer this year. Ibut has been kept very much to the forefront by the tour of the All Blacks in the Old Country, and particularly by their record of success after success (writes “Dark Blue’** in Dunedin “Star”). For a start the results were not ton promising, but once they got into their stride, so to speak, the scores increased to more substantial figures. The “critics” predicted disaster when certain teams were encountered, particularly Wales and Cumberland, but in both cases the New Zfeal&nder* won comfortably, and did not havo even a single score registered against them. In only three cases, in fact—in the matches against Newport, Cambridge and Llanelly—did the All Blacks have to battle really hard to hacome victors. In other matches in which'the New Zealanders did not put up very largo scores the' weather was bad. The element of luck is very much greater on a wet than on a fine day, and it is often hard for the best team to* score in the wet. RECORDS ESTABLISHED. While the present All Blacks have established a wonderful record to date by winning twenty-six matches in succession. they have a chance, by winning the two remaining matches; ’of establishing what will be regarded as a world’s record in the game. To their credit, too, is the splendid record of being the only ■visiting side to come out of Wales undefeated. All lovers of the game m this country will be looking forward eagerly to the results of 'ho next two gnuiee, against London Counties on December 27th, and against England on January 3rd. The former suit wa-q well beaten in the first match by 31 to 6, but on the next occasion they will probably be a «trmisr«v side. The English selectors will probably* utilise this match to give most of their international side a canto*. ; CHANCES AGAINST ENGLAND The chances of success in the English match am very bright. So far the All Blacks have beaten all the best English teams, in most cases comfort? «*-bly, and have beaten two international fcides with good scores for international matches. True, in the case of Ireland the score was only 0 to 0, but reports stale that, had the weather been fine, the New Zealanders would probably have scored a great many more points. Advice from Home also indicates , that tho back play is not nearly so good ae that of the All Blacks. Iu trie forward division our men seem to have met some strong packs, but in tho majority of cases they have triumphed. With a forward pack in front of them that will probably hold its own, and that will, in ;*ny *vont. not bo badly beaten, our back** should bo able to do as well as m other games. There io always the danger of u team going “stale” towards the end of a long and strenuous tour, hut, happily. there have been no eigns of this bo far. This must be accounted a very satisfactory feature, particularly in view nf the fact that a fair number of the players have been on the casualty list. The lOC'S team undoubtedly went, a little ‘‘stale” at the end of tbs tour, but in tho case of the present

wearers of the black jerseys and fern leaf there has fortunately been nothing of that kind reported. This is a good reason for being confident that New Zealand will emerge victors in the international contest with England. NEEPTA’S GREAT PERFORMANCE. If a player in a senior team goes through an ordinary season in New Zealand of about fifteen games, and does not miss a match, his record is looked upofi as noteworthy. But what about the record of G. Nepia, the All Black full-back, who has turned out in every ono of the twenty-six matches of the English tour ? / His play* too, has been uniformly good, this fact being admitted even by the severe critics at Home. Surely this is a remarkable individual record. Nepia, who is only nineteen years of age, has contributed over half a century to the team’s total scores to date. JOTTINGS. In a description of the game between Leicester and l the All Blacks, a Leicester paper says that Steel not only ran past fouc players, but he “had the nerve” to run right behind the goalposts and score. In the best football circks in England this sort of thing is simply “not done.” From the “Daily Mail,” whteh picked Wales to defeat New Zealand: —“They packed solidly, and even the extra man did not help Cumberland to hold them when they chose to use their weight. Nor, when they chose, did the tourists fail to secure the ball, which was generally when Porter put it in. The colonial captain often skirts the border line of obstruction, but he is very clever with it, and he was not often penalised.” The opinion of Mr G. Barclay, of Hawke’s Bay, and an old Auckland player who has just returned from Home: —“They are a greater team than the 1905 team, arid will win every match. You can’t form any idea of the two teams from the scores, because football in England has come on a very great deal sinoe 1905. I have been in Britain for the past two years, and have seen all the big games, including two against France, and after seeing the All Blacks in four of their matches 1 formed the opinion that tho only team likely to stop them was Oxford University. Now, since the result of that game favoured the All Blacks as it did, I am convinced they will win all their games. They will beat England.” A northern paper states that the New Zealand practice of playing fortyfive minute halves in first grade Rugby matches is bearing good fruit in the All Blacks’ tour. It is noticeable that the New Zealanders are outlasting their opponents in the eec<vrid halves, and the reason for this is gradually becoming apparent to English Rugbyites. Chib matches in England invariably last thirty-five minutes each wav. and the internationals, county games, 'varsity match. and interservice matches arc played in two forty-minute spells, so that when the players are called' upon to face an extra ten or twenty minuter? against an exnressTRte side such as the present All Blacks they simply can’t respond over the closing stages, and we so frequently read: “The visitors completely dominated the game in tho last few minutes”—or something to that effect. Mark Nicholle is going strong for the century. In twenty-five matches he scored eighty-seven points for the All Blacks Nepia fifty-seven. Hart fifty-three, Cooke forty-five. Parker thirty-nine. Svcnson thirty-nine, Steel thirty-seven, and Mill thirty-three. How much reliance may he placed on opinions of the English “super-critics” can be decided in a moment by rerusing the list of scores. “Nuff sed.”