FOOTBALL.

NZ Truth, Issue 56, 14 July 1906, Page 3

FOOTBALL.

[(By, "Pakeha,"ji

Poneke upset Old Boys' apple-cart on Saturday m somewhat the same fashion that the ex-collegians did with the red and blacks m the first series of this season's competitions, the margin m this instance being somewhat larger. Sizeable mud-lakes were plentifully distributed over the playing area and m consequence the backs were placed at a disadvantage m handling the' greasy ball with sureness or making pace m the sloppy.going. Considering the state of the ground, the game was a fairly fast one and well, spiced with interesting incidents. Old Boys were minus the services of their customary front-rankers and goal-keeper, C. P. • Blacklock taking Buddies, place m the latter position. The hookers substituted for Dodd and. Watkins, however, were quite equal to Poneke's front-rankers m gettingpossession, the only difference being that while the red and black rearguard made the mpst of the chances that came its way, the Old Boys' back division, though defensively sound on occasions, was weak m: attack and tactically failed to drive home the advantages gained by f- spirited aggressive work on the part of its forwards. Excepting Moria Thomson, the (individual attacking system of the Old. Boys' rearguard was medicore. There were at least half-a-dozen instances m which the Old Boys' backs failed to turn their opportunities to fruitful account m the second spell. ; The cleverness of Poneke's rearguard m concerted attack shows up more clear.lv m i eyeiy succeeding matchv Judging by; its form against Melrose and Old Boys on days when the of , the •. ground militated muchly against effective back play, the nipp.iness, trickiness, ;sureness, quickness arid combination pi the red and blacks should make'things distressingly sultry for opposing combinations when the turf is dry and more favorable for the. execution of passing touts, .provided, of course, that the scrummagers are hot overmastered. If that; were the case, the back tactics, individually and collectively, would be seriously crippled. : Against Old Boys the all round su^ periority of Poneke's rearguard was' emphatic m every phase of back play:? They had a big.share of the ball and! every man ma<je the most vise of iil though the writer is not prepared tri say that every movement was fault-; less m its execution. The Poneke forward brigade was a very even one, and, taking the play right through, more consistent in;the solid and loose than the Old Boys scrummagers,. who; however, made some spirited rallies m the early part of the second spell. Had their effortsbeen assisted m a more- advantageous degree by, those behind tbeja.,; Pjpnsks; might not have been such •an jeasy winner when no-side, was called.^; ;The collusiveness of the smim'waiTifot so noticeable as m former matches, and the overloading of weight on: tne left flank the systematic, working: of the scrum 'for effective pushing purposes, ..- '. '■' '„.' ■'■; ■■-•, i - ■'■ •-.■■, ■• Probably the, best adepts m the art of passing m this colony. -apere Jimmy Duncan and >. Davy Gage, : The pair would have had a fit if they had been present at the Park oh Saturday to witness the ludicrous' attempts of one or two of the Old Boys' bacKs to use one hand m transferring; the greasy leather to a comrade, It is an unpardonable;, fault on a perfectly dry turf. Backs are apt tp* ■forget, nowadays that there is just as much art m passing the ball as m taking it. , Another iact should be temembered by J. P. Blacklock m particular j and that is the longer the run' a,man has at an opponent the, greater is his chance of beating him. I.am constrained to make this-remark m the light of an happening m the match under review when.: Dawson . sailed from half-way to intercept Mitehison. ' Of the rival goalkeepers, Blacklock brought off some neat saving, work, while Charley Slater was "as safe as a house and repeatedly broke the Old Boys' hearts by cleverly extricating his side - from danger at a nasty p inch' and when the least mistake would have spelt points to the other side. Charley is playing quite up, to representative form just now. More could' not be expected of one m the responsible position of full. Mona Thomson was ieasily the best of the Old Boys' rearguard, and the speedy threeqiiarter's allrpund play was highly commendable. The crowd deservedly cheered him when he quickly grabbed thy ball on his own chalkmark and though forced behind and partially capsized, recovered himself sufficiently to find touch well outside the quarter flag, Mitchinson scooped m a big slice of the honors on his side. The gritty little thrfeqiiiarter was prominent m all the attacking movements, while his smartness, resourcefulness, and watchfulness warded off two ugly opposing rushes right on his own goalline. The slightest hesitancy or fumble and/Old Boys would for a certainty have been over the red and blacks chalkmark.. Dan; Toohill is making a name for biroself lately as a try-getter. He notched two m this game, as did Instone. Dan's second try was a good one, though why he was not blocked at* an early stage of his run is one of those unexplainable things which so frequently crop up m Rugby. In this case the opposing wing was out of his place and the centre did not grasp the hane of affairs until too late. Wallace skilfully handled his 'team and got every ounce out of the backs. That Billy can slip along on a treacherous turf was evidenced that time when Mona Thomson, following up a return, drove the ball past all the opposing cordon of backs and a score ■ to Old Boys' credit was generally vp-' ted a cert. The' Poneke captain, how- i ever, came along under a great head of steam and beatinec the speedy Mona m the run, kicked the leather into

_ JMM ___^ i .;_,. _ touch amd so jsaved the situation. Wallace would, I think, /gain larger stretches of ground,, /by running straighter. There is a 1 Irit too much of the method for- my, liking. Horgen, Ins tone, and Walsh, played well and unselfishly. Walsh should correct a tendency to indulge m too high passing. He {transfers at the right moment, but the advantage gained is not infrequently, nullified by a sky-scraping pass:A. D, Thomson plenty of iPoneke forward onslaughts m good style. The Old Boys' half made some good openings, hue the unreliability of his five-eight threw away most of the chances. Thomson had good reason to sing out at the unnecessary vigor of a Poneke forward's tackling, the same player also being responsible for much off-side. That game won't pay against teams of the Petone and 'Melrose calibre. X . . Dawson was : not a success as fiveeighth and J. P. Blacklock was the essence of weakness at centre m the three-quarter . line. < / Sam Galbraith played a sterling game, his- bursts from the line-out singling themselves out for. special mention. ..jCallum and Tresize were also m ,eyidehce, though all shaped well. GriJßihs and Mann played finely on thiftW.ingi and both did heaps of"'-s^ou;ing : : : .sW prk..'as\\wellvas';-partici- :- pating jntjthe: passing Tjouts. Griffiths tackled with unerring sureness and soundness "' :';,'■■'■'',' ■/;'■■• 'X ' '•''''■ There tW^M a consensus' of ; opinion among Ihosfe best qualified, to seethe actual 'circumstance that Foneke's '■ second I,fy should, have -been disallowed by referee .Laws on the ground that the ball had; not, beten •qorrectly touched down by Walsh /when rushed ingbali; The' Wtriter must confess to a considerable feeling of uncertainty, m the matter and that 'being so he unhesijtatingly' says that the defending team sobuld have been, given the benefit ;6f the doubt. Avery stood right out >as the best forward m the' Old Boys' ranks, his tackling and line-out play being m prominence throughout. Alexander also deserves mention. Neither Gardner nor his fellow-winger shielded their half ftpm the attentions of Griffiths and. Mann. : , ;. -Play m the Athletic-Victoria' College . match was very ' one-sided . The ■^Ltliletic forwards completely .cVersha'dowed their opponents and pnly good tackling by the green backs and the wind prevented ;a* big score being run up against the College. ■ The * best of the College backs were Bogle and Dobbie. , Lynch wa.s the pick of the forwards, For Athletics, i Atkinson, at half played perhaps his 'best game of the season. O'Meara, besides scoring a couple of tries, gave ; his three-quar-ters their full share of the ball. Eyensen played his usual good game,. _The blue forwards had a dayr out "and, it would be unfair to- single any out .where all were at their best. y An unusual feature of the game was (she number of scrums oraerea Dy the referee five yards from the goal-line, the blues going , over the chalkmark no less than nine times with opponents, hanging on to them:- ' ; ': x The Or.iental-Melrose match; was a hard contested, wet-weather' game from start to finish. The forwards of either side were welßnatohed; Oriental, if anything, being the; •slightly better pack, especial)y m the , second spell. ■■ . ■ ' '•■■-■ " ' : 'y- M? ;."::■" The Oriental backs, however, m the first spell failed to assist their forwards, whilst the Melrose backs at the outset,. with one exception, fielded surely, and invariably "found touch.' ' In the second spell, however, the Oriental backs lent more assistance to [ their forwards who played with rej hewed vigor., , j The Oriental forwards all played well. Manning was the pick. This player has put on weight since last season and is playing with much more dash and vigor. Baskiville is a greatly improved player since he was dropped out of the team for a few Saturndays, and R. Wells, at wing forward, gave his best exhibition m Wellington. Roberts gave a good exhibition behind the scrum, as he always does m wet-weather game. It was funny to see him bump the curly Bill Adams and others over as if they were niiiepins. / - Highet showed improved form, but he still lacks confidence. , 'A little more pluck would make: him a very useful man for his club. Madden made his re-appearance at full-back and shaped very well. In the Melrose vanguard Jack Spen-i cer was the pick. Gilchrist and Bill Adams alsp worked hard.- The latter showed that his frequent penalties for "off-side" play have taught their lesson. Sullivan, on the wing, played his usual clean, hard-working game. The Melrose half shaped very well, and Mackay.took the ball and kicked well, but had no desire to run. The left wing-three-quarter was a sure thing to miss every kick that came his way m the second spell. George Spencer shaped well m the filrst spell and had any amount to do. He made one fatal mistake when he was caught napping by Baskiville, who snapped the ball from his toe. George is not seen at his best when a set -of bustling forwards get to him. The Petone team, though lacking the services of McGregor, had no difficulty m running through the Wellington team by 30 points to nil. The latter team, however, were much weaker than usual, only six or seven of the previous week's team taking the field. , J. Barber made his reappearance m the Petone team and though at the commenrement failed to take the ball cleanly he was quite his old self m the second spell, his kicking especially being very accurate. Green, the Petone half-back, though only a midget, is a clever little player, and for his years has a surprising knowledge of the tactics of the game. ; J. Ryan was very much' m evidence throughout the game, though his tries were due chiefly to I/lie weak tackling

pf the Wellington backs, none of'! whom were up to senior form. The Petone ground was very slippery, due to a ladies' hockey match taking place just prior to the Rugby game. Ttoe Union shpuld make ar- I rangements for these hockey matches j to be played on some other ground, especially on wet days. This should not interfere with the hockey, players, as I understand there are several other grounds available for them. Bell, of the Athletic scrumming j division received a nasty knock on the head during the progress of last Saturday's match m consequence of ; which he was compelled to quit the | field. It was not thought at the j time that the injury was a very serious one, but subsequent developments gave rise to some anxiety" on j the part iof his friends. > \ Was referee Lark correct m giving that potted goal to Roberts ? Pub- j lie opinioni said No, it .being contended that the ball passed a few inches j outside the post. The Ories were awarded, a goal just as Melrose were | on the previous Saturday, through j the referee unintentionally making a | mistake which, however, proved a costly one for the red and blues who otherwise would have claimed a draw against their opponents. The writer argues- that the referee was not. ■ m"; a true position to see the actual flight of the ball when Roberts potted/ As to the scene which, followed at the coitcltision of the game, the 'daily; press, has 1 : been making far 1 . too, much capital but of 'it; A few hoodlums certainly did jeer the referee and one . cross-eyed, cari;otty lout went so far as to jostle that official, but a dangerous glitter . m Beenie Gallagher's orbs made,: .him slink away like a whipped cur: Anyone would ,think from the accounts ■ published m the "Post" and "Times" that ail Hell liad been let loose for the nonce, and their ridiculously imaginative statements are just on a par with the columns of "slush" 1 dished up last seaspn. about the "rug-, by rough," etc; In the present instance thete was nothing approaching the London rough or Sydney push tactics ; simply a few idiots, blinded with club partisanship, and absolutely devoid of proper decency, making a noisy demonstration m their own peculiar bawling way against the referee, who mistakenly gave a decision which did not' dovetail with their idea of the fitness bl things. , It 1 is only fair to state that prominent members of the Melrose Club entirely- dissociate themselves from the tactics adopted by the half-a--dozen larrikins on this occasion, and they express keen regret for the incident which can only serve to bring discredit on their club. As to the hooliganism, etc., which it has pleased the press, and particularly "Gran-, n"." to paint m such lurid colors, "Pakeha" can only say that it is the .damndest rot ever published, and why papers of such standing should lend .themselves ,to the publication of .so much atrocious muck is past comprehension. • 'A suggestion has been thrown out —and m mv opinion it is a good one —that the most effective way to 1 stop any demonstration against a referee when coming off the field would be for the Park Company to post no- : tices m ' conspicuous parts of the' <?round warning .spectators against encroaching on the playing area,' and prbsecutinia: the individual who has. the temerity; to ignore the regulation. ' Theihaulin^ before the •« "Beak" 'of the first offender who sets at naught the ) edict wotild doubtless have a salutary effect' upon ; those ignbramuses who imagine m; their own tinnot way ..that the knowledge of fug-, by law is buried deep, m their small brain-boxes. ; . /. . Dear "Pakeha,','— Now that the junior Rugby fixtures are -drawing to a, close and the Rugby Union has made itself a laughing stock, by the haphazard way m which 'they have made j the appbintinents to the Junior Seiec-: tion Committees, .might I -make.'v suggestion that the above Committee , arrange for a junior trial match, to i take place: before the final selection pf ' players. This, J contend, is [ only m fairness to the players, because the j Selection Committee, as now consti- .| tuted, has been unable 1 to follow up the juniors as it should have done.. Haying toeen a junior myself, I can assure you that the Rugby Union's methods are not at all encouraging to our players.— Yours, etc., "AXE." (The present policy of- the Rugby Union in ' regard to the appointment of junior representative' selectors undoubtedly calls for drastic remedy. The Union has apparently seen tbe error of its way m nominating men who are unfitted to -hold a position on this 'Committee of Selection and m the interests of the junior players it is desirable that immediate steps should be taken to replace them by more capable selectors.— "Pakeha,.")