Championship Matches.

NZ Truth, Issue 112, 10 August 1907, Page 2

Championship Matches.

{By, "Pakeha,"}

Perfect weather favored toeballers and followers of the winter pastime on Saturday, the conditions all round being as decent as they could possibly be at this seasonable period of the year. At the Park, Poneke just squeezed home from Melrose 3 to nil, and Wellington unexpectedly, downed St. James by 5 to 3. On the suburban ground, Petone came with a sensational sprint m the last twelve minutes of the game and upended Oriental by 11 to 9. At Miramar Athletic beat Old Boys comfortably by 16 to nil. Some fine forward play was shown at Petone last Saturday, when the Oriental and suburban combinations again tried conclusions. The nme was fast and open, and to the end of the first spell was fairly even, much more so than the score atthat stage of the game would indicate, for although Oriental were leading by 9 points to nil, it was because they had made use of the opportunities that came its way, a department wherein Petone had failed. In the second spell, however, it was seen that Petone meant business, and they pressed its opponents for- the greater part of the spell. Petone's'forwards were playing a fine game, especially on the l Uite and m the loose forward rushes, but Oriental were slightly superior m the solid. Tynr*. •Hvrn'?. anil McGill for Petone, and A. Wells, Warbrick, and Lile for Oriental were always prominent. ' From the play on the part of the Oriental team, it was evident that it was resting contentedly on the substantial lead it had gained, and was quite satisfied to keep the suburban men out. The latter, howeverv appeared- to be playing with greater heart as time drew on, and although at a quarter of an hour before time they had not commenced to score, they came with such o rattle that when the bell rang they were leading Oriental's score by two points. The game was an excellent example of that old adage that "a game is never lost till it is won." Had Oriental remembered that- attack is the best defence, and played as it did m the first, spell, m the writer's- opinion, they must undoubtedly have won. Petone. on the p.l?w. deserved its win, and are to be congratulated on. the way it stuck to its task. The spectators were treated to some excellent - "wing" play. as Tync for Petone played a •p;reat- game, and A. Wells for Oriental was 'also giving of his best, his dribbling beins: very trood. to watch. Amongst the Petone backs, the bulk of the work fell to Green and J. Ryan, and they were- always to |:e depended on. Reid on the wine; and M. Ryan at full also ably assisted. In the Oriental pack, Warhriek. an ex-Aucklander, was always m Voe thick of it, and gave a .stood exhibition, handling the- balPand kicking m a way. seldom seen now .amongst Wellington , forwards. His. pcttr-d goat was a beauty. Lilo was plso m great , heart. ?nd did an immense amount of work m the afternoon. - .....!.... H'ighet at full for. Oriental was patchy m the first spell, but m Ihe second half he was particularly safe, until he received a rather" severe knock-out. Cleary, .plavin- at h-nlf, was given a hard, day's work, . hut did it well, and was always looVin.s for more. Tobin,, promoted "from the third-class ranks, was nlatri ntr ,at centre three-quarter, and showed much promise. He . needs, however, to get to his man miicker. when his opponents nro httpekinp. A great deal of unnecessary "dumping," m which Petone were the chief offenders, was noticeable during the game, especially after a man had got m his kick, and this seemed to wholly escape the notice of the referee, m fact, .as the game progressed it became the practice of several Petone forwards to down an opponent, even although the latter may have got rid of the ball with a couple of yards to spare. Byrne, McGill, • and Driscoll were very consistent offenders m this respect, and were encouraged by . the way a section-of the crowd showed its appreciation. The match between Wellington and St. James was a very open, fast game, and on the play was of ah even nature. St. James forward's lacked the dash that characterised their play against Petone, while the backs played much below their usual standard. Wellington, on the other hand, played with great dash and determination, and fought strenuously from the start. A prominent Wellington forward told me that the team had been training heavily for the game, hence its good showing. Amongst the forwards, Wilson for Wellington was very prominent all through the game, his line-out work being especially good. Carev did good work on the wing and Malr froyd shone prominently at times. Of the backs, Hill stood out prominently, and made some fine, slashing runs. One . smart sprint took him to St. James line, and it was hard "cheese" for him that the ball was "held." He really deserved the try. The kicking of fan yellow backs was very good all through. Stewart shone m the loose work, his dribbling being of a very hia;h order. Bruce, Manning, and Wright were also prominent.

■— » . ■ II ll .I I. I 1 1.1 .. With regard to the St. 'James team, it is only fair to state that some of the players through various injuries were not playing up to their usual standard. O'Connor, Neilson, and Roberts were most prominent m the rearguard. - The Old -Boys v. Athletic teams were evenly . matched forward, but m the back division, the blues held the upper hand all .through. .The try by James was the outcome of some smart passing, m which all the badks, with ' the exception of the full, had a hand. The Old Boys had slightly the best of it m serum work, the blues being handicapped by the absence of their lock Baker, who had not recovered :from an injury received the previous week. In the line-out work too the whites were better than their opponents, but m loose forward play, the blues were the superior. Blacklock, who. played full for Old Boys, was very safe, and saved his side on numerous occasions. Hawson had. little to do, and was not prominent. The other backs were only ordinary, and there was a complete absence ,of any, attempt at combination. , Gardiner, on the wing, was the most, conspicuous man on his side, and put m some really good work. /The Alexander Bros., Avery, and 'Jacobson were the pick of an even set of forwards. Tom Hales was pressed into service by. the blues, and gave one of his best performances at lull-back. James,- of the junior team, filled a vacancy, and came through without mishap, doing some fine line kicking, and promises to develop into a good scoring man. O'Meara and Gordon at five-eighths did not .play into one another's hands, but made some nice openings for the other backs. Pownall, at half, played his usual consistent game. Evensen was the pick df the three-quarters, but would do better . if , he had more confidence m himself. His goal-kicking on Saturday was good, converting two with beautiful, kicks. Bell, Osborne, Wilson, and Standen were perhaps the pick of the blues very even set of forwards. The goodly-sized crowd winch found its way to the Athletic Park to watch the struggle between those old rivals, Melrose and Poneke, was not favored with either an entertaining or skilful exposition of Rugby. On the contrary, it was singularly uninter- , esting, and for the most part approached absolute dreariness. The rival packs took charge of . oper?jtions, both slogging m with bulldo?; determination, and eschewing the skilful tactics which go to make up for the discomfiture of their oppo-nc-nts. (There were plenty of wild, rushing charges, m which no vast amount of coni'biinia'tiO'n .was dished up, individual rather than collective showing being, prominent all through. In tL° open the red and black scrumniagers did the best work, the opposing vanguaid having the best of the deal m, tight work. Melrose scrumin a^ei a were the most strenuous pushers, and lasted better than the Poneke packmen. ■ Melrose got the ball oftener, fout th : e advantage was not seized upon to any material extent. When the ball di-d get g01n.2; amongst the red and blue rearguard, the want ■df resource, sharpness, and skilfulness was a factor m t losing coveted territory. With the exception of two or three bright exceptions, the Poneke backs did net show to great advantage. The fault which McGhie has of cuddlintg the ball spoilt chances for the threequarter line, which 1 , however, was too frequently out of position to be an aggressive combination when the atftack of its forwards was driven to within striking distance of the Melros>e citadel . The Melrose bracks did serviceable Ins-kicking, a policy which assisted 'greatly to conserve the strength of thoir forwards, who came strongly m the second spell, and Poneke had all its work cut out to stem their repeated bullpcky charges.' For some unexpladnable reason, the red and black rearguard made little use of the touch-line, and. its poor kicking jarred terribly on the nerves d! barrackers. The stopipifli'ff and tackling of both back divisions was fairly solid. As regards fielding and manipulation of : the leather, Melrose. was the surer, the red and black men fumbling, and handling inaccurately not infrequently. .• Taking tho game right .through", the Melrose representatives put up the better all-round game, and Poneke had a big slice of luck m, fluking those three points which gave it the .victory. The line work of .either forward division was not a thing to enthuse ■over. .Melrose fought o5 the neatest work m this department. The footwork of some of the Pon&ke forwards was nicely executed, and contrasted strongly with the "heU-for-leather" style of footing adopted by most of the red and blue scrummagers. The packing;: of the Melrose scrummers made for greater solidity than was the case with Poneke, whose wheeling tactics when put into execution ended fruitlessly by' reason of the feverish anxiety of the left side support and one •ot the back-rankers to break away before the rush was engineered. Neither the Poneke nor the Melrose backs combined as they should have done This was clearly m evidence whenever their forwards were holding the upper hand. In attack', the red and black three-quarter line stood miles too deep, it was exactly the < reverse with .the Melrose three-quar-ters and five-eighth. •• • Dan Tcoliill made a couple of slashing runs, one of which brought down the: house, so to speak. The elusiveness of-the Poneke wing three-

quarter beat the whole cordon of Melrose 'backs, and tat for a pass forward to Patrick whea\ a clear field was his, Poneke would have notched another three points for oertain. Dan made the mistake of transferring the leather to the centre when he - should have gone right on. Patrick bellowed for the pass, however, though he was racing fully a couple of yards lin front o f Dan, and, the. latter .responded to the invitation^ A controversy arose as to the correctness of the referee's decision m awarding the try scored by Mentiplay m the first part of the game. It was contended by some sitting m the vicinity that -^he ball had struck the pavilion post and rebounded into play before Men tip! ay got his maulers on to it. Others averred that it had not touched the post and) that the try was a perfectly legitimate one. One of the Melrose backs is reported to have said that the referee's decision was correct. Anyway, Jack Weyfoourne was satisfiedi, on investigating the circumstances, that Mentiplay was entitled to the try. A clever "fooling" dash by Tilyard was responsible ..for giving Poneke a slashing chance to cross the red and blues' chalk-mark, but McGhie, to whom thC'lea/ther had been passed, held on too long, and was .downed) before he could effect a transfer to Patrick. . • ■ ' Melrose lost two capital chances of putting up three points through indiscriminate booting on the part of a forward when toeing the leather to the opposing goal-line. The player who throws away golden chances by reason of ithisi asinine policy should be given a rest on the bank until better sense has been driven into his skull-box. , Charley Slater was ' not up to his best form, has fielding and marking lacking accuracy and sureness. His stopping", however, was solid. . As regards his kicking powers, more "leggedness" would have proved beneficial. . Toohill was sharp and active m attack, and his kicking was forceful and generally serviceable. Dan was not wanting when it came to saving graft. He handled the leather capitally, and aroused hearty plaudits by taking one sky-scraping pass with the dexterity of a master hand. Patrick was solid m defence, and Wogan played with greater confidence than m previous matches. The youngster has a had hah-it of getting out of position, and this, probably lost him a cert try. His handling and) kicking might have been improved upon. McGhie did a heap of valuable saving work- His penchant for clinging to the ball is still as pronounced as ever, and his centre-three-quanter had good reason to complain of his re-miss-ness m this respect on Saturday. McGhie should stand deeper to bis half when on attack. . Tilyard played very souhdl? behind the scrum. He got winded badly m the first spell, a-nd the effect was to take a lot of ginger out of him for a great portion of the remainder of the play. For his weight and inches, the lad is as plucky and smart as they make 'em. He seems to have • more resource that the Petone scrum-half. Rush shaped grandly m the forward division, and was at the head of nigh every charge. Mentiplay, and; Calcinai also caught the eye often. Griffiths, on the wing, was slick and troublesome to the other backs, but was lucky to escape penalisation for getting round on to the other side's pack too quickly. Shepherd, the Melrose full, was very safe, his kicking being a bright feat- 1 ure. Claridge and Marshall (wings) were not overburdened with toil, the latter being the most reliable of the pair. Beavis (osntre) was fairly good, but Church, five-eigbith, rendered fine service to his side. Hds kicking, tackling, and stopping were marked by accuracy, soundness, and sureness. Kerr, behind the scrum, was somewhat) slow m getting the ball away, but he defended- solidly. Better harmony between him and his five-eighth would work out • more productive results for their team. In 'the vanguard none rendered abler assistance than Dan Gilchrist, who played a sterling game from start to no-side. Hamilton and De Blois grafted like itrojans all through. King and Sullivan were to the fore often,, the former spoiling the Poneke half times out of number.