PONEKE O. ORIENTAL

NZ Truth, Issue 156, 13 June 1908, Page 3

PONEKE O. ORIENTAL

Neither of these teams were fully represented — Wallace, Mitchinson, Calcinai, Rush. Mentlpiay, and Paul being absent from Poneke, and Roberts and Thompson from Oriental. The game was not an interesting one from a spectator's point of view. Both teams lacked combination, but there were some fine individual effo/rts. Warbrick played well on the wing, and was of great assistance to his side. Heenan also shaped well, but his play was marred by his had habit of hanging on to the ball. Hamilton would make a good forward if he used his head as well as he does his tongue. Daley, Gillespi'e. Payne, and King did nothing startling. -» Quinlan, at half, performed fairly well, but was inclined to pick the ball out of the scrum. McLeod put plenty of dash into his work at five-eighths, and was very unlucky m not getting a score. Gibbons did nothing to catch the eye. Highet, at three-quarter, was evidently out of his place. Mathieson displayed good form, and made a fine save by running across his own goal and beating the Poneke's forwards. Both Stanock and Varcoe have adopted tho practise of waiting for the ball to, bounce. They both appeared to have a tired feeling. If the display given on Saturday is anything to ?o by. one cannot for a moment imagine the Ories. winners of the championship. Tilyard played well, but his good play was spoiled by Magee, who still has the idea that he is the only man who can score. Time and again they had opportunities, but the ball seldom passed Magee. ■ ' ■ .''•'- Twohill has lost his old dash, bat he was unfortunate m not scoring on one occasion. Gardiner played well. On one occasion ho had a clear run m, but for some reason preferred to pot, with unsuccessful results. Elliott should go back where he came from— the juniors. Flanagan', at three-; quarter, and Morris, at full, acquitted themselves with credit. Of the forwards, Denaehy wgs ton shin- : me: light, m fact, he headed almost every rush. lie was ably backed up by "Griffo," Sullivan and Wighton. ' Hunter seems to have adopted the Col-« lerton style of kicking. My advice tohina is to drop it. MELROSE : 3. PETONE 3, : Most of the 2000 spectators present at. the above match would doubtless have dubbed it a "rotter." It was uninteresting throughout, and as' a sample of mediocre Rugby would have taken class with the poorest exhibitions seen from senior teams this season. The game was principally a forward one, and far from brilliant at that. Why Petone elected to throw i^s rearguard. so much cut of action in' the fact of its manifest superiority m that division and the freauent mulling going on m the Red and Blue division is a question which needs a lot of explanation. Probably the Melrose backs' have never been seen to worse .advantage m the championship competitions to date this season. Their defence on previous Saturdays has been solid and sure ; m this match it was of the •weakest quality and had the suburbanites profited by " their mistakes the issue must have been different. The slow movements, ill-timed passing, faulty handling and- weak stopping of Melrose backs, threw away fine scoring chances for their team. Had they exhibited anything like decent, form, and rendered effective service to the vanguard, Pctone must have gone under to the tune of several jpoints. I The Melrose packmen combined m a, much more profitable way than the suburbanite brigade. They got the ball oftener. put more force and devil into their shove, and often on the break came away so well together and so quickly that the Blue backs were kept busily repeUiii.g deadly onslaughts. The Reds displayed good pace and tackling Powers. Thsre were times when the scrummage might, have been kept tighter for assaulting purposes in '. their opponents' quarters. Melrose scrummagers screwed nicely, but ground was not infrequently . thrown . away by too hard booting. The Petone forwards were not a harmonious party as contrasted with , prev-* ious displays. There was no great cojti- . pactness m the solid, and more than one member evinced feverish inclination to.-j break away before the shove was m pro- j 'grass. The suburban men did not ex?j hibit anything like their usual' combina-j tion. The Petone backs did not respond well ' to occasional calls upon them. They erred m their disposition and tactics, and were consequently not always m the best position for making the most of their attacking powers. Cleverness and nioniness were absent qualities of the Melrose rearguard. It sadly wants its attacking powers burnished up. There was little comparison m the nlav of the rival full-backs. Neither M. Ryan nor Spencer were on ' their best behavior. The Petone three-quarter line, excent m defence, did not get many opportunities to show its ability as a combined line. House, at centre, was the surest and solidest. It would be well for the Petone three-quarters to keep a sharp look* but for chances of chipping m on the o^en side when their forwards are executing a loose and baffling rush. Marshall topk first honors among the Melrose three-auarters. He is quick m his actions, possesses the happy faculty .of anticipating an opposing movement, defends finely, and, if entrusted with the

work, can be very aggressive.- Marshall elves one the impression that he will set into higher Rugby society before very many seasons are over his head. Jim Ryan (five-eithths) was prominent oa defence. Green's tactics gave him few . shows to display his attacking worth. Jim is too much inclined to rush into clustered opponents. He has not the i pace and trickiness o£ Morry Wood, who was so smart afc flying round a cordon of opponents withi a halfchcling movement, and thus brought his three-quarters into action, but the lethargic system of Melrose's backs on Saturday gave him some opportunities to work this point to advantage. Church relieved his side from pressure br smart taking and timely \touchline kicking m the first spell. He was, however, out of position time after time, and failed to remedy the mistakes committed by his half (Greeks) whose rushstopping was'" the one bright feature of. his play. It is said that Green was playing to instructions. The midget stood off plenty of Melrose rushes. The ball did not often come out smartly or cleanly to him, still, there were times when he had the chance of getting his backs m tho best of positions for try-Ketsine. but he did not avail himself of it. Green did not combine well with Ryan, ' and was inclined to work the "silly side too s much. Hardham played a robust and tireless game on the fringe of the Blue scrum. Of the nackmen Ready, McGill and Nankivill caught the eye oftenest. Amonig the Melrose forwards, Jack Spencer performed brilliantly. He was at the head of most of the rushes, and his breaking, away from the line brought stietches of coveted territory to his side's credit. Jack appeared to graft as hard as any of 'em, but his detractors won't have that at any price. Dewar. Dv Blois, and Hamilton were the pick of the -others. J. Murphy played- a clean, good game in.' the role of winder. This .young player shows, fine promise. George Spencer was clean off with his place-kicking, although his last shot saved his side from defeat. Some of his previous attempts, however, deserved a better fate. Petone was dead lucky m drawing with;. Melrose. It will be a lesson to the suburbanites to play their rearguard all out if they want to have a say before the championship list finally readies its tether. v T,here was more than a possible chance of Beavis try-getting m the second spell, hail he dodged Mick Ryan and gone for the line. A Petone forward was guilty of a cross piece of illegal play what time he tripped up Dewar when that forward was caicering down the touchline with the ball m his hand. It probably- robbed the town combination of a score. Rsftms O'Connell didn't happen .to spot the occurrence. Though the. smallest man m the playing, arena, Green, to the Petone barract- ! ers, was tlie most striking personality .there. The little fellow, fortunately, doesn't suffer from the swelled-head rae- ! ket. If he ever gets that way he is a gone coon for cert. Melrose and Petone five-eighths disregarded the fact that it needs an active mind as well as qiiick < teet to open . up the game by shootine quickly around' t*our opponents, running; straight alidad, and get the three-quartei? line moving -fnstantlv for action, nrovided. of course, the latter has its wits about it.