STING IN IT

NZ Truth, Issue 1173, 24 May 1928, Page 14

STING IN IT

T^ranaki Takes It Seriously (From ""K.Z. Truth's" New Plymouth Rep.) Stratford's -burly forwards carried, the . day. against Star last Saturday, but;' the. crowd of 4000 were, nevertheless, : delighted at Star's strenuous defence. . . W/ALKER and Baird were the pick of :VV the Stratford pack. O'Keife, Taranaki's lock, played on the side of -the scrum, , but is not so useful there. ■•■■•:•■ ; Young, ; the rep. , hooker,: played a great game on hack of scrum. „ After , the!, match, it: was no surprise to see five Stratford forwards, m the north team. Bob Fryday played his usual solid game. What he does not know ig not worth learning. ,• Kiv.ell at centre, played soundly but is a better forward. He is to be tri,ed as rover m noi'th team, though Coults (Inglewood), and A. Hoffman (Star), appeared to have better claims; Owen,, the riuggetty rep. five- - eighths, has lost none of his .dash. Carter is a speedy and heady second five-eighths. • What is wrong with Wynyard? With his weight, and pace he should score a lot of tries, but appears to lack the football sense. In Collins and Morris, the • public saw two .good full-backs. Fine kick- ', ing, perhaps gave Morris the advantage. ■. .' ■;■'.' ''. .. ;,'' '"•■ ".'■■■■ Of the, the Star pack none worked better than F. Wolfe and. Arderr, but all deserve praise for their great battle against odds. ; - Star's weakness was the inside backs. Billiny played well, 1 but they sadly missed Court, who was injured last week.; ;-.-. :■, .■; :. >•-.- V••■ • .•"'- : - - '■•■■'■ - ■ HUNT IS. ON Hunt at centre, was very sound. His defence was like, a rock. He had hard luck m being called back when he crossed the line; too. • • Berry, a new man from East Coast is an acquisition. He has plenty of pace and uses it. • Wolfe was well marked and his defence, sorely tested, was waiting once when Wynyard scored. , •; Old Boys-Tukapa provided a spectacular curtain-raiser, m which- the Old ]fsoys' backs showed superior combination arid pace, and ran' put winners by 16 points to 12 points. • Royce Hooker was ih great form with the boot, landing three goals, two of which struck posts. . He was prominent m attack and solid m defence. Roy Oliver is as sound as ever and scored another characteristic try on Saturday. '■ Medley on wing showed a lot of dash. O'Dawda was the pick of the forwards. , '■'•'■, ■ ': "V "' Morey, Old Boys' half, is very nippy arid sent his backs ■ away very speedily. . Porkes was m better form and kicked'a great field goal. • Brown at centre cut through with all' his bid- speed and sent out great passes. Using, reverse with judgment. 1 Diririiss- and ■ Welston are a speedy pair of wingers. New Plymouth will say good-bye to Dinnisa with regret. Pelty, Tukapa's., full-back, will be hard to keep out of the reps., though very young. . Charlie -Drader takes a lot of beating m line-outs. , Young Brown of Inglewood is keeping up the-f amily ; name. WOODEN SPOON Cdults was m everything and scored a brilliant try; He should have been the north rover. • •.; ''. Clifton gained a second win, defeatirig Okato, who, with Eltham will play off .for; the wooden spoon. : Opunake missed ... Sinclair on Saturday and, being short of a game owing to Haweira ' forfeiting,' went under to Okaiawa, ■ !j : ' ' ■ It was Kefty Ike- who was responsible, for not only .were his dashes hard to stop but he notched the penalties that made six points difference. . W. Hqhaia is .godng well as wing three-quarter. He has . weight, pace, rims straight arid kicks powerfully, as well as being a great tackier. ! Rutherford, .the college boy is • making good at Opunake, J as also is Watgori, the H*gh School . centre at CJlifton. Q'Rorke, the Opunake forward is going better than ever this year. . /Young Guy, of, OHaiawa, another son of New Zealand selector Guy, '' is knocking at the door for rep. honors. Tippet, Cruder and Clarke are another good-trio.. ■ • . ! With- Dave ' : Johnson yet to play, Okaiawa ..will still \ be . m running for premier Honors., i A stirring struggle^ at Patea, saw Kapbriga. emerge winners by 16 to 3. Both have good forwards, but Kaponga's were the better. . Kaponga have.; an even lot of backs, and Alec. Guy as rover made plenty of openings - for them. • He scored his usual try, too. I Wills and ' Cornwall went 1 well for Patea,, as also did Baldwin. ■;■■•;/ SPEED FROM PATEA 'Crawford is a speedy Patea wing three-quarter,' whj> was unlucky to re-, tire injured. " ; 'Mercer, the Kaponga flye-eighths, is very nippy and Whaler is sound. , lEUaspn bn,,the.wingihows plenty of pacV and , is f f a dangerous man on at--1 B.Espin, Martin' and Cunningham, were the pick of the pack. ' Hawera overwhelmed their rivals, Athletic: C.Paterspn, kicking well,' converted four of the five tries . and scored one himself . . .