COMING FOOTBALL TOUR

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19015, 10 November 1923, Page 15

COMING FOOTBALL TOUR

RUGBY GAME IN ENGLAND. SOME COMPARISONS AND ADVICE. (Feom Opr Own Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, November 9. In the course of an interview with a Dominion reporter, Dr E. O. Hutchison, who has just returned from post-graduate study in the Mother Country, made some interesting comments on tiro prospects of the coming tour of the New Zealand Rugby team. “Don’t hold English Rugby too lightly,” ho said “The game is booming at Home. 1 cannot say that the Rugby world is looking forward to the visit of the New Zealanders, for the reason that England gets no news of Rugby in the dominion. I was very disappointed that no result of the test matches between New Zealand and Now South Wales was cabled to England. I am sure they would have been interested. “English and Scottish players are considerably lighter than ours. There is practically no pioportion of the hard-working type of man in their Rugby teams, which are recruited mainly from the colleges and the universities. The exception is Wales. The forwards of New Zealand would average a stone and a-half heavier than the English forwards, and that leads to the support, of my contention that New Zealand should play seven against their eight forwards in the scrummage. I believe we should try the effect of changing our scrummage. formation so that wo shall have 3-2-2 as against their 3-2-3. I!y this I mean that we should have throe men in the front row of the scrummage, as they do at Horne., in order to meet thorn at their own method of hooking. Our front and second row should form up similar to theirs, leaving two men in'our back row as against three in theirs. In the back row we would sacrifice th(! centre man. The reason for this suggested amendment in our formation of the scrummage lies in the fact that the centre forward in England is the hooker —in New Zealand cither of the two forwards is the hooker according to which side the hall .goes in. The English centre forward is a highly-skilled specialist who undergoes a. good deal of training for his position. The responsibilities of his outsides extend to holding up the whole of his weight while his feet explore any part: of the scrum in sea roll of the ball. I am confident that by the adoption of this method we may defeat them in the scrum, even allowing for our scrummage being a man short of theirs. “This proposition’ is closely associated with the wing-forward. I do not believe (ho wing-forward should he abolished for the English tour. There are no wing-for-wards in any of the five international Rugby centres, but New Zealand has learned his scoring value and should, I believe, persevere with that: player—up to this pont, however, that he should not he allowed to be a spoiler in the sense of blocking the halves coming round the scrum. He should put the ball into (ho scrum and get back out of the road of the halves, playing a roving game. It used to be played in Dunedin after that fashion, and it is quite easy to get a man to play the same type of game again. When the ball is in the scrummage the two Eugbsh scrum halves stand on the side of it just ns our wingforwards do hero, and as soon as it comes out they are both up with it.” Discussing the methods of back play, Dr •Hutchison referred %-n the two English halves, cr serum half and stand-off half, as they are known. “They differ,’’ he said, “from our half and first five-eighth combination. The play of the English halves is such that they must bo accustomed to playing with each other, more so than is the case or the need in New Zealand. 'I no scrum half in Britain has a very difficult (asiv to perform, much more so than our own half, in that ho has to put the ball in the scrum and be ready instantly to das,, round and pick it up preparatory to passing to bis stand-off half. Ihe standoff half in consequence must know his partner in order that he may judge at what instant he should commence his forward movement. It is for this reason also that I consider our wing-forward should remain for this tour, otherwise our would not be able to open up the game in anything like their accustomed style. The English combination of Kershaw at scrum half and Davies at stand-off half is a good example of the success that attends a pair of halves who are constantly playing together.” _ Dr Hutchison does not anticipate that (h-> four three-quarter system of the Home count) ies will have an advantage over the New Zealand formation of three threequarters, and he recommends that our present formation in (he back division should not be disturbed. English backs, ho said, are' quite unaccustomed to the forwards breaking through and using high speed and weight in breaking up the combination of the halves and the three-quarters as they da in New Zealand. At the same time h-> wishes it to he made clear that the tackling, both back and forward, is of a high standard at Homo, and is a real force to be reckoned with. English and Scottish teams do not go in for “stunts,” but are comparatively orthodox in their methods of play. “They are good, fash players'.” said Dr Hutchison, “take (he hall and pass it well, and tackle very solidly. I expect, the- Now Zealand forwards will break through the Home hacks. The forwards are fast in the loose and fairly good on the line-out. The play of the Frenchmen reminds me very much of the Maoris, ’they have some very fine players, but how shall I describe it? There is that clement of uncertainty or irresponsibility about their play that one often sees in Maori teams. Nevertheless they are tremendously keen on the game, which has made remarkable progross in France.” Dr Hutchison expressed surprise that the tour of the All Blacks was to conclude at the end of the year. That was, he considered, very early in, the season, as it was before the “internationals” began. Ho played in some matches in Edinburgh while he was continuing his post graduate course, in connection with which he was also at Middlesex Hospital.