RUGBY FOOTBALL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22608, 27 June 1935, Page 4

RUGBY FOOTBALL

By Full-back. OTAGO FIXTURES July 31. —Otago Sub-unions v. North Otago, at Dunedin. August 3. —Otago Sub-unions v. Southland Sub-unions, at Dunedin. August 10. —Southland v. Otago, at Invercargill. August 14. —Otago v. Wanganoi, at Dunedin. August 17.—Otago v. South Canterbury, at Timaru; Otago v. Wairarapa, at Dunedin. August 24.—Southland v. Otago, at Dunedin. September 4.—Otago v. South Canterbury, at Timaru. September 7. —Otago v. Wellington, at Wellington. September 11.—Otago v. Waikato, at Hamilton. September 14. —Otago t. Auckland, at Auckland. September 18.—Otago v. Taranaki. at Taranaki. September 21. —Otago r. Canterbury, at Christchurch. UNIVERSITY A v. PIRATES The match between University A and Pirates, played at Carisbrook, and won by the Light Blues by 14 points to. 6 points, did not provide a very interesting contest. It was, indeed, marked by many drab periods. The disappointing feature of the play by the backs on both ■idea was that, on occasions, they staged what gave promise of resulting in bright movements. The promise, however, was •eldbm fulfilled. Jones scored a couple of tries, and these were about the only two efforts in which passing gave a wing three-quarter a good scoring chance during the whole game. As regards the forward play, the releree, Mr J. Briggs, is to be commended for his smartness in blowing the whistle when .the scrums collapsed, and that was fairly often. Mr Briggs, however, appeared to me to make the same mistake as many other referees and stand too close to tight forward play. By doing this referees lose the " field"_ of the play, and miss five-eighths standing offside. By standing too close and confining attention solely to the ball things which should be observed are missed, and, moreover, the advantage rule cannot always be ruled with advantage, so to speak. * MacFarland played a particularly fine game at full-back for University. He kicked well with both feet, and his collaring was very sound. There will be three full-backs to be considered for the Otago team this year in Taylor (Pirates), Silver (Union), and MacFarland, and it will cause no surprise if the last-named ■eeures the position, if Saturday's game be taken. as a guide. Jones and Watt, on the wings, did not, m stated, get many chances. . Watt runs with plenty of determination, but he found a solid tackier in Valentine, who was taken from the forwards and tried in the wing three-quarter line. Jolly, centre, could hot make headway, and M'Kechnie, Gillies, and Howd en, though excellent on defence, were not very impressive on attack. Jolly does best at centre three-quarter or full-back. M'Kechnie was inclined to run into his passes and knock on. Anderson and Simmers were a pair of hard workers in the tight play, and Green showed up in the loose. Taylor was played at centre threequarter for Pirates, Cameron being in the full-back position. Cameron played ?uite a fair game as the last line of deience, but did not get into position .quickly enough,, otherwise Jones not have scored his two tries. Thompson was' erratic, and' his handling and collaring were weak. Thompson has shown in previous games this season that lie is a better tackier than •he • proved himself to be on Saturday. Saxton had plenty of work to do on defence, but he has played better games, and Martin and Manning did not move smartly enough when they received the ball from Saxton, adn they seldom made a thrust. Dunstan, Stuart, and Couplaud were the best of; the Pirates forwards, who stuck well to the opposing pack from start to finish. UNION v. KAIKORAI Playing with the wind behind! them Union made a finecrecovery in their match with Kaikorai. Kaikorai were easily the better team in the first spell, and at half time, when the Blue and Blacks led by 11 points to/ nil, there could have been few who would have given the Maroons a chance of making a draw of the game. The feature of the match was the strenuous play of the forward packs, who staged one of the keenest struggles of the .season. Kaikorai had the greater share of the ball in the first spell, but they lost this advantage in the second half until the game was nearing its close. Kaikorai were well served behind the scrum by Homer, who sent out some beautiful passes to Francis at first fiveeighth. Francis, however, was not ft success in this 'position. Murray, at second five-eighth, gave an improved display and,, judging by the success with which he found his way through the defence on two occasions, would have troubled the Maroons had he been given more chances. Kean, on the wing, had an off day, his handling being very uncertain. In the forwards Duncan, Murphy, and Allan played solid games. A tendency "to run with the ball instead of making sure of the line marred the play of Silver at full-back for Union. The backs as a whole were not impressive, but as opportunists, th£y did all that was required of them. Their main fault was uncertainty in handling. The Union forwards, particularly in the second spell, put plenty of energy and determination into their play. R. Garden and Far is were among the beet workers in a. good pack. Vorrath, on the advice of the team's coach, did not play as he had not recovered from a leg injury received in the. All Black trials. ZINGARI-RICHMOND v. DUNEDIN . The game between Zingari-Richmond and : Dunedin was played at Tahuna Park, and the hill team registered a comfortable win by 28 points to 10 points. Dunedin had to play against a strong wind in the first_ half, and it affected their showing in' the second spell. The match provided a good open game, particularly in the second spell, and it was noteworthy for the particularly fine display given by A. C. Procter, the Colours' wing three-quarter. Procter made some slashing runs himself, and kept up the attack by judicious passes when he found himself blocked. He was indeed in the play from start to finish. I have stated before that Procter was unlucky not to get. a chance in the trials leading up to the selection of the All Black team. M'Laren (centre) played well to Procter, and Caradus, second five-eighth, again showed that he is better suited by his new position than in his old position as centre three-quarter. M'Donald (halfback) sent the ball out smartly to his first five-eighth (Halsey). It was very pleasing to see the Zingari-Richmond backs trying to play to Procter, who proved without auestion that he could fill his part when the ball came to him. The Zingari forwards, ably led by the hard-working Watkins, were stronger than the opposing pack. Hennessy and Morrison were also prominent in the Colours' forward play. The best forward on the ground was Dobson, an ex-Marlborough representative, who has been transferred to the Magistrate's Court in Dunedin. Dobson played for Marlborough against Otago :it Dunedin in 1933, and is now a member of the Dunedin team. He should prove a great acquisition to the Dark Blues. Crowley again proved himself a hard, honest worker, and his example could well be followed by some of the other members of the Blues' vanguard. The tackling of the Blues' backs was very sound, but they could not link up in passing, and most of their efforts were of an individual nature. Wallace made some good dashes, but the openings were not finished off. Wallace was robbed of a goal by the commendable play of Caradus, who, despite the fact that his side was well in front and the game near its end, charged as the place-kick from a try was being taken and touched the ball in its flight. Treacy, fiveeighth, made some strong runs, but he generally passed too soon —a fault with many of the backs playing in Dunedin to-day, and elsewhere for that matter.

ALHAMBRA v./ TAIERI Alhambra secured a narrow win over Taieri at Mosgiel (8 points to 7 points), and on the run of the play the result might easily have been the other way round. Campbell hooked the ball for Alhambra in the scrums in fine style, and his side secured the ball on nearly every occasion. Sinclair, the lightly-built halfback, was thus enabled to feed his rearguard, and although the five-eighths (Fox and Orange) are now shaping better with experience, the Alhambra backs did not take full advantage of the opportunities which came their way. Lamont, Tregear, and Souter also shaped well in the forward play. Cursey, the Taieri five-eighth, played another good game, and M'Skimming showed an improvement on his previous displays. M'Skimming is, however, not playing as well as he did last year. Frew was changed from full-back to half-back and played a very sound game. The tackling of the Taieri backs was weak, otherwise the scoring might have been different. The Taieri forwards, of whom Broadley and Boyd were about the best, held the upper hand in the second half, but the vanguard still lacks something in dash and keeping up to the play. NOTES It is practically certain that a New Zealand University team will tour Japan early in the new year. The team, it is understood, will leave the Dominion at Christmas time. A rather remarkable occurrence is to be recorded in the game between ZingariRichmond and Dunedin on Saturday. A. Hennessy is a forward in the Zingari team, and his brother—a back—played against him for Dunedin. Even 6tranger still is that G. C. M'Donald, half-back for Zingari, had playing opposite him as halt-back for Dunedin his brother, G. M'Donald. G. F. Hart, J. E. Manchester and C. J. Oliver, all of whom have been picked for the All Black tour of Britain, did not play for their clubs in the MerivaleChristchurch game on Saturday. H. Deavoll. the Merivale forward, who narrowly missed selection, played a magnificent game, and his place-kicking was particularly useful to the side. He missed three penalties early in the game, but then reverted to his usual form and kicked three, thereby scoring nine of the side's twelve points. The game was drawn, 12 points each. Nolan, the Canterbury full-back, who has been transferred to Hokitika, will play for the Kiwi Club. Invited by the South African Rugby Board to send a British team to South Africa next year, the English Rugby Union has replied that it is in favour of the tour being arranged, and that it will consult the other Home unions. A decrease of £237 10s 9d in the gross takings at Lancaster Park for the first five club Rugby matches was reported to the Lancaster Park Board at its meeting on Thursday. The secretary (Mr J. O. M'Gillivray) stated that as the board received 20 per cent, of the gate takings the decrease in its receipts was only £SO. Members of the board were confident that this decrease would be balanced by better receipts later in the season. Mr A. E. M Phail said that gate takings at Rugby matches in the second half of this season could be expected to show an improvement on the takings for the second half of the 1934 season. It may be added that the gates at Dunedin show about the same decrease as that experienced in Christchurch. The appointments of captain and vicecaptain of the New Zealand Rugby team are made by the Management Committee of the New Zealand Rugby Union. It is usual to have a selection committee on the tour, but no statement has as yet been made regarding this matter. . Southern scored an easy win over University B at Logan Park (36 points to nil). The Southern team always held the upper hand, and the backs made good use of the openings started by Simon, who was well served by his forwards. Smith was in fine form at centre threequarter, and played well to Tapley, on the wing, who scored no. fewer than five tries. The B forwards battled away from start to finish with the greatest determination, but the backs lacked cohesion, and were not quick enough to anticipate the run of the play. BALL IN THE SCRUM Arrangements have been made with the Otago Referees' Association for referees to meet the players of the' various clubs to-night and explain the method of putting the ball into the scrum. It requires some explanation. The rule says that once the ball goes past the first foot of each of the two opposing players in the front row and has touched the ground it is "fairly" in the scrum. It would then appear that, being " fairly " in the scrum, all ,the players in the two front rows could try to hook it. That is not so, and if I were to try to explain what has to be done thereafter I would only confuse players. Demonstrations by referees will no doubt make the position clear, but players, I imagine, will even then come to the conclusion that the rule is farcical and unnecessary. Moreover, it is difficult to understand how any_ referee can rule the law on the point with general accuracy. Once the ball is " fairly" in the scrum, it should, to my mind, be allowed to be hooked by any foot and any player. ON THE FEET A large majority of the forwards playing in Dunedin to-day have not yet realised that the game of football is played on the feet. Referees, too. should realise this, and when they find men falling on. or near the ball without any reason but to block and hold up the plav they should certainly penalise the offence at once. It would be in the interests of the game if they did.