SERVICES’ RUGBY TEAM

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26027, 15 December 1945, Page 8

SERVICES’ RUGBY TEAM

MEETING SOUTH AFRICA MATCH NEXT WEDNESDAY (N.Z.P.A.) Special Correspondent) LONDON, Dec. 13. The New Zealand Services team, which has lost only one match this season, will play the South African touring team, so far undefeated, at Richmond on December 19. Next to the Kiwis playing the South Africans, it will be the event of the year for all New Zealanders in Britain. A firstclass game is anticipated. The New Zealand Services meet Oxfordshire to-day, after which the team for next Wednesday will be selected. Whether the Kiwis will meet the South Africans is not yet clear. The South Africans at present have no date available. They will be playing several matches on the Continent in January. It was their previous intention to return straight home to the Union, but the hope is still held that they will be able to come back to England to meet the Kiwis, perhaps in February. H. M. Kimberley, of Nelson, formerly of the New Zealand University and now at Emmanuel College, played a great game for Cambridge, which beat Oxford at Twickenham, 11—8. E. H. D. Sewell, in the Daily Sketch, says: “Cambridge owed a great deal to the magnificent marking and tackling of Kimberley.. Time after time most promising looking attacks by the backs were nipped in the bud by the certainty of his tackling. H. Vassall, the great Oxford centre of tne 1906-08 era, agreed absolutely with me about Kimberley, and went so far as to say that his tackling won the match.” , m , , J P. Jordan, of the Daily Telegraph, says: “ One of the best features of the game was the sure marking of Stobie by Kimberley, who brought down Oxford’s right centre again and again.” It was the first time the lnterumversity match had been played at Twickenham since 1938. It was watched by the King and Queen, who brought Princess Elizabeth with them. The Princess sat next Dr Windsor Lewis, formerly the Welsh international. She kept him busy answering shrewd questions on the finer points of the game, and was as excited as her father —a Cambridge man—as Oxford battled for the equalising try in the closing minutes. It was the first game of Rugby she had ever seen. Kimberley was a prispner of war for five years. He was going to England in the Rangitane when that ship was sunk, and was taken to Germany. He is now studying chemistry.