BRITISH TEAM MAY GIVE RUGBY ENTHUSIASTS A SHOCK

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27345, 22 March 1950, Page 8

BRITISH TEAM MAY GIVE RUGBY ENTHUSIASTS A SHOCK

Sports Commentary

By the Sports Editor

Rugby enthusiasts in New Zealand are in for a shock if they expect the British team which will begin a tour in May to be easy to beat. This warning has been sounded by L. W. Deas, who formerly played in All Black trial matches and was centre three-quarter in the Otago team in 1946. He afterwards played for Auckland, when he returned from the United Kingdom recently. Deas played Rugby for three months and a-half in Scotland this season, and those who recall the flashes of genius he displayed when in Dunedin will not be surprised to learn that prior to the international match against France in January, he was selected for the final Scottish trial.

Deas was unable to play in the trial because he was then making his arrangements to return to New Zealand He saw enough in the preceding months, however, to convince him that the All Blacks will not, as is confidently predicted, ruck the British forwards into the ground. He says that G. M Budge, the front-row forward, is one of the strongest men he has seen. He is short, thicklybuilt and a terrific worker in the mauls. He goes into a ruck, and in no time at all barges through it with the ball. That the British team will have a faster service from the scrum , than the All Blacks is another conclusion that has been drawn by Deas. He says he has never seen such a long, swift pass as that thrown by Andrew Black, the

scrum-naif. He is a player New Zealanders will hear a lot about. Eudge plays for Edinburgh Wanderers. the team with which Deas was associated during the year he spent in teaching physical education in Scottish schools. Black is the

outstanding' player in the Edinburgh University team, and has been capped four times for Scotland. R. Macdonald, a centre three-quar-ter in the British team, replaced Deas in the Scottish trial in January, and as a result of his form in this match won selection against France and made a name for himself as a solid, resourceful centre.

The two other Scots in the touring team. P. W. Kininmonth and D. W. C. Smith, are both capable footballers. Kininmonth, a line out specialist, is a former Oxford Blue, who has" been capped six times for Scotland. Smith is a big, heavily-built winger, who, though not particularly fast, is a hard man to stop. His place in the team is not yet certain because of a fractured forearm suffered some weeks ago.

While he saw nothing of the other members of the British team, Deas feels that if they measure up to the standard of the Scottisn contingent they will do extremely well. He makes the reservation that two things may handicap the team in Mew Zealand. The first is the traditional British four three-quarter formation. Although this permits the scrum-half to vary his play from the set positions in midfield. it does not allow the fiy-half to develop the same combination with his left and right centres as that which exists between the average pair of New Zealand five-eighths, The second handicap the Bntisn players may find themselves under is their three-two-three scrum. So far as is known, they plan to use this formation in New Zealand.