FOOTBALL.

Otago Witness, Issue 3003, 4 October 1911, Page 60

FOOTBALL.

KOTES BY FULL BACK. The members of the Wellington touring team spent an extra cfcay in Jjumodin, leaving by the second express on Tuesday inormiig. That they enjoyed their stay was evident by the express-ions of regret at departure. jUu old Wellington representative of distinction who visited Dunedin witn the Wellington team was W. F. Jdardham, the well-known Peton© and Empire City wing forward. On the tour he was much strucK by the careless manner in which the ball was put into the scrum. Half the time tie said the ball was not in the scrum at all. Much of the credit that was given to the Iront-rankers for clean hooking was undeserved tor the reason that the oall was too frequently Kicked out of the side of the scrummage. The old Wellington player is .quits edirect in his statement. For the nicwt part in the representative matches played here the ball seldom got into the Heart of the- scrum, but in order not to delay the game referees were inclined to let the infringement go. There was usually a danger that our front-rankers would quite lose the art of hooking if the haphazard system of putting the ball in tme scrum were persisted in. Some time ago it was agreed between the provinces that the entertaining of visiting teams should be abandoned. This means that visiting players are left very miuch to their own resources. In a strange city this, is intolerable. A certain amount of entertaining is necessary, and if. judiciously carried out is enjoyable, and makes for the pleasuro of the visitors' stay. The Entertainni'Eint Committee is a law unto itseJf in this matter, but individual tastes differ so widely that it might perhaps be well for the Otago Rugby Union to consider the advisability of reverting to tne old and recognised system of entertaining visiting teams In the series of interprovincial matches played in Dunedin this season there has been no more reliable player than Scott, the Taieri representative and Otago full back. Scott reached, a high standard on Saturday against Wellington, and furnished tine best exhibition of lull back play seen in Dunedin for some time. His work all round was of great merit, and reached its height iu the latter stages of the second spelL when Wellington was attacking so persistently on Otago's line. Scott fielded more accurately than usual, taking the ball on the fly and- kicking with fine judgment. Time and again he turned Wedlington back with the accuracy of his kicking and saved the Otago line by the certainty of bis tackling. In addition to the excellence of his defence, Scott's potted goal will stand as one of the best individual efforts seen on the Caledonian Ground for a decade.

The form of the Otago three-quarters was below representative standard. Their attack was weak, and never suggested any of the possibilities of a scoring division, while on defence the wings particularly inspired little confidence. Norrie has been the disappointment of the line. The most prolifio scoring three-quarter for University, he has signally failed in representative company. Had the University player been tried at five-eighth he; might have done better, but on the wing of the threequairter line he was clean off his game.

Watson' played consistently, at centre, but he would have been more at home on the wing, and as one of the outside would 1 probably have Isoored in some of the matches with the chances that were going. The absence of a good centre was felt greatly during the season just ended. Millard was probably the 'best of those tried. :

M'Donald i» a strong runner ,_ but an in different field, and a bad finisher. Against Wellington he put in.one or two strong dashes, but for some unaccountable reason dropped the ball at the critical moment. His defence, too, ■is not sound. Physically he has much to commend, and if taken in hand would, I bslieve, make a good player. The selection of Williams and M'Dougall as five-eighths for the Wellington, match was a wise choice, and the nity is that this combination was* not made use of in earlier matches. Previously we had no combination in the five-eighth division, but on Saturday it was made manifest. The Williams-M Dougall combine was not brilliant, as it goes; but the Alhambra pair were sounder on defence and attack than the province had known during the seaeon.

There is no comparison in Eckhold as a five-eighth»_ and as a halfback. In the former position he is out of his element, but behind the scrum, he finds his real game. In the matches in which the Southern representative played behind the scrum the Otago backs got more chances than was the case with Sutherland as ecrum half, and the play of the rear division improved by the opening out of the game. The forwards were the real strength of Otago against Wellington, and it was mainly due to the efforts of the men of the vanguard and the brilliant work of Soott at full back, that the province was able to draw with the northern team. In the loose they were complete masters of the opposition pack, and the certainty with which they got on to the Wellington half and five-eighths almost completely took the ating out of the attack of the northern backs. On the line-out the Otago forwards were not so good, and were slow in following up. In recent games S. Oasey has given of his best, and, pkiyed as well as the year of his inclusion in the. All Black team. He is one of the few forwards who exercHse an intelligence in the game. The case of Patterson is curious, and illustrates how a man may go off! and come back quickly. Nearing the end of the club season Patterson was clean off his game —untrained and wounded—so much untrained and so off his game that he was not worth a place in club football. Then he was chosn as a substitute in a game at the end of the club season, played well, trained hard, and finally came back to his 1910 form, on which Patterson now finds himself again in the best company in New Zealand.

M'Kellar, ,the ex-Wellington and New Zealand: representative, who was lonpf in being chosen for Otago, justified his inclusion. At the same time he never struck the form in Dunedin which gained for him a reputation in Wellington. On the Wellington side Kinvig at full

back played a good game, his line kicking in particular being excellent. Of the threequarters Ryan was probably the best. iviiLchinson is not the player he was, but Grace on the wing is the makings of a good three-quarter. Fred Roberts would probably have been more dangerous at half back, but his was the hand which opened up the game for the two tries gained by Wellington in the first spell, and his the muster mind which guided the destinies of the team as a whole. E. Roberts, behind the scrum, played soundly and well, getting the ball away with dispatch and for the most part giving accurate passes. All the Wellington backs suggested fleetness of foot and freedom of action. The Wellington forwards, beaten in the loose, excelled in the tight work and on the line-out, where they packed in behind fciaoh other after Wilson and Gillespie had made a passage. They were an even lot on the whole, but the two players named were particularly prominent. The match to be played in Wellington next Saturday between the North and South Island teams closes the season all over the Dominion, and few there are with regret 3. This year's inter-is'.iind contest will be the eleventh of the series. Of the ten matches played, North has won five, South Island four, and one has been drawn. Six of-the games have heen played in Wellington, Saturday's making the seventh; two have been played in Christohurch, and one each in Auckland and Dunedin. Neither team Oan be termed Meat, the real weakness lying in both the , threequarter lines. Mitchinson on present form is not worth his plaoo in the North Island team, whose three-quarter line would bo stronger with Stohr and Cameron. Probably the fact that <tihe two Taranaki cracks -were unable to make the trip accounts for the inclusion of Mitchinson in the centre and Rhwiri on the wing. The. North Island forwards are solid and should! go well. South Island is well served with Scott at full back, but it will take the Otago man's be3t to make up for the comparative weakness of-the three-quarters "and five-eighths. The forwards arestrong, -butt it, will be the team which combined best that will have the grctatest ohanoe of victory.';-