RUGBY.

Otago Witness, Issue 3033, 1 May 1912, Page 53

RUGBY.

Notes by Fcll Back. Rugby football commenced in grim earnest on Saturday, but the standard of play for the opening matches of th© season, as was to be expected l , wa© not high ; but at least one expected that the majority of the players would have turned out in something like condition to last the game. Yet there it was, as I have written before at the commencement of a season, a striking example of the helplessness of tho unfit. There is no contest in the world that brings out the best and worst qualities in a man than a football struggle for supremacy when one is unfit. It is really not the survival of tho fittest, but the survival of the unfit that counts One saw it in a number of matches on isatnrday—in a passing rush, on the line-out, and a dribbling movement towards tho enemy’s goal. It was not so much that there was lack of combination. but it was so much the inability of the individual players through being unfit to bring all the movement© into harmony which we ca-U combination. As the condition of the players improves and the man is able to run the distance, make his pass, and back up, just so much does the combination of the team improve. The practice for weeks of Rugby strategy, tactics, and combination count for nought against the Crime of the Unfit. At the beginning of each season one notes players attempting simple Rugby movements of the first primer and failing in the execution—passing rushes failing because the players are not fit enough to get up with the attack. I have seen a half back try and try again to open up the play with disheartening results: tho fiveeighths too alow or lacking in condition to carry the movements past the first line of defence, and the three-quarters playing themselves sick for a sight of the ball.' Gut the players fit and in the pink of condition to last out a strenuous game should bo tho first duty of every captain and coach. If on© member of the team will not train and get himself physically fit he should be dropped from the selection. No team should be handicapped by carrying passengers. Coaches would have less difficulty in raising- the standard of their teams’ play if they insisted on every member of the side being in his best physical condition. With intelligent players the matter of tactics and execution is comparatively easy. It is the unintelligent and the unfit who are a drag on the progress of Rugby. In a bygone season I wrote: “There Is no denying' the fact that Rugby football in Otago bas deteriorated, and the cause is not far to seek. The players do not take the same intelligence in the game as the players of the past. They train in a fashion, and halfway through the_ season attain a-measure of fitness; but this done, aav© for a few orthodox movements known

the world over and practised when the hills wore young, they seldom attempt to break fresh ground. Rugby football is as scientific as cricket, but it must be played scientifically to bring out its subtleties. The act of attack and defence is not learnt in a day, and can never be acquired by the player whose solo idea is that it is a gam© in which brawn excels over brain.” The official Guide published in connection with senior football matches made its appearance with the opening of the season on Saturday. It serves well in, most instances, but would be of still greater value as a guide to the public if some arrangement could be arrived at whereby the players wore numbers on their jerseys, corresponding numbers to be inserted in the Guido opposite the player’s name. Alex. Scott, late of the Pirates Senior Fifteen, who has since last season been transferred to Invercargill, has made, an application for transfer from the Pirates to the Invercargill F.C. Another well-known Otago footballer who is now in Invercargill is Alf.. Mitchell. He was proposed as a member at the annual meeting of the Invercargill Club. The ex-Southlander, M’Lennan, who has joined Southern this season, is stated by an Invercargill critic likely to return to Southland at an early date. L. Potter, who captained the successful Otago University team last season, is now 7 playing for the Excelsior team, of Gore. The old Royal Blue leader iisi a splendid man for any team to get hold of, and in the Excelsior side ho will do particularly bright service. Tne high anticipations formed of Alhambra were not realised in the match against Kaikorai on Saturday, the Red-and-Blacks being defeated badly at all points of the game. All, or nearly all, the qualifications which go to the making of a good team were lacking in the display of Alhambra, whose fifteen will necessitate a remodelling if more serious defeats are to be avoided. The difficulty is that the men are not playin- from which to make a good selection, otherwise there might not be occasion to call on the services of Bennet, who, I am assured, is only playing until such time as Williams is sound enough to take the field.

In Saturday’s match Alhambra was a beaten side after 20 minutes’ play. The team showed! neither resource nor initiative, and the manner in which the backs ran away from the Kaikorai rushes was a discredit to the traditions of Alhambra football. I do not intend to comment on the individual players—primarily for the reason that no individual player showed his real form. Better results may be expected later when the men have settled into their game and acquired: some knowledge of the styles of play. As distinguished from Alhambra., the Kaikorai team mad© a really good first appearance, and on Saturday’s form will be a hard team to defeat—particularly forward, whore lies the real strength of the Blue-and-Blacks. The vanguard has the advantage of including the of last season’s players—young, ” vigorous, and dashy forwards, who revel in the tight work, and can come out and do their share in the loose. The presence of Alex. M'Donald in the pack is of material service to the Blue-and-Black division. He is still a good forward, though not the great forward he was, and his tackling, for which the All Black has always been famous, remains as certain and deadly as wdien he was regarded, with Seeling, of Auckland, as the finest defensive forward in the famous New Zealand team of 1905.

There is one particularly promising back in the Kaikorai rear division—Sinclair, to wit, who has a good turn of speed, a good and sure sense of line-finding, and an excellent kick. More will be heard of this player during the season. Dryden. the midget half back of the Kaikorai team, puzzles, more by reason of his stature than by any special ability, as a scrum half. This fact was emphasised in a ridiculous manner when he scored for Kaikorai on Saturday. True, the Alhambra players were taken unawares, but those vho were guarding the line could not lay hands on the diminutive Kaikorai back. University have a promising team this season, and the interesting football for which ’Varsity is famous should be a feature of the year’s play. Against Port Chalmers the Royal Blues played their usual style of game—a game of hazard largely, for they tossed! the ball about with no particular regard for the position of the players. There is a reckless abandon about ’Varsity football. While fascinating in its way and spectacular, it is not always effective, and against a team of fast players Quick to seize on mistakes would prove disastrous. The trouble is that the majority of our teams are too slow to profit from the mistakes made by the Royal Blues’ stylo of throwing the ball about. Port Chalmers certainly proved for one (hat this was the case, and I have noticed other teams in the past, when lined out against University, fail to seize the openings in the defence occasioned by the style of ’Varsitv play. Childs, tho ©x-Nelson half-back now attached to Otago University, made a favourable impression on the critics in his first match for the ’Varsity against Port Chalmers on Saturday. lie is a clever, nippy half back who has a fine touch, a sound sense of football values, and tho knowledge of how best, to serve his fellow backs. Altogether Childs has made a good introduction, and I am looking forward to his appearance behind the Royal Blue pack against Pirates on Saturday. The Zingari team, which looked so well on paper, were not so good on tho field of play —and it is field play that counts. Dunedin quite hold their own with tho Colours in a game remarkable for nothing more brilliant than usual in the first of the season match. Torrance was m ; ssing from the Zingari team, and the full back who played substitute was scarcely up to requirements Russell and Stanley played fairly well in tho three-quarter line, and Kellar. at five-eighths gave glimpses of good form. He cut in and made one or two nice openings, but got away too much from bis fellow backs. Patterson, Smith, Abbott, and Symonds were prominent amongst tho forwards, showing up in the loose and on the 'ine-out.

Clarke, the full back for Dunedin, played a sterling defensive game, his tackling being very sound and his kicking well directed. A rather unfortunate player in the past, one hopes that no injuries will befall him this season. Fortune was the pick of the three quarter line, and stood out for all-round play. His work suffered to som e extent by the fact that the passes sent out to him were not always well timed and too frequently badly directed. J. O'Sullivan wq,s instrumented in scoring Dunedin’s two tries. He gave the first oy a pass to Fortune, ana scored

the other himself by an individual dribbling effort. Of the Dunedin forwards, Ellison, O’Keeffe, and 0. O’Sullivan, played well, their form in the loose being specially good. The International Board, at a recent meeting at Edinburgh, has made an amendment to law 16 in connection with the penalty for a thrqw- forward or knock into touch. The law originally read:—“ln case cf a throw forward or knock-on, the ball shall be brought back to the place where suffii infringement occurred, 'and there be scrummaged, unless a fair catch lias been allowed, or the opposing side gain an advantage.” To this will be added the words, “or unless in the opinion of the referee such throw forward or knock-on is wilful, when hfc may award a free kick, to be taken at the spot where such infringement occurred. ’This shall not apply to a wilful throw forward or knook-on into (ouch, which must be dealt with under law 16 (a).” Now law 16 (a) is a new regulation, and is in the following terms:--“If a player shall wilfully pass, knock, or throw the ball into touch the opposite side may claim either a free kick or a scrummage. Such free kick or scrummage is to be taken at their option, either in (a) at a spot at right angles to the touch line, 10 yards from the place where the ball wont into touch, or (b) at the spot where such pass, kick, or throw occurred. In the case of a free kick tire ‘spot,’ whether under fa) or (b), shall bo taken as a mark. This law shall not override the power of the referee to allow or disallow a try under law 13.” It was with deep feelings of regret that I heard of the death of my old football comrade and club mate, “Dave” Munro, who was a member of the Union Football Cu'b in the early nineties. To the present generation of players he was not known, but in the days when Alhambra and 1 Kaikiorai were at the top of their form and when the Union Fifteen gave the redoubtables the hardest matches of the season, the name of Dave Munro was very familiar. He played for Union in 1893 and in 1894. A sterling defensive player, Dave Munro never let his side down .if sound defence and solid kicking would save it—and 1 many times it did. He it was who in 1893, when Kaikorai liad an unbeaten record and threatened to go through without a score against it, potted a goal for the Union Fifteen against the redoubtable Blue-and-Blocks. The next year (1894) Kaikorai' again went through the season, and again would have had a clean record but for a potted goal by Jimmy Wyllie. of the Union Club. Thus the Union Club, through two of its members, was the only team in 1893 and 1894 to score against Kmkorai when that team was in the zenith of its power. Although Dave Munro did 1 not, attain representative honours, it must be remembered that he was playing with the giants of the game, and representative honours wore much harder of winning then than they are at the present day. Always he “played the game. To those toft behind I extend sincere sympathy, which I know is shared by all his old comrades in the Union Club.