RUGBY FOOTBALL GIANTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3035, 15 May 1912, Page 53

RUGBY FOOTBALL GIANTS.

Some little while ago a piquant discussion proceeded .in Australia concerning the greatest three-quarters known to the Rugby game. Naturally, such a topic created no inconsiderable amount of interest. The prime favourites appeared to be Gwen Nicholls (Wales), W. J. Wallace (New Zea, land), and H. H. Messenger (Australia). Commenting on this in an English contemporary, my friend Mr R. T. Gabe (writes " Pendragon " in the South Wales News) added the names of Dr Teddy Morgan, R. G. Deans, W. J. Trew, and K. G. M'Leod. Obviously Mr Gabe only refers to those three-quarters who have played the game within his own recollection, but in the course of my subsequent remarks I am going to mention a few others — giants of the game,—who played Rugby before Mr Gabe was first heard of-fi.e., as a player, at Llanelly a dozen or so years ago, and whom the ex-Gardiffian appears never to have seen perform. Twenty years ago the two finest threeouarters in Great Britain were A. E. Stoddart and A. J. Gould, and without wishing to hurt the susceptibilities of men whose fame has been more, recent, it might fairly be. said that those two Rugby geniuses have never been excelled. A man of very strong-physique, Stoddart was a glorious centre, who was a perfect thorn in the flesh of the Welsh teams against which he played at that time. Very fast—probably he was nearly a 10£sec man,—-he U6ed to lift his knees very high when running, audi thus was a most difficult man to tackle. He had, too, a very elusive swerve, and I have seen him accomplish many a brilliant.run on the Cardiff Arms Park. y Other great English centres I have seen perform were F. H. R. Alderson—a real Leviathan in physique —the late Jim Valentine, of Swinton, and Dr J« Marsh, who had the honour of playing for both England and Scotland. : '. _ ; Come .we now tea consideration of the greatest Welsh three-quarter. Mr it. T. Gabe awards, the palm to Gwyn Nicholls, and probably most people wdl acquiesce with his view. It is, however, a matter of how you are going to appraise the-value of a man.; Certainly, as an all-round centre, Gwyn Nicholls has not had his equal in Wales. But if you regard the scoring of tries as the chief, desideratum in ,a 1 player, then he must make way for Arthur Gould.- ■ 1 ■ " Who. of us with long memories of the Rugby'game can forget the wonderful form in which Arthur Gould was playing in the early nineties? In season 1892-3 he scored 43 tries and dropped several goals for Newport—a phenomenal record; and one which has never been even approached bv any other centre who has played in Wales. Gould at his best—and ;he was at his best for many seasons—was an amazingly clever scoring three-quarter. He had an astonishingly quick eye for an' opening, and was through it in a twinkling. Another point in his favour was that he was the fastest centre who had ever worn a Welsh, jersey, for he could accomplish the 100 "yards sprint in about 4yds outside evens. I should like to see Gould at his best to-day, so that some, of the present generation could see what the.great players of the past were capable of. Of oourse, we have to have regard for the fact that the qualities of players vany a great deal. For instance, W. J. Trew was probably a little more brilliant in attack than either Gwyn Nicholls or R. T. Gabe, but in other respects agaiii he fell short of the two Oardiffians, V" f I shall always admire Gabe for one thing: he never: made a clever opening and then muddled it at the critical moment with a slovenly pass. Our happy memories of that great match with New Zealand would certainly have been very different if at the last instant Gabe had given a bad pass to Teddy Morgan when be scored his historic try. Another similar incident of more recent date I can recall. At Swansea in 1908 Scotland were leading by a goal to a try when right towards the end of the game the Scottish defence was beaten, and Gabe gave an absolutely' perfect pass to J. L. Williams. Here, again, a muddled transfer would have been disastrous. For. cool skill at critical moments Gabe was, certainly the most admirable centre I have ever seen. Two players we should have all liked to retain in Welsh amateur football were T. D. Davies (Treherbert) and Wattie Davies (Cardiff), a pair whom. I am convinced, would have ranked with our best if they had remained with us. To sum up, I should place the greatest Welsh centres in this order:—l. A. J. fi-onld; 2, Gwyri Nicholls; 3, Gabe and Trew (equal).