ALL BLACK’S FAREWELL

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18764, 22 July 1935, Page 12

ALL BLACK’S FAREWELL

W. COLLINS, OP WAIROA POVERTY BAY INTEREST FIRST GAME IN .GISBORNE To a number of those who gathered in Wairoa, on Saturday night to farewell the newly-selected All Black, W. Collins, on the eve of his departure for Wellington to join the New Zealand team for the tour of Britain, the scene must have.recalled a very different picture of Collins, as he appeared whan in 1931 he first took the Rugby field as a member of the Old Boys' club in Gisborne., , , ,

There were in Saturday night’s gathering all the members of the .Poverty Bay senior representative team, nearly all ot whom remembered the Rugby, debut of Collins. To the manager of the Poverty Bay team in particular, Mr. J. O’Neill, the farewell ceremony must have proved an interesting occasion, for Mr.' O’Neill was one of the first to give Collins a chance in something better than club competition football.

As a Poverty Bay selector, Mr. O’Neill has seen many good - players develop, enjoy their • years of prominence, and eventually retire to the' sidelines.' He was mainly responsible for-the early selection of Tom Dennis as' lock for the Poverty Bay scrum,'in days when,the Maori forward did ,not command support from many other judges of football form. Dennis later justified Mr. 'O’Neill by gaining inclusion in the Maori team ol 1925. and for many years thereafter was a leading figure in district football. Other fine plyers have given Mr. O’Neill’s judgment good advertisements, and the rise of W. Collins to All Black status in u year when good forwards are.a drug on the market represents another pleasing vindication of his ability to pick a commg man.

KEEN TRAINING ENTHUSIASM Four or five seasons ago the Old Boys club, on an off-day, fielded a team in which the interest centred on a youth of obvious callowness in the game. The vouth was W. Collins, and he weighed a good deal more than a lad of his build and age should. lie was not a brilliant success, even for a “first-timer,” but his interest was engaged, to such an extent that .the most energetic of his clubmates found his training enthusiasm outdoing theirs. Very quickly lie reduced his weight by a stone or so, and in his first season ho was included in the Poverty Bay representative side. It was not one of the district’s best years, but Collins put a wonderful degree of keenness into his play, and in the following season ho was a leading member of the Poverty Bay pack, then much improved _as a woble. Rugby football became'his chief interest, and when he moved to the East Coast, after two seasons of play in Gisborne, he was keenly missed by football players and spectators. •’•••' , Playing on the Coast, Collins continued to improve, and a shift last season to Wairoa brought him within the purview of the Hawke’s Bay union, which has supplied so many All Blacks of the recent past. With Reid and Jackson, two others from the Coast, he played his. way into the Hawke’s Bay representative team, and this year, continuing his progress, qualified by outstanding play in the final All Black trial for the major Rugby bootball honor—the privilege of wearing the silver fern.

Still' a mere vouth by comparison with the elder All Blacks of 1935, Collins has n lot of football ahead of him, and should be a great‘asset to the game in the Dominion and- abroad." His personality is modest ail'd off the field lie is decidedly retiring. ‘Nevertheless’, it'is safe to predict that he will ,be. one of the. best-liked of New Zealand’s representatives "oil this season’s great'Riigby tour.

UNION’S CONGRATULATIONS An indication of the popularity won by Collins during his residence in Wairoa was given by the attendance and enthusiasm shown at the farewell dance given in his honor in Wairoa on Saturday' evening. Messrs. A. G. Nolan and C. R. 'Sainsbury, president and deputychairman of the Wairoa Rugby Subunion respectively, were the principal speakers of tho evening, but- Mr. .7. O’Neill, manager of the Poverty Bay representative team against which Collins played on Saturday afternoon, was also given an opportunity to speak, and tendered his union’s congratulations to a former Poverty Bay player on his success.

Recalling his Rugby football debut, m Gisborne, the departing All Black expressed his own sense of indebtedness to the officials of the Poverty Bay union for the encouragement he had received during his first two seasons. He would not forget, he said, that it was in Gisborne that he first took up the game, and attained to the honor of representing a district. He felt especially pleased that it. was the Poverty Bay team against which he had played his last game before joining the New Zealand team for tho tour of Britain, and that his former team-mates were present at his farewell gathering. He added that the challengers in that day’s Barry Cup game in Wairoa had demonstrated the old (Poverty Bay tenacity, and that the victory of Wairoa had been hard-won, de~ ‘spite the advantage in weight enjoyed by the cup-holders.