Welcome Smoke Concert.

Southland Times, Issue 19771, 22 March 1906, Page 2

Welcome Smoke Concert.

J. W. STEAD ENTERTAINED AND

HONOURED.

'J he Southland Rugby Football -Union last evening tendered a social and smoke concert to Mr J. W. Stead, vice-captain of the New Zealand Football Team. to mark their appreciation of the worthy, manner in which he had represented this province in the ranks of the "All Blacks."

The attendance was extremely good, the seats at the four long U ! es being almost all occupied. Football, .-i of course formed the bulk of the au -once, but there were many prominent citizens pro* sent, whose connection with the game must date hack a few years, but who still take more'than a slight interest in the pi t sent day exponents. The appetising fate put on the tables by host Kingsland having been duly sampled, the chairman (Mr A. F. Hawke, President of the S.H.F.U.) invited the ‘company to light up their nicotine producers and enjoy themselves. The invitation was re' spondvd to with alacrity, and a programme of toasts and musical items was presented in an atmosphere redolent with llse soothing fumes of good tobacco. The loyal toast having been, honoured, the Chairman, in proposing the health of “ Cmr Hurst.” said that Southlanders considered Mr Stead one of their bust footballers, and must New Zealanders thought him one of the Lest backs in Hie colony. Intense interest had been taken in the* tour of the "All Blacks," but even their most anient supporters could not have .anticipated that they would have such a triumphant progress, lie did not know how the Welsh match was lost, whether it was bad play, hard luck, or the Welsn Anthem—(laughter)— but he thought it a pity that that match bad not been played earlier. The New Zealand Union deserved a great deal o£ credit for organising the lour, but the provincial unions also deserved credit for assisting the central union by guaranteeing the finances. The lour had been a great success and a splendid advertisement for the colony. He thought that ;|m Government had done quite right ill giving the team a Home trip through America, and probably the games played lhere would result in an improvement c.’ing made in t lie brutal American gome. On behalf of the Union ho cordially welcomed Me Stead back to Southland. Yh" general opinion was that the New : '/.•aland leatn was stronger when Mr •Stead was in it than when he was out. ami one regret was that he did not play in the Welsh match. He imped that Mr Stead would continue (n take an .-dive part in football affairs, if the injury to bis instep did not prevent him. If 1)8 did retire the footballers would no doubt get (he benefit of his advice ami ussist- ■ ine... He bad alwavs played a straight and sterling game, and was esteemed mite as much as a citizen of Invercargill as he was as a footballer.—(Applause.) •s. The (oast was enthusiastically received with musical honours ami groat cheering. Ml! STEAD’S REDLY. AX INTERESTING SPEECH. Air Stead, on rising to respond, received an ovation such as has seldom lieon accorded to (he guest of any similar gat In ring. General cheering was kept up for some little time, until a stentorian voice called for " throe more cheers for Billy Stead." Those were given in the regulation unison, and the company subsided (o hear the reply. Mr Stead spoke for nearly two hours, but his matter was so varied, interesting, and lucid, that the time passed ail too quickly. He rviened by expressing Ihc hope than. an oratorical display was not expected of him, and promised (o give as much foot- ■ ia!l news as possible. Tile “ All Blacks" !• fl New Zealand a much criticised team, .jr ecially as far es the forwards were concerned. On ib,. second day out, tho manager. Mr Dixon, took the team into Ids conlidence, and each man was made lo feel (hill on him lay a personal responsibility. The forwards were put miller the charge of Gniming'liam, who only .got into (he ham a( the lasi, moment, Inn it was a wise selection. There were ■>r-a 1 di.'lerences of opinimi as in THE SCRUM FORMATION, and i( was three days before they deejdfd on one. .Splendid facilities were given for training on Hie steamer, and tho team would never forget Captain Greeils reef for his Kindmss. Mr Stead proceeded to describe the system of training p irsned oil hoard and tho usual routine i f work and entertainment affected by the team and passengers. By the time they had entered the .British Channel they 'h ll d perfected their scrum formation to the best of their ability; and hod unbounded confidence in it as a pushing and mobile pack. Thu backs had talked indies occasionally ami discussed tDo rules about vvh cli there might lie differences of opinion. When the team landed at I’lvmoalh thece were only three persons to nmtt them, anil the;; were taken right through to Newton Abbott, where limy licit! a, practice during a pouring rain. The I’r-ss almost

ignored their landing. The next day they were taken to see a match at I'lynnnitli. and from wimt they saw at it I hey were highly delighted whh their chances of winning their unit match. When asked what they thought of it t In* Xi-w Zealanders said that the learns were very good, and that they 'had not linen accustomed to seeing football of that sort.—i Laughter.) They had vrevioiisl.v determined not to give uny of their points away uni M the tour was finished. There was great an.x ety about the first match, ns it was felt that u ‘great deal of I hi* sin cess of the, tour wotdd depend on it. us the team was unknown and nnudverl ised. At one time they seriously thought of sending .out posters to uni nminre Hie mutch, but decided to ” wake jl l riii up ' with the first match. What 1 occunvd "as a matter of history. It I was an eve-opener not only to Devon but In lie* New Zeal.'unk-rs as well. The coinbii.td ion seemed to work intuitively into the individual members of tie* leant. The (earn next went to ‘'e.n".''!, and were told llut lie t'ornishtuen "odd ( soon " fix them up,” their rough huslj ling methods being relied on to accom- ! plisb what Devon hud failed to do. C'orn- | wall struck him «B being tIOO years bcI hind tin* times right through. S.ipeisti- • ion was rife, especially in the villages, j and the most ridiculous tilings were dono :to avoid tie spirits. There was nothing exceptional alnout the .match except that one of the players was a lad of 17 i years, weighing' 17 stone, who was Te- ! unwind us a wrestler and was looked to j for great things. He got toppled over 1 once or twice and was never heard of ; again.— ( Laughter.) The team next went to Bristol, and there took n run to London. where they had u good reception. They were taken from the railway terminus In the hole] by ’lnis, as a inatI ter of entertainment, the distance o£ ' three miles being covered in about one I hour ten minutes. Great amusement was I caused by the cockney driver, who spoke , with the twang and had amusing rows with other ’bus drivers en route. The trathe was, of course, enormous, and sone* of them found it extremely inconvenient and dis' oecert ing at sleeping lime. The next journey was !o Northampton, when* they were told, the inntrh would be a stiff one- This sort of advice was a bugbear all through, as the selection committee having no authentic information to go on, sometimes pm in stronger teams than they otherwise would have done. The match was ;* rather easy win, and Leicester, which followed, was also vanquished without difficulty. Up to this time no one had crossed the All Blacks’ line, and people were asking whether this was accounted for by the superiority of (ho team and lheir combination, or whether there Was a lack of knowledge on tie part of the English tennis. He attributed it wholly to their system. They had developed A WONDERFUL COMBINATION

and in attacking took risks against tha English formation which they would not

take against a formation similar to their j own. The British, had only one- Hao o£j defence, and when that was pierced the j full back only had to be passed. The ; forwards seemed to think, that they were merely on the field to aush in the scrum, work in the line outs, and dribble when the ball was oil the ground. As for tackling and going into passing rushes, they hud never heard of it. The mobility of the New Zealand forwards, and their fierceness in attack, made them the backbone of the team. When an opponent intercepted a passing rush he would hnd that ho hud the whole forward team | round him, and throe or four lines 01 defence to pass instead of one. Many writers asserted that it was the individuality and keencss of the men which accounted tor their success, together with their thorough regard for training. (1 “ this latter point the team was laughed at in some quarters. Smoking before going to the ground, or during the h.ilitime spoil in the dressing rooui was looked upon us unorthodox. In flu* Universities some of the players reduced themselves almost to skeletons in getting lit for the match against the New Zealanders, and ho was informed that not one of the team had smoked. When the All Blacks ” came o". looking very fat, and rattled up -IT points, the in l sity held a meeting to consider the question of training- Hince then he had received a letter asking for details as to how the team trained, and announcing that the 'Varsity team was going to tryrunning a ” little bit fat. The Middlesex match the team considered their first real test. They counted among their ranks seven Internationals, and the finest, body of men tile team encountered. ...Tt.u speaker referred to the matches at Surrey, etc., and then passed on to Scotland. Though the officials there did not recognise the team the people gave a splendid reception to the “ All Blacks,’ and they had a capital lime in Scotland. It was only after tremendous correspondence in the newspapers that the union decided to rank the match ns an International and gi v e the players caps. Ihe match w'as played on n i aril frosty ground, and under other conditions none too pleusa.it. Bedell-Sivrighl came on with the team, hut Cure was no landshaking, and he refused to recognise the New Zealanders. He quite “ took them down.” and they ne'.'ei" saw Vin either

before or after the match, and were unable to give him the greetings sent from New Zealand. 'He mutch was not so close as the score of I- points to 7 might lead one to believe. If the reteree had been physically fit and properly clothed to keep up wllh ‘he pimp it would not have been so close- 'Three tries, two of which he could alm-lutely vouch for as fair scores, were whistled back in the lirst ten minutes. 'The forwards were getting a bard time from the Scotch pack, and the raUTce -.s too slow for the fast work by the hacks. Scotland got a point ahead and meant ty keep it. and the game b“eme intensely exciting. When the hist t.kc try which practically won the match was scored the New Zealanders were in their own I ’s. They arranged to get the ball fairly und clearly, in a manner to absolutely satisfy the referee end i a>s. Roberts got the nail out and iifay to Smith. wla» was standing in in n\ ->i tho goal posts, leaving Ivim with the whole lie Id to get round. Ilis run Was a matter of history; he accompli-mod lr e feat as no one else iti the team could have done. Ms Stead continued his speech with interesting referenn s l> the \ isil to Scotland. Ireland. IWius, ITame and America, and a full ‘ep.vt a .)• eppiar later. He resumed his seat amid loud and continued applause. 'The toa>t list comprised ”’< 7.K. IM'.”. proposed by Mr K, .) dilmeur and responded to by Mr ii. Boyds; "5.R.F.U..” proposed *».y Mr A A. Paape anti responded ‘ » by Mr R l-al-braith ; “ Kindred Sports.*’ proposed by Mr K. Russel! and responded to by Mr T. Rrcwn ; “ The Radies ' fby Mi T. Ik Lennie) and " 'The ’Press," proposed by Mr .1. \V. Stead ami respond-d to by Messrs V. Mussen and R. -i. it.lirour. ‘The Idlers” was added n the list, being proposed by Mr A. A. Pa-ape end •responded to by Messrs «: >1 s.h; and Brown- It was honoured with marken enthusiasm, as ” Tlie Idlers have rarely been heard to better advantage, vU-der in solo, quartette or (bed va rs. Sungs were contriiuited by 1 Brown. K. B. Jones (Welsh National AMhenn. A. S. Cookson. and d- Mack, and a mandolin solo by Mr IT- d Kane. A social which bad never Magged for a moment throughout terminated at 1--J0 o'clock with th-* singing of tlie National Anthem ami Auld Rang Syne.