RUGBY FOOTBALL

Southland Times, Issue 20831, 20 July 1929, Page 8

RUGBY FOOTBALL

TO-DAY’S GAME

SOUTHLAND V. MAORI TEAM

PROSPECTS DISCUSSED

(By “Onlooker.”)

Southland Rugby followers have pleasant recollections of the type of football played by the Maori teams which visited Invercargill in 1923 and 1927. The Maoris are second only to the universities in the matter of bright, open football, and wherever they go they always delight with their sparkling displays. Apparently care-free the Maori footballer is not happy unless he can always keep up the attack. Defence matters not to him, and it is by a rigid adherence to the maxim that attack is the best defence that makes his play so interesting and easy to watch. That is Maori Rugby, and from a spectator’s point of view it is in demand.

To-day Southlanders will again have the opportunity to see a Maori team in action, and judging by reports, the team which arrived here last evening, assembled from all parts of the South Island, promises to live up to the standard of play set by its predecessors. Included in the team arc members of All Black teams, members of the 1926 Native team which toured England and France and representatives from the South Island provincial teams. The backs are said to be fast, and as the forwards are both fast and heavy the team appears to be a solid all-round combination: J. R. Bell (Southland) will captain the team, and two other Southlanders in the side are Aubrey Lee (Northern) and R. Lee (Western). The Maoris are in charge of Mr W. T. (“Ned”) Parata, who expects his boys to give the Southland team a good test. The game will serve as a good pipe-opener to both teams, who have more important engagements ahead. The South Island Maori team is going to Auckland shortly to contest the Prince of Wales Cup with the North Island Maoris, and to help the team’s finances to-day’s game was arranged. Southland’s first representative game (against Otago) takes place at Invercargill on July 31, and much interest is being evinced in the showing of the team selected to do battle to-day. It is a good side, and “Onlooker” thinks it will more than hold its own with the Maori team. The forwards are very solid and fast and should be able to supply Holden with plenty of ball. The backs are on trial, and though more solid than brilliant they should prove capable of justifying the confidence placed in them by the selectors. Ottrey (Eastern) fills Bell’s place at first five-eighths, and Metcalfe goes into the front row in place of Donnelly, who has not yet recovered from an ankle injury. Otherwise tihe team remains as chosen. In the absence of Bell, W. Hazlett will lead the Maroons. The game commences at 3 p.m., and given a continuance of the present fine weather a spectacular display of fast and open football should result. Mr W. Anderson will be the referee. As a curtain-raiser the third grade match, Blues v. High School, will be played, commencing at 1.30 p.m. Following are the teams:— SOUTHLAND. Norris. Stubbs, Diack, Pickering. Porter, Ottrey. Holden. Agnew, Metcalfe. Hazlett, Galt, McKenzie (captain) Purdue Southern Kerse MAORIS. R. Lee. H. Phillips, H. Priestly J. McDonald J. R. Bell, J. Barber (captain) A. Lee. W. Geary, J. Stewart. T. Manning, R. Pearce E. Wilson R. Ellison, Te Raki. T. Robinson.