POOR FORM

Southland Times, Issue 22730, 5 November 1935, Page 7

POOR FORM

THE ALL BLACKS SLOW AND STEREOTYPED ATTACK PRESS COMMENT (United Press Assn—Telegraph Copyright.) London, November 3. The Daily Telegraph says: “The AH Blacks, playing like somewhat elderly gentlemen, scrambled home. They are either suffering a reaction after the vigorous Welsh tour or they need the stimulus of Welsh aggression to bring out their best. They were weak on Saturday not only in defence, buttheir attack was slow and stereotyped. They made persistent use of the touchline as if they could not trust themselves to run with the ball. Hart, alone of the backs, looked a class player. The forwards carried them through. Hadley was particularly good. It will be ironical if eventually the All Blacks rely on the much-criticized forwards for their salvation.” The News Chronicle says that the New Zealanders played much more like a team than they did against the Services. The forwards sometimes looked positively fearsome. The London Rugby Union entertained the All Blacks at a dinner when 200 guests included many internationals. Mr Geoffrey Roberts, proposing a toast to the New Zealanders, said that the closeness of their victories showed an improvement of the game here arid so reflected greater credit on the visitors. , . The All Blacks received the toast of the London Counties with Maori musical honours. OPPORTUNIST BACKS GLOUCESTERSHIRE-SOMERSET GAME. FORWARDS OUTCLASSED. (By Air Mail.) Bristol, October 4. It is almost entirely due to the opportunism and brilliance of their backs to make the best of every opportunity that the New Zealanders beat the combined team of Gloucestershire and Somerset at the Memorial Ground, Bristol, yesterday, by two goals, a dropped goal and three tries (23 points) to a try (3 points), states the Western Daily Express and Bristol Mirror. The All Blacks could claim no advantage over the fast and lively combined Counties pack in a hard and vigorous struggle; in fact they were badly beaten in one phase of the game—scrummaging.

Behind the scrum, however, the tourists were vastly superior and whenever the backs were on the move they looked like scoring. They handled with hard, crisp passes, and took and gave their passes whilst travelling at speed. Clever moves outwitted the opposing defence by the pace and skill with which they were carried through end, above all, there was the strong individual work to beat a man.

By these means the All Blacks scored 23 points, which rather flattered them on the run of the game, for the ascendancy of the opposing pack kept play fairly even territorially. The Home backs had more than double the chances of their opponents, but gave a poor exhibition. They not only failed to get an understanding—which might be excusable in such a team—but they continually dropped the ball and the tackling was weak. That provided the tourists with just what they wanted, for they snapped up the loose ball to get the backs going and obtained the chances which their forwards were unable to give them. It was a strenuously fought game, full of exciting incidents, but the football did not reach a high standard, and the only bright spots were the flashes of brilliance from the tourists’ backs.

By their victory the All Blacks wiped out some of the effects of the humiliating defeat at Swansea in the previous match, but their form was not impressive, and by no means stamped them as a team that is beyond the possibility of further defeat.

They have not acquired the art of scrummaging, and in this respect they were no match for the West Country pack. There was a very hard shove in the Counties’ pack, and A. D. Carpenter was much too clever for Lambourn as a hooker, obtaining the ball five times out of six.

The Counties’ pack played a magnificent game, and they were much better together. Several times they executed vigorous rushes in which good footwork was shown, whilst in the open they bunched together in a most effective way.

It was from these rushes that the All Blacks had most to fear, and it was only the quickness of the backs in gathering the ball that checked them. If the conditions had been heavy, this pack might have won the game. It was in handling and in individual strength that the New Zealand forwards were outstanding. They made advances by short, snappy handling, and then had one player who would go hard for the line. These determined runs by the powerfully-built forwards wanted some stopping, and Manchester, Lambourn, and Reid were outstanding.

It was really clever how the New Zealand backs snapped up chances to commence attacks. Caughey, the fiveeighth, was splendid in this respect, and he went away at a great pace. By his elusive swerving and side-stepping, coupled with his determination, which got him through several tackles, he was the spearhead of the All Blacks’ attack. He was easily the fastest and cleverest back on the field and always had the defence guessing. He played up to his left wing, and here Mitchell caused a lot of trouble by his pace and dash.

If the New Zealand pack had only held its own in scrummaging and given the backs a fair share of the ball these speedy outside men. would have overrun the opposition. BETTER COMBINATION LANCASHIRE-CHESHIRE MATCH. OLIVER’S INSPIRING LEADERSHIP. (By Air Mail). Liverpool, October 5. Before a large and enthusiastic crowd the New Zealanders defeated Lancashire and Cheshire by three goals and two tries (21 points) to a goal and a penalty goal (8 points). Heavy rain overnight had made the ground on the soft side, but it was not until just before half-time, when once again the downpour started, that conditions for handling became really bad (writes H. B. T. Wakelam in the Morning Post). Up to then we had seen some good and clever handling by both sides, but afterwards the most telling features were rush, dribble, and follow-up, and here the New Zealanders, faster and heavier than, the Counties pack, showed to consideable advantage. In fact, they showed us to-day that they are now beginning to understand the correct tactics for each and every weather condition which we get over here, and, in addition, they are now obviously finding their feet and getting together. Their inspiration, undoubtedly, is Oliver. In attack and

defence alike he was the mainspring and before the ball became wet and open work was the order of the day responsible for the making of two tries with his clever defence-piercing running, and his perfect pass-timing. Sadler, at scrum-half, and Griffiths, at first five-eighth, were also outstanding, whilst Gilbert, at back, came right into his Devonport form again, and was about the most spectacular individual on the field under all conditions. Hard-Pushing Forwards. The pack, who formed down 3-4-1, with their one always in the middle of the four, had obviously been drilled in hard moving, and also in spoiling, for the Maori, Reid, as one of the breakaways, was a constant source of trouble to the Counties attack and to Pank in particular. He and Adkins, on the day, were perhaps the most prominent, but indeed the whole eight had of necessity a large part in subduing a strong and hard-fighting Counties eight. No quarter was given or asked for, but nevertheless the exchanges were in extremely good part. Watcyn Thomas covered himself with glory, sometimes taking on three or four of his equally powerful opponents, and causing a good deal of amusement by invariably appearing on the ground with the ball in his possession after a tremendous loose maul battle.

Fry, as well, was very quick and hard to pull down, but, go hard as they could, the home forwards were always just a little the inferior, and it was the All Blacks who almost always made that invaluable 20 yards or so in the rough and tumble rushes. Pank, when allowed, opened up quite well, but he did not always find Bowker, who once or twice was badly shaken up. All four three-quarters did as well as could be expected, Heaton and Leyland bringing off some of their wellknown streaky, combined runs, and Sever being very strong and tenacious, but opportunities were lacking and the New Zealand defensive covering was close and well conceived. Horne, at full-back, came out of his ordeal well; he could not really be blamed for any single score. To sum up, the All Blacks were just a little too good, and the thirteen points difference just about represents their superiority. HELD EASILY LISTLESS DISPLAY AT GOSFORTH. COUNTIES’ WELL-EARNED TRIES. (By Air Mail.) Lcndan, October 10. The New Zealanders were held with surprising ease by the side representing Northumberland and Durham at Gosforth yesterday, writes a Rugby correspondent of The Times. They were never the team that a crowd of nearly 20,000 peonle expected to see, and only a clever dropped goal and two lucky tries enabled them to win by 10 points to 6, the Counties’ score for two well-earned tries. The game was played in most unusual surroundings, the County Ground at Gosforth on the outskirts of New-castle-on-Tyne, also being a greyhound racing track of an evening. The playing field was completely encircled by a low-roofed lattice-girdered enclosure and stand, with a huge totalisator board at one end and the club premises at the other. As it happened the rain held off until the last few minutes of the match, but a fair afternoon was none the less welcome because every spectator was under cover—the ground looked as if it might have been a gluepot in wet weather and the handling and kicking of both sides were mediocre enough as it was. One has no desire to rob the Counties of full credit for a remarkably keeii and gallant performance, but it must be said that the extraordinary lassitude of their opponents had most to do with the course of the play. They looked at times like a team at the end of a long tour instead of a quarter of the way through it. In the end they were almost lucky not to be beaten on the post. The Counties Attack. The Counties’ backs got away from the first scrummage, but Oliver managed to grab Bailey by the heels from behind. The resilience of the Northcountry team soon was shown again when they broke away with a passing movement. Oliver stopped this attack too, but only at the expense of a scrummage in front of the goal-posts. There the attack ended ingloriously in a couple of penalty kicks to New Zealand. The Counties continued to hold their own fairly well inside and outside of the scrummage in spite of the fact that their heeling was slow and the half-backs were apparently without any understanding of each other’s play and difficulties. Goldson’s passing was rather limp, but his partner did nothing to help the ball to find him. Then, after a quarter of an hour, came a penalty kick to the Counties. Hodgson took it but gave Oliver the chance to get in a run and kick to the other end of the field. The lapse, indeed, was to cost a try, for from the next scrummage, Ball picked up and dived over the goal-line on the blind side. There was no Gilbert to take the kick—for the first time in the tour—and Brown could not add any goal points from the touchline. New Zealand developed one or two passing movements after this, but their heeling and passing were not much better than those of the Counties, and Griffiths and Caughey, the five-eighths, seldom got very far. On the wings neither Brown nor Ball had any clear chances to round men as fast as themselves. Comer’s passing on most occasions was very poor, but at least he and the forwards gave Griffiths the opportunity to drop a goal, which he did in the twenty-fifth minute with considerable ease from fairly short range, Griffiths undoubtedly is a fine and clever kick, but he is allowing the fact to make him tame when he ought to be brilliant and constructive. The All Blacks, for all their lead of seven points and a growing ability to attack, were accomplishing very little, when a sudden rally by the Counties caught them by surprise just before the interval. The passing which led up to a Northumberland and Durham try was too involved to be really clever, but, like the forward play that led up to it, there was a verve and speed in the running that deserved reward. There were two or three bouts before the ball went out to Oldroyd on the right, and that player not only slipped a welldrawn defence, but ran round Solomon, the full-back, to score a fine try—too wide out for Hodgson to place a goal. _ This try surely must have had a big moral influence on the result, for, although Ball snatched another try for the All Blacks early in the second half, the Counties’ resistance, if anything, stiffened from that point onwards and their attack steadily gained in confidence as their opponents fell away. A run by Corner had led up to the second All Black try, but it was a kick ahead over the goal-line and the closest of races for the touch-down that enabled Ball to score. Harrison became a prominent figure in the Counties’ periodical breaks-away during the second half, breaks-away which eventually developed into a sustained attack and brought a try on the blind side by McLaren, a stand-off player on this occasion but usually a scrummage half. Hodgson made a fair attempt to bring his side within two points of the All Blacks’ score, but his kick went under the cross-bar. In the remaining five minutes the Counties’ forwards went aU out, but were rushed back each time they got within striking distance. 'Die crowd, however, were given an exciting finish, for the last incident was a clearance by Ball from behind his own goalline, occasioned by a charged-down mark.