TEAMS ENTERTAINED.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume IV, Issue 222, 31 August 1936, Page 5

TEAMS ENTERTAINED.

TUKAPA AND KAPONGA Saturday's Game Discussed At Dinner. REFEREE'S, APPRECIATION f!HT33I '2TWjWIi The TukapyaVrfr'<-&aponga teams and officials were entertained by the Taranaki Rugby Union at dinner at Stratford after the replay on Saturday. Over 50 were present and there were several short cpeecb.es. The toast list was: The King; The Chairman (Mr F. J. Nolan); Tukapa, Mr Paterson snr.~Mr H. Bos well (captain) ; Kaponga, Mr Charles Brown—Mr C. Paterson; Tukapa's Coach, Mr Boswell—Mr Brown; The Taranaki Rugby Union, Mr C. Paterson—Mesrs Nolan and F. H. Masters. Replying to Mr Paterson's congratulations Mr Boswell said the day' had been a gruelling test for both teams and the conditions were the worst some of the players had experienced. He congratulated Kaponga on the spirit in which the game was played. "Perhaps we were a little fortunate," he said. "Our sympathies arc with Kaponga. It was the first time the team has reached the final and it mis a great performance considering the territory the team has to cove:*. Wc hope that next year Kaponga will go one better." Apologising for the absence of the referee, Mr Evans, Mr Masters said he had driven a motor truck from' Hawera, stopped at Stratford and went on with his job afterwards, having to drive to New Plymouth. He had' had a difficult task refereeing such a match and he had done it well. Mi' Evans has asked him to mention the referee's appreciation of the excellent spirit of the game. Anybody's Game.'' "In the conditions it was anybody's' game to-day," said Mr Brown, congratulating Kaponga on its play. "Anybody who knows anything about football knows that on a treacherous' ground and with a ball greasy with rain luck often carries a team through. I felt that a draw would have been the best result so that there could have been another game en a dry ground. Wo reckoned that Kaponga would play on Saturday the same type of game as on Thursday. "With its wonderful pack, Kaponga forgot it had potentially good backs, the finest defensive back line I have seen in the competitions." The Kaponga men defended well, had. pace, were safe and sound and were getting the ball from the scrum, but the team did not exploit its backs, although loose play was not reliable on such a day, said Mr Brown. Alter 1 referring to the good times Kaponga and Tukapa always had after their comparatively rare meetings he suggested the luck of the game had taken honours from Kaponga. He would like to see the fifteen kept together; if it were ho felt sure it would da even better next yoar.

Although Kaponga was disappointed, it congratulated Tukapa on the win, said Mr C. Paterson. He agreed with Mr Brown that the team should bo kept together, and although he had himself intended to retire he now hopod to carry on another year. Tribute to Coac'h. Paying a tribute to Mr Brown, Mr Poswell said he had been with the club many years; he had trained the team well, bringing most of them through the junior grades, and ho had tried for years to win the championship, fie hoped the team had not been too much worry to him. It was not the coaching but the club itself that was responsible for the success of the seniors, replied Mr Brown. The win had been the result of the work of the junior coaciies year by year in providing the ground work from the fifth grade upwards. Mr Wi Taiaroa, Warea, an old Wanganui representative and a Tukapa supporter, congratulated Kaponga. "Although we may not see eye to eye with the union members sometimes,'' said Mr C. Paterson in proposing the toast, "they are the administrators, and we have to abide fcy their decisions." The union treated nothing lightly, replied Mr Nolan. Everything was Ireatod on its merits. If clubs were not satisfied with the management committee it was in their own hands to effect changes at the annual meeting. Clubs had their .difficulties and arguments • as weljl ; .ascthe manageiUieiiltve(>yjm'ittee»,.:C(dfled Mr Masters. ■QIM\) committees,jdid: npt,always see ifye! to eye, and neither did management committee members. Every section of the union's territory was represented in the management and every decision was made only following careful consideration.