THIS YEAR’S BIG EVENT

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 47, 18 May 1927, Page 7

THIS YEAR’S BIG EVENT

RUGBY CO-OPERATION

Within the short space of a week or so the strongest Association football team that has ever been assembled in the Dominion of Canada will be in New Zealand. For some seasons past a visit of a Canadian team has been talked about, for it was realised on all sides that such a visit would do an immense amount of good ' in helping to still further establish the game of Soccer in New Zealand. Thanks to the enterprise of the council of the New Zealand Football Association, the much-talked-of visit is to become an accomplished fact, and the stalwarts of Canada will try conclusions with the wearers of the silver fern.

For some years past Canada has been definitely on the map as far as the game of Association football is concerned. It may be said with confidence that Soccer football is the national game of Canada. Certain it is, at any rate, that the round ball game there has gone ahead with remarkable rapidity in recent years, and the standard of play has no’w reached a very high mark. Visits to Canada by strong English teams have proved that. Against these organisations, consisting of men who have won renown for themselves in international football, the Canadians have given excellent accounts of themselves, and have shown quite definitely that Canadians know how to play Soccer. Against teams from the United States, where the game has also reached a high standard, Canadian elevens have also won honour for themselves and for their country. This will not be Canada’s first venture abroad. Two years ago a Canadian team toured Australia, and reports which reached New Zealand at that time indicated that the men from the land of the maple leaf were foemen worthy of their steel. But the team which visited Australia did not adequately represent the strength of Canada. Many of the most prominent players were unable to make the trip. Fortunately, on this occasion, no difficulty has been experienced in gaining leave for the players, and the result is that New Zealand will receive a visit from what is undoubtedly Canada's strongest team. And that, by the way, is saying a great deal. SOCCER’S RAPID STRIDES How will New Zealand fare against these men from Canada? During recent years the game of Soccer in New Zealand has made big forward strides, just as it has done in Canada. Probably at no time in the history of the game in this country has the standard been so universally high as it is at the present time. Games played for the English trophy last season between the four major provinces—Auckland Wellington, Canterbury, and Otago—proved that very conclusively. Auckland placed a particularly strong eleven in the field, composed of men who were not only trained up to the minute, but men who knew much of the fine points of the game as well. Other provinces were not far behind. The Chatham Cup Competition also revealed the fact that New Zealand possesses players capable of taking their place in any company. Soccer in New Zealand is being developed along the right lines, thanks to the business acumen and the enthusiasm of members of the New Zealand Council and other controlling bodies throughout New Zealand. Attention has been paid to the schools, which should act as a nursery for representative players of the future, and in this way much real progress has been made. The results have been worth the efforts and to-day the game of Soccer football in New Zealand is on a high plane. For that reason New Zealand can enter the lists against the Canadians with full confidence. That the Canadians will triumph in the majority of the matches against the various centres is expected. But against the pick of New Zealand, the Canadians will find that they will have to play as probably they have never played before in order to win. What great contests those four Test matches will be!

In drawing up the itinerary for the tour, the New Zealand Council has succeeded in giving every part of the country an opportunity of seeing the visitors in action. At the same time sight has not been lost of the necessity of treating the Canadians fairly in the matter of travelling. Many teams which have visited New Zealand have complained of the strain involved in excessive travelling, but on this score the Canadians should have no cause for complaint. It is gratifying to know that the New -Zealand Rugby Union, a body which might well be antagonistic to the Soccer game, is assisting in every way. In drawing up its list of representative matches for the 1927 season, the Rugby Union has studiously avoided clashes with the Canadian fixtures. A FINE SPIRIT

This indicates a very fine spirit, and is a decided encouragement to those who have been preaching the desirability of friendly co-operation, between all codes of winter sport. It would have been a simple matter for the Rugby authorities to have staged counter-attractions in many of the main centres, and one could scarcely have blamed them if they had followed that course, for it cannot be denied that the game of Soccer is growing in popularity in New Zealand, and is becoming, slowly but surely, a very real rival to Rugby football. Not only is the game gaining a strong foothold in the schools, but the arrival of immigrants from the Old Country is steadily augmenting the ranks of Association football enthusiasts. If the Rugby Union had chosen to challenge the Soccer game by staging counter-attractions, the New Zealand Football Association would have been faced with a serious problem, in view of its financial commitments in connection with the tour, but the union has generously followed the opposite course. With any amount of good fortune so far as weather conditions are concerned, the success of the Canadian tour is now assured. The action of the union, however, has a special significance, apart altogether from financial considerations. It demonstrates a true spirit of sportsmanship and comradeship, which, in these days of “commercialised sport” is very wei-