LEAGUE RUGBY PREMIERSHIP

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 95, 13 July 1927, Page 7

LEAGUE RUGBY PREMIERSHIP

NEWTON MOVES INTO SECOND PLACE NOTES AND COMMENTS FROM THE CLUBS INTEREST in the League Rugby championship of Auckland grows apace. Newton’s defeat of Ponsonby on Saturday brought this team up into second place, and with the first four teams separated by only a few points, the remaining games should provide some great contests.

TN its review of last Saturday’s matches, published the preceding night, THE SUN did not join in the general contention that Ponsonby would prove too good for Newton. A significant sentence was: “Newton may easily find things to their liking tomorrow,’’ and this is just what did happen. Newton fairly revelled in the heavy going, and inflicted the most decisive defeat last year’s champions have sustained this year. Newton, has a fine pack of forwards, and Hall, Henry and Clarke repeatedly showed out in some great rushes on Saturday. In the backs, Mclntyre was as brilliant as ever, and with Webb and Peckham as rivals for the position, it is evident that the selectors will have a knotty problem to settle when the representative team is chosen. Dufty is also playing consistently well and Morman, the captain, was in fine form on Saturday. What’s Wrong With Ponsonby When Ponsonby turned out earlier in the season they gave the League fans the impression that they would be hard nuts to crack in the senior competition, but now that the season is well advanced, we find the Ponies at a standstill instead of being on the improve. The fact that the whole of the Ponsonby team, excepting Langley, the fullback, are holders of representative honours, does not help to enlighten the officials on the trouble, but since the players have been together for so long, a sort of stalemate seems to have set in. Langley, who is the only new blood in the team, is a quite recently promoted player, and was a shining light in last year’s first juniors. He played a very safe game last Saturday, but lacked the attacking dash as produced by the opposing fullback. Herewini. Injured Players Sam Lowry, who was conveyed to the hospital last Saturday suffering from a fractured jaw, was discharged from the institution on Monday, but it is not likely that he will be fit to take the playing field for some weeks yet. “Dooley” Moore, the prominent Ponsonby forward who was injured some weeks ago, is making a rapid recovery, and will be turning out again shortly. Going To Rotorua The Ponsonby senior team is going to make the best of the holiday allotted on July 23, when the Canadian Soccer team will be playing at Auckland. The Ponies intend making a trip to Rotorua, where they will oppose a Rotorua senior team. The Parnell team had a splendid trip to the hot pools centre last week-end, making the journey by THE SUN service car, which landed them back on Sunday night, in plenty of time to start work again bright and early on Monday morning. In conversation with the writer, Mr. A. R. Turner, of the Parnell Club, stated that they have some first-class material in Rotorua, and it only wants a few more visits from metropolitan sides to give the Rotorua men a bit more experience, and they will take a lot of beating. Parnell hope to pay another visit to the country of mud pools and hot lakes before the season is over. After a Tackle Players are still slow to play the ball after a tackle. Referees should see that there is no humbugging by

the player who is tackled. The ball should be played immediately the player gets on his feet, and as it is. some of our senior players might bo old women with rheumatics the way they laboriously stagger up off the ground. “Some” Weather Carlaw Park, in common with other sports areas, has had a severe buffeting during the past month or two, and it wants a spell of reasonably fine weather before the ground will have much chance of picking up again. This has been one of Auckland's worst winters (last year was bad enough) and one wonders what the gentleman who wrote of the Queen City “on thee th’ unending sunshine smiles, “would sa y if he were here now. Tykes Training Hard Marist continues to retain its lead in the senior competition. The team is in hard training, but the season is not yet sufficiently advanced to say that they are to be the winners of the competition, although their chances art* certainly as bright as any other team. Most of the League teams in Auckland are fond of small jaunts ro other parts of the province, and there is a possibility of the Marist. senior team arranging a match at either Rotorua or Ngaruawahia at the end of the second round. Brisbane, the Tykes’ indispensable back player, has received an offer to go and play for the Wigan Club. England, but it is rumoured among the Leagueites that he has no intention of accepting. To Play For City? The City senior team is hoping to obtain the services of another useful forward very shortly. 11. Mason, brother of L. Mason, the well-known League player who toured England, is endeavouring to obtain a clearanro from the Huntly Club and in all probability will be taking the field for City next Saturday. Referees’ Strike The League Rugby Referees’ Association of Brisbane has objected to bonuses for inter-city games being given to the referees individually instead of to the association, and has decided on a strike of referees. Queensland Has Slipped New South Wales owed its Rugby League victory over Queensland to the youth and virility of its players. That great vanguard of Queensland has had its peak year, and is losing its grim hold on the top pinnacle. Two seasons ago the Queensland pack was one of the finest the Rugby w'orld has seen. Big men, red-blooded, full of vim and vigour, possessing pace, fingers almost prehensile in handling the ball, and an uncanny intuition of being able to be in exactly the correct position at the exact moment. Once they were always racing among the backs, joining in passing movements or starting them from the rucks. But that, to a very large extent, was missing in their hist display. There were no flying feet racing through the open spaces: no swift, snappy passes which bewildered the men trying to follow their movements. That was where Queensland was great, every man playing with nhe dash and verve of a threequarter back. Only the great rucking power of these giants of the north remains. Their tackling is just as hard; their headlong dashes through the opposition just as fierce. Still, the pace has slackened, and that is where the Queensland six have slipped. NO TOUR OF NEW ZEALAND By Cable. — Press Association.—Copyright SYDNEY, Tuesday. The New South Wales Rugby League has decided not to send a representative team to tour New Zealand thin season. It is considered the season is too far advanced to enable adequate preparations for the tour to be made. —A. and N.Z.