Wairarapa Will Be Tough Proposition for Rugby Invaders

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 417, 27 July 1928, Page 11

Wairarapa Will Be Tough Proposition for Rugby Invaders

Well-informed circles in the sporting world of Masterton say that Auckland, in the first game of its tour South next Wednesday, will probably have one of the hardest games of its itinerary. Current indications suggest chat the team to meet the Queen City reps, will be identical with the one that lifted the coveted Ranfurly Shield from Canterbury on July IS. Wairarapa, since the game, has been on a tour South, playing Southland, Otago and South Canterbury, and do not arrive home till next Monday evening. Despite this, however, the lads down in the valley expect to be at full strength to meet Vin Meredith’s gallopers. • NOT A RELIABLE GUIDE After the shield game in Christchurch, the mainstay members of Wairarapa’s strongest team —Cooke, Irvine, Donald and Roache—went straight back home, and too much attention cannot therefore be paid to defeats on tour.

Jim Donald, the ginger-headed Wairarapa wingforward, leader of the province’s side and All Black teams, too, has returned from Sydney, and it is expected that he will be back in his old position to lead the forwards. Irvine and Quentin Donald, the famous 1924 All Black pair, will almost certainly be hookers, with Reid, who played such a sturdy game on Eden Park last year, Fairbrother, Willoughby, McGregor and Reside to complete a heavy, fit and fast pack. SOLID SIDE AVAILABLE

General opinion in Masterton is that Hart, Cooke, Cundy, Stringfellow, Jury and Yates will be the backs, with the slim youngster Roache as custodian. That line is identical with the one that Hawke’s Bay failed to stop twice earlier in the year, and which served in the shield game with Canterbury. Those who have seen them play brand them a troublesome lot. Irvine and Donald serve them well with the ball, and Hart sends them away from the scrum regularly. Fast and elusive the chain is inspired by the brilliant Cooke, who directs the attack with uncanny judgment. He is a master at varying the assault. At times he runs the threequarters along till they are nicely set for an orthodox attack, at others he stab-kicks over the defence to the line or a gap in the field, at -which game both he and Cundy are adepts. Now and again, with a lightning thrust, he carves a track clean through the defence, and so fast are Stringfellow, Yates and Jury, that lie seldom loses his supports. FORWARDS ARE SHEET ANCHOR It is tlie green packmen that Auckland will have to master next Wednesday to win, good judges say, for while, by bottling up Cooke, the backs can be made commonplace, nothing can stop these hard country forwards.