Pitfalls of the Veldt

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 418, 28 July 1928, Page 11

Pitfalls of the Veldt

AFRICAN UNION’S METHODS

Has New Zealand been Fooled ?

(By

"MAKARINI”

IN the first match of their tour in 1921 the South Africans met E. A. Beilis, the great Wanganui forward. Had they met him in the next match, at New Plymouth, they would doubtless have felt some surprise. Yet that sort of thing is precisely what is happening to the All Blacks in South Africa to-day. The teams they are meeting are obviously selected from within purely nominal boundaries.

It looks as though the New Zealand Rugby Union has allowed itself to be put at the losing end of an extremely unsatisfactory arrangement, and those responsible for the arrangement of the itinerary should, even though they erred in pure ignorance, have much to answer for by the time the next annual meeting comes round. The one thing that can save them from acute embarrassment is triumphal progress of the All Black team for the remainder of the tour. And in spite of the heavy handicaps imposed on it by the conditions under which its campaign is set out, the team promises to redeem early failures by doing so. Suspicions that South Africa hardly played the game in the arrangement of the itinerary took shape after the first two games. In every paper in New Zealand had been published the African Union’s assurance that the first two games would be purely exhibition matches. Yet we know now that they were nothing of the kind. South African mail matter strengthens the knowledge. There was an array of potential Springboks in each of the two teams first encountered, and the inference is that the South African Union was guilty either of straight-out deception or of a most disagreeable lack of candour. NEBULOUS BOUNDARIES

Suspicions that apparently nebulous boundaries divide the Rugby zones of South Africa found ample confirmation in the team list of the Pretoria side for last Wednesday’s match. In this team were a number of the players who had already played for the Transvaal. Strengthening the Pretorians who did not happen to get into the Transvaal side, they made in the aggregate a formidable fifteen.

But if it was a fair proposition to plant such a side, admittedly a minor test side, against a team that had just played a strenuous test game, then New Zealand could for future tours put up some “extra-territorial” propositions which in quick succession would be the downfall of even the strongest side. Thus the two Brownlies, having played In Hawke’s pay for the local side, could be brought to Wellington for a match between the touring team (whatever it should happen to ha) and “country districts.” In this team would he Cooke, Donald, Grenside, Cundy, D. Johnston, H. W. Brown, and any number of other stars. Cooke would also be eligible to represent Wairarapa against the tourists, and in addition, since Masterton is in the Wellington Province, he could be brought to Wellington again to give the tourists fits in their match with the Wellington team. Still more, the touring team, to add further spice to its travels, could be matched against the North and South Islands, each of which would be quite capable of providing one Of the “minor tests” of which South Africans seem so fond.

Had these principles been practised when the Springboks toured New Zealand in 1921, it is certain that many New Zealanders would have protested against the difficult character of the itinerary mapped out for the trippers. But though it would have meant that the Springboks would without doubt have lost a good many more matches than they did, such an itinerary would have been not a scrap less forbidding than that which the New Zealanders in South Africa are now negotiating.

HANDICAPS GALORE As just one instance, Van Druten, the crack Springbok forward, has already played against the All Blacks five times. Nykamp, not a test match forward, has played them four times, one of these occasions being in the Northern Districts match, which was a characteristic sample of the ingenuity which has been employed in arranging all sorts of hurdles for the tourists. As has been said, the New Zealand Rugby Union cannot be freed from responsibility. It has shown itself to be as gullible as a schoolboy. The union must now be wondering whether it would not have been wise to send the extra players it was warned would be necessary. Half a dozen good men are out of action, and It is unpleasant to contemplate what will be the result if any of the remaining key-men, such as Swain, Dailey or Lindsay, are outed. The position about Harvey is peculiar. He has had two first-class “joyrides” at the expense of New Zealand Rugby, in circumstances when the services of a sound man would have been beyond price. The union itself is reported not to be unanimously satisfied with the way in which things have been handled in South Africa, and Mr. W. Hornig will undoubtedly be called upon for some explanation about the signing of the now famous agreement, which placed the New Zealanders ur.der a disadvantage from the start.

But then, the union can still not absolve itself from blame. It was asking for trouble from the moment it de’cided not to seek the services of such a man as V. Meredith, N. McKenzie, E. McKenzie, or some other whose knowledge of Rugby and Its players could not be questioned.