"LUCK AND FULLER”

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 739, 12 August 1929, Page 1

"LUCK AND FULLER”

WHY AUCKLAND LOST SHIELD GAME

“TEAM ROSE TO IT”

“LUCK and Fuller’s kicking beat

This is the opinion of Mr. A. St. C. Belcher, the manager of the Auckland Rugby representative fifteen, which lost its Ranfurly Shield match against the holders, Wairarapa, by 17 points to 14 at Carterton on Saturday. The team returned to Auckland this morning, all the. members being fit and well after the trip and Saturday’s strenuous battle.

Mr. Belcher said that all Auckland’s kicks at goal missed by inches, and Corner’s effort was a poster. The game was a hard forward battle, and Mr. Belcher justified Auckland’s action in making it such, by saying that the team had to establish supremacy in the forwards to play the typical Auckland game. The Wairarapa back division included several very heavy men, as against Auckland’s three nine-stoners. Mr. Belcher considered that the penalising during the match was on a 50-50 basis.

*‘l have one grouch,” said Mr. Belcher, “and that is over the unfair way in which Wairarapa was allowed to put the ball into the scrum.” Throughout the match, he said, Donald merely bumped the ball against Irvine’s legs, regained it straight >n to his backs.

The manager said that there wasn’t a man in the Auckland team who let the side down. He paid a particular tribute to the three youngsters of the side. Corner, Jamieson and Cammick. The weather for the match couldn’t have been better, and the ground was in excellent order.