The Gentleman Adventurer of the Rugby Game

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 985, 30 May 1930, Page 9

The Gentleman Adventurer of the Rugby Game

A Defence of the Wing Forward How the Position Came into Being Great Exponents from Tom Ellison to Cliff Porter.

FE following article deals with ( the much-discussed subject of i wing-forward play. It vigorously i defends the “Gentleman Adven- j turer,” traces the development of wingforward play, and gives some j intimate details of great exponents of the position. By his provocative remarks in the past week or so on the subject of the wing-forward, the manager of the British Rugby team, Mr. James Baxter, has stirred up a hornet’s nest about his ears. lie lias strained to breaking-point the forbearance of New Zealanders, who are prepared to extend j to visitors the traditional Rugby lios- , pitality of Maoriland. Tho British manager at Wanganui received unexpected support from the 19-year-old captain of the Wanganui team who. had he been more experienced, would probably have left such a controversial subject severely alone. It has been pointed out that the wing-forward was a tried and proved feature of New Zealand football long before this bright youngster was out of his cradle days. As far back as 1905, the wing-forward was vigorously, and in some cases, viciously, assailed by English Rugby critics. The late lamented Davie Gallalier, a white man, i who gave his life for his country in France, was the particular bete noir j of Hamish Stewart, and other in- • | tensely conservative critics of his i days. And before him, “Off-side Me* | Kenzie, who is still vigorously alert and active in Melbourne, was the sub- ! ject of the more good-humoured attacks of Australian critics. A couple of years ago South Africa adopted more subtle methods of dealing with the wing-forward. The rulings of their referees necessitated a drastic change in the All Black formation. but with that adaptability that has always been a feature of New : Zealand football, the position was ade- ! quately met. On the team’s return, i there was a prompt outcry from the ; slavish imitators of all things English j for the abolition of the wing-forward. It died a natural death. | The wing-forward position goes back to the nineties, which is generally recognised as the period of i greatest development in New Zealand football. It was a natural sequence to the 2-3-2 scrum which, in its turn, was the discovery of the finest brains in the game at a time when the game was taken up as a science, and the foundation laid for the sweeping successes of the famous 1905 All Blacks. If not the originator, the late Tom j ! Ellison (Tamati Erihana) was the ' first outstanding exponent of the ; wing-forward game. He was a mag- ; nificent all-round player, and a great student of the game. After him came another great TTellingtonian, "Off-side” McKenzie, one of the greatest gen-

erais the Rugby game has known. McKenzie was as clever with his pen as he was in his play, and he wrote many splendid articles on the game which, after the lapse of 30 years, are as sound in theory and practice as they were the day they were written. At the head of the 1903 All Blacks was Dave Gallaher. who had to bear

the brunt of the fierce attacks of tin British critics. who regarded tin system of play introduced by the Xev Zealanders us revolutionary in the ex treme. To many of them. the wing-forward was anathema. To sh'o\ to what ridiculous lengths some of th critics went, it was alleged that Galla her's habit of wearing hi® shin-pad

outside his stockings was part of the nefarious tactics of wing-forward play! After Gallaher came George Glife 11, who is ranked by many critics as the greatest wingforward New Zealand ever produced. Six feet in height, fast and clever, he had a wonderful pair of hands, an uncanny sense of positional play, and was a beautiful kick. “He starts where I leave off,” was the magnificent compliment paid to him by Gallaher himself. Jt was not till 1924 that New Zealand produced another wing-forward of Glllett’s type. In the All Black trials of that year, a beautifully-built Canterbury forward was showing tremendous pace and dash in the side row of the scrum. Inquiries elicited the fact that he was Jim Parker, better known as the 75 yards professional sprint champion of the DominParker was that rare bird among sprinters turned Rugby players. He did not lose his pace on the football field, and it soon become evident that he was a great wing-forward in the making. High honours did not come to him all at once. In the memorable interisland match of that year, Cliff Porter achieved a personal triumph, which was only excelled by the dazzling play of Bert Cooke, at second five-eighths, and George Nepia’s spectacular success at fullback. It was in England that Parker got his big chance. Porter was injured early in the tour. He kept putting on weight, with the result that it soon became clear that Parker, by his wonderful play in the representative games, must go into the team as wingforward in the tests. Parker was the Gillett type—a born rover, like lightning off the mark, with good hands, and a genius for flashing into an opening. So brilliantly did he play, and so scrupulously did he observe the off-side rule, that the English critics could not fault him. He spiked the guns of the hostile writers, and received many a generous eulogy from the friendly ones. New Zealand has had no wingforward in his class since 1924. Six years have passed, and Porter, with two unsound knees, is still in the first flight, although a trifle slower now. At times he gives flashes of his old and terrible form, which once left Sydney torn between feelings of admiration and exasperation. The wing-forward is essentially part and parcel of the New Zealand system of play. He does not carry out his marauding tactics under shelter of the scrum, as do the two English breakaways. He comes out into the open, and if he breaks the off-side rule he pays the penalty. He is there because he is a necessary adjunct to a system of play which relies on a 2-3-2 pack for quick and effective possession, and on the wing-forward as a link in the attack, with two fiveeighths as the key to a style of back play which took the place of the obsolete chain-passing from halves to threequarters more than 30 years ago.—J. M. McK.