Lighter Side of Touring

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 986, 31 May 1930, Page 14

Lighter Side of Touring

SNOWBALLING, FOOTBALLING British Team's Movements <SUN Special Representative CONSIDERABLY elated by the victory over Taranaki, the British Rugby team left New Plymouth on Monday to go on to an even more striking figure, in which it put up its biggest score to date by beating Manawhenua by 34 points to 8.

On the previous day the team had visited the North Egmont Mountain House, where snow lay on the ground, and the mountain, which all were eager to see, was enfolded in clouds. Once or twice in the afternoon the mist moved aside, allowing just a momentary glimpse of the heights, but for all that it seemed until the last moment that the team would depart without having a clear view. Then, quite suddenly, just as the cars were due to leave, the masses of cloud dissolved, leaving the mountain stark and clear, a glorious picture that was appreciated the more because it was unexpected. The snowballing during the day was a happy feature of the proceedings. The party arrived in a dozen or more cars. As the first car reached the gates of the mountain house some boys and girls near by threw snowballs in through the open windows. That started it. Those in the first car lay in ambush for those who arrived in th« second, and so on in increasing ratio, until by the time the last cars were due there was a small army of snowballers lying in wait. Sitting next to the driver in one of the last cars was an eminent member of the Supreme Court Bench, whose remarks when the door of the car was pulled open and snow deposited on his lap and down his back were a magnificent if unprintable summing-up of a difficult situation. He took it very sportingly, all the same, and was soon lined up with the rest. Many of the footballers were anxious to get back to golf, but a check in the one-way traffic up the mountain road so delayed them that they decided to go up the mountain instead. Conditions for climbing were not good, but some of them managed to get well UP above Humphrey’s Castle into deep snow, where further snowballing was indulged in. Black, one of the forwards, went considerably higher alone and might have got to the top if there had been more time. Unfortunately he left his coat a considerable distance up the slopes and, not remembering it until he was almost back at the mountain house, had to retrace his steps hurriedly in the gathering darkness, which was probably something more in the way of hard training than he had bargained for. %

DECISIVE VICTORY The win over Taranaki, followed by the even more decisive victory over Manawhenua, convinced those who saw these matches that as an attacking combination the British team has almost unlimited possibilities. Prentice last Saturday evening was a very proud man. His team had broken a Taranaki tradition of long standing. There were some interesting sidelights to this very hard-fought game. At the start the British team had instructions to keep the ball tight, just to see how the pack would stand up against such strong opposition as the Taranaki forwards were expected to provide. The result of the experiment was not very convincing, as Taranaki in the first 30 minutes had things almost entirely its own way. The high pressure at which the Taranaki forwards opened could not. unfortunately, be maintained. Once they relaxed their grip the British forwards found their feet, got more of the game in both tight and loose, and by giving their fleet backs a good service of the ball from the loose scrummages, payed the way to victory. On the showing of the Taranaki pack in the first halfhour, it seemed apparent that a provincial side which could set such a pace and keep it up unremittingly would have a good chance of stopping the British team’s triumphant progress.

Some of the Taranaki backs, in their eagerness to get their men, sometimes got them rather obviously after they had parted with the ball. In this respect H. W. Brown’s methods were not always admirable. A British threequarter who was tackled after he had let go the ball confessed his surprise, on remonstrating with his zealous opponent, to receive the reply, “I intend to get you every time, whether you have the ball or not.”

The sequel is amusing. At the dinner in the evening the zealous Taranaki man perhaps unwittingly approached his victim of the afternoon End asked him for the gold lion he was wearing in his coat lapel. Even if the Taranaki man had' forgotten the incident of the afternoon, the British player had not, and the lion did not change hands.

THAT WING-FORWARD The real sensation of the dinner that evening was, of course, Mr. Baxter’s unfortunate remark that . the ordinary man who tried to play wingforward was nothing more nr less than a cheat. The blow was softened by the very complimentary nature of Mr. Baxter’s other remarks. He stated that the Rugby revival in England could in tlie first place be attributed to the visit of Gallaher’s team in 1905, and next to that of Porter’s team in 1924. Nevertheless, the sweeping generalisation that the ordinary wingforward was a cheat was quite obviously too strong to be overlooked by New Zealanders, in however conciliatory a mood, and one was not surprised when reports from Auckland indicated that strong exception had. been taken to it. The report of interviews on the subject with prominent Auckland Rugby men appeared in the Palmerston N Drth morning paper on the morning after the team’s arrival in Palmerston North, and was given the extremely provocative heading: “Is Mr. Baxter talking through his hat?” As the paper was distributed with* the morning tea to all the guests at the hotel where the team was quartered, the story provided a fruitful subject for breakfasttable conversation. It was felt with some justice that in the caption referred to a more courteous tone might have been used. Like that of scrumming, the question of the wing-forward is obviously going to provoke endless argument, but that argument need not mar the happiness of the tour, as long as it is conducted on entirely impersonal lines. At the same time, New Zealand Rugby Union representatives at the official dinners have shown rather too much of a tendency toward meek acquiescence in Mr. Baxter’s critical opinions. An exception was Mr. J. McLeod, of Taranaki, who took a stand against the proposal that neither team should leave the field at half-time. Up to the last moment the referee, Mr. W. H. Rowe, of Wanganui, believed that the teams would stay on the field, but Mr McLeod interviewed Mr. Baxter, and a dispensation was given, though, as Mr. Baxter subsequently stated, it would be the last. ASK THE REFEREE hUiould players for personal reasons wish to leave the field at half-time,

they must ask the referee. Thu course was adopted by the Manawhenua players at Palmerston North, but they did it en masse, and the whcS team went off. leaving ihe British team with the field to itself. One of th« British team explained that one reason for the custom of staying on the field at Home was to distinguish the game from Soccer, and another said it was to prevent interviews with bookmakers. Neither reason svems very sound, the latter, particularlv being very thin, or else a grave reflection on the players.

Mr. Rowe gave a very satisfactor* exhibition of refereeing considering it was his first big game, always an ordeal for a referee. Always up with the game, he had trained for it beforehand by doing a daily circuit of th* Wanganui racecourse.

Incidentally the Taranaki Kugbv Union managed to break the N.Z.R.U dictum that the maximum price oi Rugby programmes for these matches shall be sixpence. The Taranaki programme sold for a shilling.

Prentice, Dunne, Harold Jones and Jones-Davies played their first game at Palmerston North, and all did well Jones was an earnest toiler in the front row of the scrum, and was a useful man in line-outs. Prentice showed great form in tlie open, while his place-kicking was fine, even allowing for the fact that he had several sitters. Jones-Davies is another very attractive threequarter, with whips of speed.

The team is now taking training seriously, and be fore matches little relaxation is encouraged.