George Nepia

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1009, 27 June 1930, Page 9

George Nepia

BRITISH MANAGER'S GREAT COMPLIMENT TO FAMOUS MAORI FULLBACK

“BEST I HAVE SEEN” Few greater compliments have been paid to a footballer than the remarkable tribute of the manaqer of the British Rugby team to George Nep.a after the first test at Dunedin. “He is the finest fu 11 - BaA have ever seen,’’ said Mr. Some of the old hands in Xew Zet nd football would not go as far :

; that, remembering as they do Billy . Wallace, Bob Lusk, Arch D’Arey, Hargreaves and Thomas. And many present-day men consider that It. G. B. Sinclair was better than Xepia. But the famous young Maori (he is only 25) will rank among the greatest fullbacks the Rugby game has produced. At the age of 19 he established a record with the 1924 All Blacks of playing in every match in Britain (30 in all). Last year, F. M. Howard, the noted British oi'itic, picked him in a mythical world fifteen to play Mars. In Britain, Xepia is held in higher regard than in any other part of the Rugby-playing world. Sydney got its first impression of him in the preliminary tour of 1924. He did not play well then. First impressions often linger longest, and many Sydney critics will not have Xepia to be in the same class as A. W. Ross. New Zealand has seen little of Xepia in recent years. An occasional game for a Maori fifteen, and a trip to Australia last season, represent most of his appearances in big football since 3924. But at Dunedin on Saturday ■ he showed that he retains all his old brilliant form. Auckland will give him J a warm welcome when he comes up I here for the third test (all going well in the meantime), for it was in Auck--1 land that he started his memorable j career as a fullback in the Te Mori i Rose Bowl match of 1924.