THE ALL BLACKS.

Taranaki Daily News, 13 December 1924, Page 4

THE ALL BLACKS.

THE NEGLECT OF BADELEY.

BRITAIN’S RUGBY STANDARD. IMPROVEMENT. DISCOUNTED. •T can’t get over the omission of Bade'ley. 1 think he is their first fiveeighths with Nicholls and Cooke in that order out from the scrum,” said Air. W. J. Stead, who was vice-captain of the 190'5 All Blacks, when discussing with an Invercargill reporter the progress of the present tour of the New Zealanders in Britain. “1 wonder if the manner in whiich the captaincy was taken away from him has anything to do with it. The tour has lost interest for me largely on account of Badeley, and if this is true 1 think, when the whole thing is threshed out, Auckland will go over to the League. They are already smarting under a sense of an injustice they feel was done them over Wright. 1 may be pessimistic, but I foresee grave trouble if this is correct.

“If one of our representatives, White for instance, was treated in this way, don’t you think we would be hostile? I can't see with the poor scrum work that these other players could have improved so much as to have made Badeley into a second-rater. 1 hope 1 am wrong, that’s all.

“1 nave had letters from both Messrs. E. E. Booth (an original All Black) and \ ile (a noted former British international), and both are of opinion that English Rugby has not improved. Booth is especially emphatic. He says he does not think the. play has improved one iota since 1905. He also says: ‘You know about the Welsh debacle,’ meaning that the game has gone back in Wales.

"Vile says he does not think he would have such a bad time as halfback against the present All Black side as he did in 190'5. He had at the time of writing refereed one match and seen three others, and he says that in all of these engagements the local side had got its .share of the ball. Although I say it myself, it was mighty seldom any British team .got the ball from us in 190'5.

"I can’t fathom this team at all. They don’t seem to have got the scrum. Booth is a very shrewd judge, and although I have not seen eye to eye with him in the past on some aspects of football, 1 value his opinion on the play very highly. He sees with Colonial eyes, and knows w'hat we regard as good footba'il. Aly own honest opinion is that the Hawke’s Bay team would tour Britain with equal success. “1 also think that until Rugby at Home is backed by the masses it will never improve, xuey have surely Had an object lesson in the different teams irom all parts of the Empire m the last 3U years or so. \\ icn all these teams travelling it must nave shown them that their football was nut up to standard. lam very strongly oi the opinion that it is Support oi me pu’olic tnat is needed. Boom says in one of his articles that the game is still largely confined to the leisured classes. * "1 think our team has been fortunate in meeting Wales at a lean period, just as the Springboks caugh-t New Zealand on the hup a few years ago. I don’t care what kind of weather it is for the English match, the turf at Twickenham will be good. 1 would olfly prophesy a win if tuey.are sure of getting the ball. England has got the backs, irom what 1 have read and fossicked out, and if they are going to get a chance with the ball they migat make themselves very formidable playing a forward game. Wakefield mentions the need of trying to beat the All Blacks on the line-out, and their reported non-success in the scrume leads me to think that they have developed their line-out play, if the All Blacks get the ball in the scrum 1 should say they will win. They now have a good chance of beating our record, and this, I would think, would bo their biggest incentive.”