“ALL BLACKS TIP TOP”

Taranaki Daily News, 15 October 1928, Page 4

“ALL BLACKS TIP TOP”

MR. A. GOOD’S IMPRESSIONS “CANT BLAME THEM FOR LOSSES.” TRAVELLING 150 MILES PER DAY. STABILISING OF GAME NEEDED. “The All Blacks were a tip top lot of fellows and footballers, and we can’t blame them for the losses they sustained. It was simply that the kind of game they were trying to play was entirely new to them and that they had so many difficulties to contend with. Since leaving New Zealand the party travelled over 8000 miles—an average every day of 150 miles, and on the whole the team did remarkably well to save the rubber and win as many matches as it did. I say that knowing what the fellows had to go through.” That was how Mr. Allan Good, experienced old Taranaki footballer of the famous Good family, summed up to a News representative* yesterday his impressions of the tour. “I always thought the South Africans could play the game better than most New Zealanders thought they could,” said Mr. Good, “and they can play too. There is not a fearful lot of horse racing in South Africa so the public turns all its attention to football, with the result that the game is a national one. The New Zealand team was a very fine one, but it should never have left New Zealand without having closely considered rules and the game as played, in Africa, together with the interpretation. , Under our rules, made for the benefit of the spectators, all is well. ANALYSIS OF SCRUMS. “Stabilising of the game is wanted. After all New Zealand football is only a hybrid kind. Analyse the scrums, lineouts, dribbling, line and goal kicking in them are the principal manoeuvres as they strike me. The New Zealand game is noted for pronounced passing, and that to some extent is over done, for the individualist is cut out of it and at times he is most useful. The present game is a fine one for the public and they like it, but if there is a possible chance of making alterations and yet retaining the spectacular side, it should be given great thought. I have seen the uninteresting and stodgy Rugby come from the old rules, but I have seen the best and most brilliant and spectacular from the old rules too—in 1888 for instance, when Warbrick’s team was here. Nothing can beat that. Backs are no good behind a beaten pack, and the pack is the first thing. “It is a great pity to cut out line kicking and I believe it could be reestablished with a minimum of scrums. The Springboks w’ere great generals and worked by solid scrums to a certain point in the field, and then from that launched their main attacks and oue cannot help admiring Osler; he was a freak but like lightning to think and act. He was a national hero indeed. TROUBLE NOT WING FORWARD. The trouble was not so much the wing forward. He was allowed no liberty, for they are deadly on off side and passing forward. Everything had hinged on the forward's tight play, and. there had been too much breaking up too early. The forwards played a better game than in the-whole of the tour in the second match against Transvaal, and gave the first inkling of their superiority of physique. They beat the Springboks for the ball in the scrums and then kept it on the ground in the open at their feet. “The last test proved they were men, and such performances should have been given long before. Line-outs deteriorated, to my mind. Our style over there was punching the ball to the half with backs turned to the Springboks instead of packing tight in dangerous territory, and the result many times was unnecessarily dangerous situations after the South African forwards burst through the line-outs. Hazlett and others in the last test secured in the line-out and the men packed and swept half the field, keeping the ball dribbled, and thus Swain scored the best try of the tour. If New Zealand had tried that all through the tour and, like Pat Ward, the Taranaki All Black, kept the ball at foot instead of attempting to pick it up, the New Zealanders would have dono better. “A certain deterioration has set in with a certain class of player,” continued Mr. Good. “The line kicker is now a thing of the past under the present rules. What can a player do but kick in-field into someone else’s arms, most likely to have the ball flying between kickers and returned? Line kicking and dribbling need practice from boyhood, and it was not to be expected the All Blacks could adapt themselves immediately to new conditions of play. HOOKING IN VAIN. “I have seen the ball on the tour hooked by our men many times, only to be stolen by the Africans because the pack let up and allowed the Springboks to push the pack off its feet. They can push too! “There were so many reasons why the team did not do better that I could not name any one cause. First of alltravelling. The boat sprang a leak on the way from Freemantle to Durban and was delayed to dump some cargo over board, and instead of going to Capetown the team had to go 160 miles by train with only one day's rest before commencing the tour, the second match of which was against one of the hardest teams in Africa —Western Province. “High altitude, causing shortness of wind and strain of the heart was another handicap,” continued Mr. Good. “Violent exercise, even for a few minutes, caused palpitation of the heart. Some of the days also were very much against us—in the first test and against Pretoria it was as hot as the hottest summer day in New Zealand. Some .say it is the same for both sides, but it isn’t; they were used to it. Some matches were played as late in the day as 4 p.m. to try to secure coolness. FINE AFRICAN FORWARDS. “The Africans were a very fine lot of forwards. Throughout the country we found them to be very well set up, not as tall as the All Blacks but with ability to push. The serums were very compact and in most of them they had eight men to our seven. They get down to it in great style. “The African backs were light comparatively. A style of theirs I didn’

like was for the scrum half to get the ball away with one sweep to Bennie Osler, who stands very deep for goal kicking purposes. The half throws himself prostrate in the passing of the ball and puts .himself out of action for the time. Osler is a freak and a past master at the game. “Referees on the whole were quite good, but they interpreted the rules to a very fine point. Putting the ball in the scrum was the greatest difficulty, the ball having to pass one of the first legs of the first two men. They possessed a very good scrum passage, and I noticed the half in many matches put the ball in and run round again in time to get it again as he ran round to the base. Many of the halves use a screw or twist on the ball to send it back.

“No dissension existed on the field at all and the team played as one man. Brownlie was a very powerful forward, and although he did not shine in the opening matches he came out without a scratch—a remarkable thing for the way ho was so closely marked and handled. I was quite close to the Finlayson-Geere incident. Finlayson was frightfully aggravated, as Geere was screwing his head deliberately, but he bore the brunt of the affair like a man.

“Little racial feeling was noticed, except when we were present when the new national flag was unfurled. The blacks gave the police no end of fun and next morning the courts and cells were full of negroes. They are very keen on the Union Jack, as the Dutch were cruel to their fathers and the English were kind, and the negroes hate the Dutchmen. The South Africans are the most hospitable of people and helped and entertained us everywhere. South Africa’s climate is wonderful and one can look ahead to a fine day six weeks away. People settling there never want to leave after a few years, because conditions are so easy, with such cheap and plentiful labour.”