TARANAKI RUGBY REVIEW

Taranaki Daily News, 9 June 1932, Page 11

TARANAKI RUGBY REVIEW

WHAT SENIOR TEAMS LACK

BACK PLAY NOT IMPROVING.

CELTIC’S FINE LOT OF FORWARDS.

If the merit of a game of Rugby football were to be decided solely by the action of the respective sets of forwards, the' Celtic-Clifton match on Saturday. could be classed as particularly satisfactory. When the backs are introduced’ however, the pat on the back becomes rather a thoughtful stroking the' chin and the result not nearly so Satisfactory. • Week after week throughout the football season these same faulty tactics, erratic handling and' ineffective tackling are seen in most teams of the sepior wrade. Unlike the general run of • forward play, there seems no progression, and no signs of definite improvement or even the hint of serious thought in the development of back play. Here surely, is a matter upon which coaches could concentrate their attention with profit to their teams and pleasure to the spectators. In : the match under review there was sterling material among the backs of both teams simply shrieking _ for the necessary advice and direction that would weld them into co-ordinated units. Clifton, in Jonas and Thomas, have a couple of splendid men who epent their time last Saturday pottering about, stemming forward rushes or booting to safety. .They were placed in the wing positions because their, individual qualities admirably suited them to finish off attacking movements and carry out the functions of speed in advancing or stability in retreat. What happened? They never handled the ball from the orthodox source. They never ■ had a chance to display their powers,. and the only times they were seen in action was when they got possession bv their own efforts dr fielded kicks. The same might also.be said of Lash, and Carr yer on the Celtic, wings. ; If senior football in f Taranaki is to progress, the way lies in the hands of the°coachcs. Let them ponder back tactics, discuss their difficulties with men who know back play, dig out the old blackboard to illustrate relative positions and see that the players obey thoughtful instructions. .’None of the above criticism can be levelled;, at. the forwards. Fitness and vigour marked their play from start to tinish and if the game erred on the score of tightness, well, that is another reason for stimulating confidence in the backs. The; forwards then .would bo encouraged to open the, play. Johnson has representative honours not:far away. What many mistake for condition is really muscle and he keeps ■»biiig strongly in the vanguard all the time? His efforts on. Saturday were ably ; seconded by Beardmore, another outstanding forward, who, by virtue of his size and strength, could become one of: the most formidable men in the province.' It has been mentioned previously that the Celtic pack is definitely improving, and with fast workers like the two Walkers, Penniall and. Ford cannot.be treated other than with respect by any team in the competition. Fowler was outstanding in the ,Clifton pack, hut he received able support' from Tippete, McLeod- and -Selwobd. On the day, however, their .scrum was not as good as Celtic’s neither were they so keen in the loose; Both the Celtic tries, brie by T. Walker and the other by Penniall, were fitting rewards if or .honest hard work and persistent endeavour.

OLD BOYS SPRING A SURPRISE.

Although Star gave Tukapa a memorable run--for their money on Saturday, the surprise result of the day was undoubtedly-; Old Boys’ defeat of StratIt i» true conditions suited Old Boys. They were on their home ground, and they had a fine day and a dry ball. Even allowing for all this, and also for the fact; that. Stratford were without the valuable. services of Collins and SangsterJ Old Boys won on merit, and played their best game since they won the championship two years ago. In the •'first : plaee, their forwards were more Wan a match for the doughty Stratford pack. Prominent amongst them was Insull, with S. Fookes also well in the van. In the second place, the backs were organised on better lines than for a long time. There is no question that K. Fookes was the brains of the back division, and no doubt his constant' association with Rutherford off the field gave the latter the extra bit of encouragement and confidence on the. field that made all the difference between a mediocre wing three-quarter and a valuable scoring centre three-quarter. Josephs is game as a pebble, but he was much more useful in Rutherford’s position on the wing than, in his original place at five-eighths. Although he made one or two mistakes, Priar was invaluable to Old Boys 'at full-back, and justified his position a* reserve full-back for Taranaki. His greatest,fault is his unorthodoxy. Yet the very fault that sometimes gets him into serious trouble often completely changes the complexion of the game, and more than once has led to an unexpectedtry by his team. . A factor militating against Stratford that should not be forgotten is the fact that J. Walter and Young had had a strenuous time the previous day in the Taranaki-Wanganui representative match, and this must have had an appreciable influence on the .Stratford The best back in the Stratford team Was Taylor,' the half-back. He made several bright openings, and had he been more ably supported outside, Stratford’s ?core would have been larger. TUKAPA HARD-PRESSED. Though it was unlucky for Tukapa that they did not win their match against Star by more than three points, it was lucky for the people on the terracep because until the end of the match there was always a sporting chance that they niight see Star score a try and convert it. There is no question that Tukapa deserved more points than they got. Several times they were over Star’s line and each time they lost the valuable touch-down. All that, however, is the luck of the game. In the last quarter, when it seemed that Tukapa had Star well in hand, Star threw all their energies into a fierce onslaught on Tukapa’s line. The- leader of the attack was the Star wing-forward, Harvey. When it seemed that his team was flagging,' and that although Tukapa had only a slender lead the match was virtually over, Harvey fought for the ball, set his ears back, and put new life and vigour into his team.

For a quarter of an hour incident was crowded on incident as the Star forwards and then the Star backs threw Tukapa into defence. There was a chance that the defence might weaken, and Star might snatch a victory. The defence held, Star passed, and in the pause the Tukapa pack swept down the field and penned Star again in their twenty-five. For all round play in the tight and the loose there was no better forward

on the field than O’Dowda, though Harvey and Guy caught the eye in the loose. The Star forwards were tough and sturdy, but Tukapa robbed them of the ball. Frethey. although on the light side, was greedy for work, and played a rattling game. The handling of the Tukapa backs was not as precise as usual. This was no fault of Brown, who has livened up his game and .doubled his value to the team. It will be a pity if Petty, spoils his play by want of judgment in not passing at the right moment. There is no point in making an opening only to lose it through delaying the pass afterwards.

All the Star backs made no bdnes about going hard at the ankles of the Tukapa men. They had little of the ball from scrums and line-outs, and few chances to attack. Once, however, they made a brilliant run and sent McLeod away at a great rate down the sideline.

Taken altogether, the Star-Tukapa match was the keenest game at the Park this season. The crowd came in a merry mood to enjoy itself, and it was not a whit disappointed. ) OKAIAWA WELL-BALANCED.

Okaiawa’s well-balanced team again justified the claims of its supporters and, judging from the manner in which the backs worked after the forwards provided them with the ball, Okaiawa should so consolidate their place on the ladder that they will again fight out the final of the Taranaki championship. The aame was splendid and there was always the possibility that the Opunake forwards would flood across the line to equalise the score. In the first spell the Okaiawa forwards lacked the fire of the home pack but it was soon obvious that, given even slim chances, Okaiawa’s backs would carry the day. And so it proved. , The crisp straight running of T. Robinson, Johnston and Ngaia allowed the heavy fast wings room to work and every time the ball was being flashed along that chain, the Opunake line was in danger. It must not be thought that Opunake resigned* themselves to a dogged fight to keep the score down; always their forwards dashed in with abandon while the backs hurled .themselves at an unflinching defence.

The stalwarts in the Opunake pack were ably led by R. and J. Lusk while Murfitt, a newcomer from the lower grades, impressed with his hard and fearless running. Mitchell, Taylor and Greich worked well while the Dudleys were always eager. Okaiawa might have lacked the fire of the other pack but they made up for this by sheer ten-, aoity and it was noticeable that in the second spell this doggedness began to provide Edwards with the ball. Crawford. Ike, W. Robinson (ex-Athletic) and Greenough toiled all day but on the play Preston was the man who was prominent for sterling play both on attack and defence. Should he continue to display this form big football can be safely predicted. From Edwards to McCallum on one wing and C. Blair on the othqr, the Okaiawa backs were soundly efficient. The half-back played an outstanding game, whipping away perfect, passes from under such adverse conditions as the feet of the opposing forwards. At one stage it seemed that T. Robinson was becoming rattled but the coolness of the others’overcame this. Once Johnston was badly bustled and in his hurry to unload, threw an infield pass and only Preston’s promptness stemmed the deluge of Opunake forwards. McCallum played a great wing-threequarter game and Murdoch . was confident. The Opunake backs, with the exception of Harrison at full-back and perhaps Spence on one wing, were not impressive. Casey,' an ex-Eltham man, appeared to perform well enough at first five-eighths but K. Raley’s handling was hardly good enough, nor did he seem to be fast enough off the mark. His defence was sound. J. Malcolm was playing well until his retirement.

KAPONGA SHOW MORE PROMISE.

- Kaponga continued their winning way with, a decisive victory over Athletic and, though their form in some, ways was not so good as it has been, they showed promise of still better things. If they can continue to take such advantage of scoring chances that they did on Saturday they will be there or thereabouts when the season is ended. Everyone knows that the Kaponga pack is a great one, but it is more. In the open those big forwards run and handle like three-quarters. The secret of Kaponga’s success is that wherever the ball is, there are eight players at least. It does not profit opposing backs to break through in the. centre for though they may beat their man there is sure to be a party of Kaponga forwards. On Saturday Gardiner played a slashing game. One has not seen a better loose°forward this season.. The absence of R. Cuff saw Williams go up to first five-eighths and the change v/as beneficial. No champion, Williams still has the ability to put a little soundness into the., Kaponga backs so that it would be wise to keep him in this position. G. Cuff and L. Whalen had a day on, frequently catchin <y the defence napping. J?laying against one of the best packs in Taranaki, the Athletic forwards performed surprisingly -well. They, were beaten but they did prevent their opponents from dominating, the game. Nolan gave a promising display while Baldwin worked like a trojan. The Athlete backs were the weakness. At the beginning of the season it would have been to court ridicule to have said that the Athletic rearguard would prove inferior to Kaponga’s. Yet it was so. Their defence was consistently up to junior standard while on attack one had to sympathise with Blyth and Dymond, who did look like footballers. Athletic can do better than that. PATEA’S BACKS REORGANISED. Patea, with a reorganised rearguard and their usual pack of aggressive forwards, found very little difficulty, with Eltham, whose forwards gave their opponents considerably more trouble than the backs. They showed a dash at times that should have been productive of results, but they found the defending. forwards and backs too strong, or thtir movements broke down from oveieagerness. Patea’s backs, though not the usual line, showed a good standaid of back play and threw the ball about much more than Eltham did. Couch and Robinson gave Gudgeon plenty of opportunities to send his backs away. 1. Bourke, at first five-eigh h played a solid game and was veil backed. by Zimmerman, who scored two tries. Richards was safe at full-back, playing his first game for some time. The rest of the backs showed to advantage. Of Patea’s forwards Wills and Robinson were most prominent in a pack of solid workers, while Campbell and Bocock showed well in Eltham’s vanguard. WAIMATE’S GOOD BACKS. Wairnate’s backs were in form against Hawera. Shaw, Whalen and Hill were constantly dashing away with fast passing runs. They did not score more tri because of forward, passes. Altoge or Waimate gave a bright display or too ball. They were against a good team, but Hawera’s weakness was -inability to handle the ball satisfactorily when they had the opportunity to get. going. Among Hawera’s backs Ekdahl and Hunter played really good games,

mond, Riley and McCarthy coming in well on many occasions. Bishop was very steady as full-back. Haweras forwards were unable to take the aggressive sufficiently to give their backs an opportunity and in the second half particularly the pace was set by Waimate. For Waimate Hughes, M. Payne and Murfitt played battlin names in the forwards. Rei was in good form and was responsible for two wellearned tries. Whalen scored a try ana added two goals. Ekdahl scored two tries for Hawera. ' The first half of the game could not be called inspiring and play was of but a medium standard. A remarkable change was evident from the kick-off of the second spell. The pace was fast but Waimate’s backs never seemed to tire. Except for a brief period Hawera were never in the ascendancy and they would have had to play very good football to have beaten the much improved Waimate team.