THE RUGGER BLUES

Taranaki Daily News, 14 January 1933, Page 4

THE RUGGER BLUES

ANNUAL MATCH IN BRITAIN.

TEAMS THAT NEED POLISH.

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

London, Nov. 12.

'We are now - getting to within a month or so of the annual “battle of the blues” at Twickenham, which many people regard as the most attractive Rugger match staged there. So it was interesting last week-end to have an opportunity of comparing the- two Varsity teams against different London clubs. Oxford played the t)ld Merchant Taylors at Teddington, and Cambridge were opposing the Harlequins at Twickenham. That the Light blue lost their game by 18 points to. 13, whilst Oxford won theirs oy 11 points to 4, indicates nothing. Oxford were up against a good sound hard-working- club side with no special distinction to raise them above the mediocre. Cambridge had, in the Harlequins, about as testing a proposition as any Varsity side still in the making could desire. You never know when you have “got” the Harlequins. Though far from the standard of their sides in the great days of Adrian Stoop, they still retain the dashing open-play tradition that Stoop helped.to inculcate. Their forwards are fast and hefty as well as opportunist, and their backs are still faster and even a little more opportunist. A team that beat the O.M.T.’s, in brief, might easily succumb by a cricket score to the .spangled Rugger adventurers who wear, the Harlequin colours.. Last year the two Varsity sides put in a first appearance in London on the same day. And I remember how, after seeing Cambridge then, I told a friend, who had seen Oxford, that I was backing Oxford. My friend, who had seen Oxford, retorted: .“And I am backing Cambridge.” There was nothing of that sort on the present occasion. Both Oxford and Cambridge have sides this year well up to Varsity standards of physique and play. On paper, and partly on current performance, Cambridge have the better forward pack and Oxford the better back division. But both teams require a lot of hard work and extra polish before they are fighting fit for the great day at Twickenham. O.M.T.s were unlucky to lose against Oxford. They had most of the play, though Oxford managed to do most of the scoring. This was due more to luck than to clever opportunism. Cambridge started almost sensationally against the Harlequins. They ran away with the club side fore and aft, and it was twenty minutes before a. Harlequin set foot in Cambridge’s 25. But the Varsity failed to .put that sting into their final effort that might have brought a score. On othe other hand, true to tradition, the Harlequins snapped up most chances when they came their way, and were at all stages of the game ahead on-the score board;

Cambridge have a - plucky and sound full-back in G. W. Parker, of Gloucester, two good halves in. Candler .and Pope, and a dangerous scoring wingthreequarter in J. A. Crawford, of the Army, who is up at the University on.a military course. But I expect Mercer, the fine Durham threequarter, will come into the back division instead of. Rees, and he should combine well with Phillips, quite a good centre. Marr, their golden-haired . vociferous scrum . leader and captain, the two Leathers, and Waller are the pick of the Light Blue forwards. Oxford’s pack is not so heavy, perhaps not so fast, but is full of determination and fire, and Minns, Park, Jemkins, and Wade, their threes, with Buch and Lamport, their Australian captain, as halves, make a very threatening back division. It should be a thrilling struggle for the Varsity laurels, with slight odds, I fancy, on Oxford’s scoring backs.