RUGBY PROSPECTS

Taranaki Daily News, 16 January 1933, Page 4

RUGBY PROSPECTS

THE GAME IN BRITAIN. FORM OF TEAMS DISCUSSED. (From Our Own Correspondent.) London, Nov./10. . It is still over early in the Rugger season to estimate very closely the prospects of the international tourney. But on ■ form as so far disclosed, and with some corroboration from what we saw of the four international teams'last season, the advantage seems to rest with the red jerseys of Wales. Though they have lost one or two good men to the professional clubs of the Northern Union, a process nowadays unhappily assisted by the hard times in the principality, they still retain enough talent to field a magnificent Welsh side against any challengers. The first trial has just taken place, and it revealed Raymond Ralph as a brilliant stand-off partner to the redoubtable ex-Guardsman Powell at scrum half. With a sturdy fighting pack, and fast and opportunist backs who have the tradition of Welsh open play well developed, the Welsh selectors can afford to take a tranquil view of this season’s adventures in international battle. Ralph looks to me to be very much of the stuff whereof were compounded those giants of old in Wales who made the red jersey almost an emblem of Rugger domination over a long term of memorable years. LEAN THISTLES. France still remains, of course, out ot the international picture. This is a pity, but it is wisest that France should settle hex- Rugger troubles, and reassert the best amateur and sporting traditions of the greatest of outdoor games, before she is accepted back into the bosom of international Rugger. The veiled professional element was getting too pronounced in Gallic Rugger, due mainly perhaps toi a mistaken attempt to establish a sort of French Rugger league competition on our own professional Soccer lines. This keen rivalry led to poaching of star players, and, even worst, to episodes in close-fought league matches that too closely resembled sabotage. Ireland i$ for quite different reasons, also a doubtful quantity this season. So far the asperities of Irish politics have been kept out of Irish Rugger, though there was one little episode, when players threatened to refuse to turn out at Dublin for a match against England because the flags shown above the pavilion did not please them. Whether Mr. de Valera’s odium Britannicum will eventually permeate even scrum tactics and threequarter play is still an open question. We all hope not, and that hope the more confident because most Irish Rugger players are distinctly not of the I.R.A. complexion. If they have no trouble of .this sort, Ireland will, be well in the international Rugger picture, and have, in young Wafde, now at Oxford, one of the most dangerous fast-moving threequarters to be found anywhere. The Scots are the worst off this year on paper. It is a very lean period for Rugger thistles. ENGLAND’S MISCHANCE. lan • Smith, the redoubtable Flying Scotsman, is no longer anything but an undisguised veteran. The same applies to most of Scotland’s back division. The Land o’Cakes still turns out sturdy and uncompromising scrummagers, but it lacks power behind the forward line, and weak backs mean that the spearhead of the Rugger attack is blunted fatally. The Scottish selectors must take their courage in both hands, and pick a young and new back division of unblooded captains. Sometimes such a risky experiment comes off trumps. But, risky or not, there is no avoiding it any longer. The old hands, who have worn the Scottish blue for so many seasons, no longer command confidence. Youth must be served, North of the Border, and youth might |serve Scotland well enough, if wisely chosen and astutely tutored. England did well last season, once the selectors got a gleam of sanity, and should be well able to hold her own with the best this season. The only difficulty abput picking a magnificent pack, full of youthful wiles and fire and yet subtle in tactics, is whom to. leave out. Nor is there any real trouble about the