AUCKLAND’S RUGBY FORM

Taranaki Daily News, 24 August 1933, Page 7

AUCKLAND’S RUGBY FORM

OPINIONS OF SCHOOL COACH. CAUGHEY MUST BE WATCHED. Interesting comment on the form displayed by the Auckland Rugby representative team that met Hawke’s Bay at Auckland on Saturday was made by Mr. A. J. Papps, the coach of the New Plymouth Boys’ High School Rugby fifteen, to a Daily News reporter at New Plymouth yesterday. Mr. Papps, who is a keen judge of the merits of any Rugby team, saw the Auckland players in action and in his opinion the team is by no means an invincible one. Taranaki is to play Auckland at New Plymouth on Saturday and Mr. Papps’ comments on the Auckland players are interesting. According to him, the Auckland forwards can be expected to concentrate on open play and they will make the pace in loose play a hot one. Mr. Papps observed, however, that they appeared to have lost to a large extent the art of scrummaging and forward rucking. In the second spell of the Hawke’s Bay match Steere, the All Black forward, led the visiting forwards on many solid forward rushes that cut right through the loose-packing Auckland men. In the backs, Mr. Papps said that the three-quarter Mine, Milliken, Caughey and Kedgeley, was brilliant and every time it received the ball on Saturday the Taranaki line would be in danger if the defence wavered at all. All three players were speedy and clever and the wings, Milliken and Kedgeley, were most determined runners. Caughey had a great eye for an opening and was playing at the top of his form. Corner, the half, was another dangerous man. Mr. Papps believes that the five-eighths, Jamieson and Slyfield, will prove Auckland’s weakest spot in the backs. Bush, the full-back, did not play up to expectations against Hawke’s Bay.