Stiff Problem For Selectors Of England’s Rugby Team

Taranaki Daily News, 12 November 1934, Page 11

Stiff Problem For Selectors Of England’s Rugby Team

GOOD STAND-OFF HALF-BACK NEEDED

rpHE members of the English Rugby Union Selection Committee are again faced with a problem that has been acute for a good many years, a problem that has not been solved to the general satisfaction during the last decade (says a writer in the “Athletic News”). They need an outstanding player for the key position in a Rugby team, the role of stand-off half-back, and, so far as can be seen at present, there is no such player in sight. For three years past they have persevered bravely, and, as ; some think, stubbornly, with W. Elliot; of the. Royal Navy and United Services, an old boy of H.M.S. Conway, and in recent.years a member of the successful Hampshire county team. Elliot succeeded Roger Spong, of the Old Millhillians, as England’s fly -halfback in the match against Ireland at Dublin in the season of 1931-32,■ and he held the position in seven consecutive matches.

He had, apparently, a stronger backing in the Selection Committee than in the country, but the selectors, were perhaps justified in .their view that there was no alternative, on the" showing of trial matches and the many other games they watched in the hope of finding the best talent to represent the country. ' ■ f At all events, when at last they decided to make a change.arid brought in C. Slow,- of Leicester, for last season’s match with Scotland,'neither they nor'any other sound judge of the-game could have been satisfied that. :the change was for the better, even-if Slow did open out the play for, his backs a little more frequently than ‘ his predecessor. . '

Slow's performance at Twickenham last March was not impressive enough to suggest that he will be a strong candidate for the position this- season, and as Elliot is abroad with his ship there is an Englarid cap awaiting the really good player who has cultivated the position of stand-off half-back.. With memories of Elliot’s disappointing play against Scotland at Murray-

field at the end of the 1932-33 season, a display that many good judges believed would finish his international career, I ventured to ask one of the England selectors early last season if in his opinion there were any good stand-off half-backs in sight, and received the airy reply, “Oh, we have plenty of stand-off half-backs.” Yet the only men played in the three trial games,, were Elliot, Slow, W. T.Anderson, of Westoe and D. Meadows of Gloucester, and in this select company Elliot almost “walked” into the English team. The position of stand-off half-back demands the highest quality' of skill and generalship, because it is from this position that the back play is dictated. The stand-off half-back can either make or. mar the play of his three-quarters, according to whether he plays mainly for his own hand or opens out the game. In the early post-war years England was fortunate in having to hand ’such an artist as W. J. A. Davies, a commanding personality and a great player who, if often an individualist, could always be relied upon to make the best use of his three-quarter backs. Then for one season Eddie Myers, coming from centre-threequarter to his original position at fly-half, played magnificently in each of the four matches and quite exploded the theory that the late Arthur Young was a difficult scrum half-back with whom to work. Since the season of 1923-24, however, the really great stand-off halfback has never been discovered. H. J. Kittermaster, of Oxford University, ■was a good runner, with a fine pair of hands and the art of opening out of the game for his fellow-backs, but his defence was not a strong point. x He had two seasons and was then followed by H. C. Laird, of the Harlequins, who played for two seasons and a-half, and who kicked so incessantly that a member of the Selection Committee of that time expressed to me the opinion that it might be worth while to use his talents—his strength and his great tackling ability—by making him into a winging forward. That, at least, would limit his opportunities for kicking. Other players who had trials, some of them in only one match, were C. C. Bishop, of Blackheath, S. S. C. Meikle, of Waterloo, R. S. Spong of the Old Millhillians (who had a full season with his colleague, W. H. Sobey, as “rooter”); D. J. M. Barrington, of Bristol, and T. C. Knowles, of Birkenhead Park, but none of them approached the international heights of Davies and Myers, while for the last three years the stand-off half-back play has been the most disquieting feature of English Rugby football. There is now a vacancy and everyone must hope that the type of player will be found for the position who will co-operate with the young and promising three-quarters who were “capped” last season, or others who are on the fringe of the team.