IMPROVED DISPLAYS

Taranaki Daily News, 1 November 1935, Page 12

IMPROVED DISPLAYS

BETTER SHOWING OF ALL BLACKS LIVELINESS OF BACKS LONG OVERDUE SELECTION ERRORS BECOME APPARENT (By “Side-Row.”) ' . • JUST as critics in New Zealand have been preparing to deliver an indictment of the All Blacks’ weak displays the team has pulled itself together,'as it were, to give the lie to disapproval. Reports from England upon the matches against Llanelly ana Cardiff, won by convincing margins, show that both'backs and forwards gave vastly improved displays, shaping more hke a Ney Zealand fifteen than in any previous match on the tour. This gratifying conclusion to the first half of the tour, while satisfying to some extent’ the anxiety of Dominion enthusiasts, is long overdue and the question must be asked: Is the team’s long delay; in. producing Rugby of good standard due to inherent weaknesses, tne handling of the material or .purely circumstance? - Too much reliance cannot be placed on the form; of two matches alone and praise can only be tempered with caution until it has been shown to be lasting. In the meantime the opinion is fairly general that had the All Blacks been of the best quality they would have played weeks ago as they played on Saturday.

“The All Blacks opened brilliantly with quick passes, the forwards packing very low as they had practised,”- states the report of the Cardiff match. “The scrum work showed continued iniprovement throughout the match and never during the tour has the ball come out so quickly.” At the risk of being tedious one must suggest that if the scrum can function well now it should have done so weeks ago, if the team is New Zealand’s best with the combined practice available; yet

it seems that a talk behind closed doors and the return of Hadley was necessary to effect the improvement. Be that as it may the forwards have settled down fairly well, apart from the hooking, which cannot yet be described as satisfactory apart from Hadley. As far as the backs are*" concerned, however, a flash in the pan against Cardiff cannot be regarded with optimism until it becomes a. steady glow. Injuries have been sustained, in key positions, to Page and ' Oliver and a grave weakness is at once apparent. The charge must be laid that the backs are a weaker lot than they should be, definitely lacking the brilliance and reliability one expects. - . • Oliver is characterised on recent displays as a second Mark Nicholls, but the five-eighths seem to have let the. team idown. Apart from Sadler, Page and to some extent Caughey, there appears to be no inside backs developing the fire and cleverness of their predecessors.

Corner, Griffiths/ Tindill and Solomon cannot be said to have played heartening Rugby and Solomon seems to have been a definite failure. In the three-quarter line Oliver must be stamped as definitely the brains of the side, with Hart the most dangerous of the wingers. Mitchell, with Caughey’s transference to the five-eighths line, has come to be the handy man and has risen to the occasion well in spite of his previous lack of pace. Ball and Brown have been good average wingers but orie cannot say that any" of the wingers have shown the magnificent

ability that characterised Steel’s play in 1924- v. Gilbert’s welfare has become an important factor in the tour. _ Selected openly as the only full-back, in face of much criticism, he has already had a heavy task which will grow lighter gs the tour progresses. If anything should happen to the West Coaster ■ the team will be in a serious position, one which could have been avoided easily in the original' selection. If the recent improvement is not progressive the question raised at the beginning arises. Injuries have admittedly hindered the team, but' rumours that the team has not been handled to the best advantage have no foundation on definite fact. Blame, if olame there must be; must go .to the authorities in New Zealand. It was hinted when the selec-’ tion was \ announced in mid-June, while little could be said until it was seen How the untried material combined, that, all the best players were not being sent to England. It is easy to., talk after the event but one feels that the selectors did not choose their men with a-great deal of regard for requirements. When Kilby was left behind the selectors made their chief mistake. The team has two good halves in Sadler and Corner, the Wellington boy showing glimpses of increasing genius with his every match. Neither of them, however, has Kilby’s fund of experience, which has proved sb valuable not only td Wellington but to New Zealand. The team has Page, Oliver and Hart as''the basis of a good backjine but the effect of Kilby’s wise head and canny direction of play would have been particularly valuable on the present tour. _ _ . • The weakness of the five-eighths, particularly on attack, has been amply shown by the necessity to play Caughey, selected as a three-quarter, on the. inside. Griffiths has been sound but nothing more, and Solomon has raised m enthusiasm among English critics. On the score of experience Lilbume has been suggested as one who should have gone but “Side Row” suggests that men Who would have been a greater success because of their brilliance are Galbraith (Taranaki) and Killeen (Auckland). Both have their weaknesses, but both have more ability upon which td build on such a tour than Solomon and. Tindill.

The opinion was expressed by one of the All Blacks who', has seen Edwards’ play that the Patea man is superior in every Way to at' least two of the Wingers with the team. That, also, is as it may be but, in the light of recent (events with an eye to the injury that may be Gilbert’s lot at any time the failure to. take a fourteenth back is the mistake that ’has assumed largest proportions. The big four were not called on to give their reasons for their choice of players, hut it.-does seem as though Nepia should have been included in the team, or, failing him, Bush. as a general utility man. ■ The die .is now cast, however, and it is possible only to .hope that the All Blacks go on to better things. ’They have taken a long, long time to display a grasp of the most elementary principles of Rugby but, now that a start has been made, New Zealant. will be with them in expectation of displays of the' game as teams from this country have played it in the past. - ’’ At the same time the errors in selection and the conduct of trial games aji plain enough to see, and one can only suggest that the authorities take care to profit by experience. ?