FOOTBALL.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13691, 5 September 1908, Page 7

FOO TBALL.

v ibct-ixUXB topics. - tßy C.E.H.) Ciauubury ana Oago meet today, at the Mart* team ii»« *^ ra w between Celtic and Temuka ia% Zdott m this grade .._ 'See Scot*, three Morgans, and three the jersey at Temuka ( canms is being nude by Northern Union supporter* to raise a tea* to play a foreign thirteen. It » reported that one man was busy on a held on. Thursday wooing the payers engag«l in a .match. If the plans '■ fJd by the Dtmedm advocates of tne new' game. do not miscarry, football is likely to become a summer pastime, games b*iag talked of until October 27th. The result of the Auckland Taranaki jnatclt last Saturday furnished another judication of the strength of Auckland football, and practically' decided tbe colo- - * the'holdersbaVe another game to play—against Otago next Saturday—but" unless thai southerners are a much underrated team the supremacy of Anckland is not likely to be disturbed. There is a possibility "of the New Zealand Union being compelled by the agitation! for reform to sever iU connection witfci the English Union —it seems too much to hope for any sympathy in the matter from the parent body. If »t is not. found necessary to " cut the painter,' andS the present relations remain undisturbed, a visit from. * South African team in 1910 i* within the bounds of probability. Ajn instance in which a side had to suffer for its opponent's fault occurred on Thursday. Mitchell, of Zingari, was charged by Temuka players who were off-aide, and he dropped at goaL The ; full-landed on the bar and bounced over, bnfeftbe-referee had blown "offside" just as the kick was taken, and Zingari had to forego winning points. Probably the referee wished for once that his decision was not final. An appeal is likely, lnsl do.not see how tlie result of the match can be d'sturbed-, though the, lianbibipwilt b** generalhr admitted. Collateral form in football does not always work out so correctly as it has done this year in New Zealand, and those who!predicted for the New South Wales team as large a proportion of wine as fell to the lot of the All Blacks in Britain, must hope that "form" will prove to be incorrect. The two defeats of the team for England by Harding's men were excu«ed on account of the mud* but the comparative results of the Queensland games do not augur too well for Ihe success of the colonials against international teams. The only comfort vouchsafed to the New South Welshmen s* the victory- of wlwt was almost a third fifteen over the side which twice vanquished the b st team the State could produce. One »»f the most encouraging feature* of the season just closing been the •mofotw of the Waimal* Sub Union, and it is recognised by the South Canterbury Union that with* a little attention th* subsidiary bodies, are likely to prove a* useful adjuncts a* the sub unions of Auckland. Otago and other province'. Jf the effort* which are to be mad* to form another centre at Geraldin* b?ar iruifc football in that district should re ceiv* a great impetus. As a means of trying out country players, with a view to inclusion in- representative twm«. 1 believe it would be a good idea to inaugurafw a junior championship of Souih Canterbury. The sub unions might each play two rounds of their u«ual competition*, and the juniors of th* Ikjul onion on* round, and a tourney could then be arranged for the winners of earh division. The chief obstable to the pro po«x! would b* the amount of travelling for three weeks, but it would be very nnall compared with the expense incurred under the old order of thing*, and the sub-unions might »*« their way to contribute something towards toe expenses of their repre-wrrta-rives. Trtnnka juniors by th*ir win ov*r Zingari earned the right to play off with the latter for the junior championship. Tne country team deserved tb«-ir victory on th* play, but were rather fortunate ia tnat the*referee* whistle went for offside by Temuka ju«t as Mitchell *m potting* a goal for Zingari. The first half left the winner* with a decided advantage, and they should have scored two or three time*: Zingari. however. wiped out most of their overdraft in th.j>ei:ond spell. The match wa* not r*eponsibte for an exhibition of high grado football., but was hard-fought. Jo the end. and Temuka owed whatever superiorjtj they showed to the d*»b of their

forwards, of whom Glidden, Heath, and Uunnard were abuut the haidest workers, though Shields waw playing well until he had to -retire. Mcjvellar and Giliespie were the safest pair of the Temuita backs; Spiilane's sttong point was liio kicking. Wood showed great pace and made one or two tine dashes, but his weakness in handling told against him. , E. Darroch wag. Zingari's mainstay behind the scrum, and did a vast amount of work, i Haggerty was much in evidence, but showed too great a disposition to hold on and run into the crowd. Bennetts shaped well and pluckily at full. Mitchell and McWbirter are a fast pair, and the latter did some useful following. J. Darroch, Stevenson and Maslin were the pick of the forward division, but the last named should pay more attention to the oval. Th*. playoff between the teams should provide a close contest.' The senior match at Temuka on Thursday was disappointing, play being of the picnic order, and towards the finish even the referee eeemed to enter into the spirit of the winners. Temuka was dilatory in taking the field, but eventually lined out with about the best fifteen they have produced this season, D. Horgan odd Mihaka being among the number. Notable absentees' were' Smith and Hooper. Ashhurton proved no match for the home team, who might have run up a much larger score had they been disposed to exert themselves, and Asbburton Rogby has deteriorated considerably since the county was addwd to the northern half of the province. The hard ground and the warm day apparently had more effect upon the seniors than upon the juniors in the preceding game, and in the fiort spell especially W. .Scott and E. Horgan were not out for keeps. The Temuka skipper showed more dash after half timej but the beat form in the Temuka pack was shown by Melville and Roddick. ■• M. Horgan toiled hard, and was in scoring vein, bnt a lot of his work was undone by off-side play. Arthur Scott was another offeuder in th« respect, .though it must be admitted that off-side was a characteristic of the game. U. iSpillane played a nice game, if a tendency to selfishness be excepted, and Mihaka and L. Grant played houndly—Mihaka showed >ente of hit. old dash, and considering his absence from the lirld did well. i»an lit-Igun played decently until his knee w«-ut back upon him. I>. .Scot*. was very sound at full, and when moved up «. the second spell was responsible for two or three good bit« of work. I'age was perhaps the most consistent of the Asbburton • rearguard; McDonald got in t#c or three good runs, but his work lacked finish, and with the exception of lovey, the*r backs were poor. 'lhe only point in which the visiting forwards showtd proficiency was in hooking, and th;v steured the ball in most of th* bcrum*.

'l|ie Anglo-Welsh team wound up its tout a> it commenced it —by a tiubstantut win, and judging by tho number of games won aud lost, more success attended ius efforts in Australia than on this aide of th* Ta.»man Sea. Now that the tour « a thing of the past, it cannot b? said 1<» haw jiotitied the •»X|>rclaiioiis of tin* Xr\v Zealand Union in any twrliculur except linaiicial success, and even -in (his ropect it k> doubtful wheth-r the surplus to bo divided among>t the contributing' I'uiuus will be m> huge aiimagined by those who objected to tho 2s ihaige f»r lest games. Th* experirtn« of ih* tour will no doubt convince ihe controlling body of th* wisdom of eliminating th* elrnient of ri.k in fntme ventures of th* kind by securing only the liigh>st claits teams. The 1908 Btitish patty, as a pl.iyiug division. pnire<l n« ui.itt.li for a repr,s«;ntative colonial fifteen, antl di<l n<»t. A.i wart th* case with the two previous lli.ui- teams, introduce or rniew any tactic* that would sen* as lessons for coluuiaU. Stoddart's—or Se«ldon\ team of 1888 is crcditnl with re vi.lutunu iuj{ N't-w Zealand Rugby by its ij<«ljfy lunnin); and pa.*.«i»g. :unl the visit wan quickly priMluctive <»f valuable results. SivwrightY. »idt> in 1904 at letsj lemintled us of th«* efficacy of the centreing kitk. * The strcugth of thr»* Uaiiits lay in the hack divisions, Siv n-iight's intrtxlucing to us practically the who!- of the WeUh rearguard of 1903. hu: the miKst etl'-ctivc seciiott of Haiti inj;'s party «a«i forward. Tli* chief at tribute of the backs was s|tt*d. but it wa» mostly employ d in running acrrv-s thp field and in nothing but ]««• <1"1 th- touri»ts etjual a first-ds*.* New Zea land Iwck team. The fw.int in whirli most »«cc«**s atlTiiled fhit efforts of thforwartfs wa* in **curit»g p<w«e*sioti frnn th- scrum, for though the : r footwork was neat, apparent inability to dive lost hh».! of the chances wh<-n tlw line wa« in sight. Th* number of tim-s the Hri'.ii" front row m*n obtained the Kail in the scrum work rreat--<l a dir.jnvsit ion to back on th«» f<<rmation which h-v* •ervrtl u« w» wrll. hut it soon cam*- to be rccogniMid that .» clrsrer 'l«t*«nition •■'■ a pcrum i« n*r?jf«arv. and wh«-n this :s forthcoming the 232 may 1>« v ndiciie.l

During their stay in New Zealand the British pack men secured the leather at least four times in every six scrums, and this fact exposes the weakness of their backs in doing as little with it. against the first-class teams. In their nine most important games .the visitors lost seven, won 1, draw 1, and. scored 41 ; points against 141. * In iest games they secured one draw, and scored 8 points against. 64. Altogether, it must be confessed that the Urittsh tour of 1908 has fallen short-of the level it was expected to attain when the invitation was issued.

The Otago Union has received ready support to its proposal to convene a speoial meeting to consider amendment of the rules, and a conference of delegates will be held at an early date. it- is quite certain that some alterations in the game -will be favoured, but it appears just as certain that the changes will not be adopted by the English and other Home Unions. Xew Zealand therefore seems likely to be faced with the question of cutting adrift from the Old World in football matters, and the sooner the question is faced the better. A great deal has been heard of the interchange of visits fostering Imperial sentiment, but it is doubtful whether the "crimson thread of kinship" has been strengthened by" the tour of the last British team, and I cannot see thatthe cessation of such visits until British opinion conforms more closely to colonial views would be disastrous. No attempt is made to disguise the fact that the present activity is due to the threatened inroads of the Northern Union game. A good many claims have been advanced for the new game, but from what I have been able to gather in different places, the point which finds most favour with players is the proposal to recompense men for lost time. In fact, apart from the disqualified persons who are chafing for a game, some concession of thi6 kind would satisfy everybody, and Northern Unionism would die. It is extremely doubtful whether there is enough money in football to allow much being done in this direction Auckland and Otago are the only two centres which are financially strong enough to pay wages at present, and if two rival games are to be played the prospects will be still less favourable—but the principle has been introduced in allowing ''pocket money" to international \teams, and it is but a small step to legalising payment for. lost- time to interprovincial players. Of course this would not conform to the amateur definition of the English authorities, but New Zealand should not allow the national game to fall into a chaotic condition out of respect to the hidebound traditions of the Motherland. One of the chief objections raised to this proposal is that it would develop a class of professional players who wonld live on the game, but at present the population of the country is not large enough to support such a class, and even if payment becomes legal only* the large centres will be able to contribute, a point which is likely to be brought forcibly under the notije of those who have been seeing visions of affluence in the new game. The adoption of the lost- time system, would also do good in forcing upon the provinces a reduction of the unwieldy list of representative matches. II the New Zealand Union is in eanxst in its efforts to squash its threatened rival, I believe it con do s(> by legalising payment to players as mentioned above. Whether there will be much to pay the players with is another matter.

The football match between the Marist Schools of Christehurch and Timaru has been postponed till next Saturday. In yesterday's "Herald"' it was stated that there was a probability of a game with Invercargill being played here under Northern Union rules. This game is now definitely assured and a provincial team lias been selected. Of these nine players are members of the representative Rugby-team and four are ex-representa-tives, one of the latter having once played' for New* Zealand against ' Australia. News is to, band that the game is to he pushed in Dunedin and Rangiora. At the former place practice is to commence to-day.

At last night's meeting of the Rugby Union a considerable amount of time was taken up in reviewing the rules, during which a perceptible smile dwelt on the faces of some of the delegates. One suggested that the time was being wasted, seeing that they would have the Northern Union game here next season. A general meeting of the South Canbuiy Rugby Union was held last evening, Mr F. C. Watson presiding. The rule* in force for the closing season, were, it was explained, drawn up last season and ptooed on trial, and these, after discussion and slight alteration, were adopted- The question of putting up the Celtic and Zingari juiors to senior grade was mooted by Mr Drake and Mr Kennedy suggested that Teniuka should play two junior teams. It was pointed out that the Permit Committee had power to re-dassify juniors und it was decided to recommend th«*e clubs to move in the matter themselves. With regard to the action of the Management Committee in reinstating some teams in the competitions after a meeting of delegates had ordered them to stand out, Mr Kennedy asked if the committee) had power to "overrule the delegates. It was ruled that in certain circumstance* the committee had thin power. The Zingari Club wrote appealing agaiast a decision given by the referee in the Zingari v. Teniuka match at Temuka on Thursday. Mr Shhtcliffe had not given a potted goal, which would have made Zingari the winner*, because he had not *«en it, and it wan with his consent that the appeal was made. Zingari did not move in this matter with any club fueling.— Mr ShirtcJiflV explained his ]«»iition and aaid he would like the New Zealand Referee*' Association to adjudicate upon the subject. TTe blew the whistle for offside play just at the moment the goal was kicked and in con*e<|uentv of this did not follow the ball, with tin- result- that Zingari were penaliw-d for Temuka being off-side. It wa«. decided to ref-r the appeal t<> the Referee** of New Zealand. The Celtic Club put in an application to play an Oamaru t.am next Thursday and this w.-ii granted. Mr Cutlibert a.*ke! why the senior competition was closed and a reply was received that it wa* »*- the nque«t of the majority of the play«rv, not of the Management Commit tee.