THE WEEK’S RUGBY

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXIII, 2 June 1926, Page 13

THE WEEK’S RUGBY

Notes and Comments

THE PREMIERSHIP

Scven-n-side tournev on Thursday.' , * * Old Bovs and Zingari still unbeaten. it * , * Zingari v. Old Bovs on Saturday.; «• » «■ : St:ir have entered eleven teams for tile tournament. ■••s’ * ' * ;i L./Thomson, tbo -Star half, may not play again tin's season. The South Island team may be picked in Christchurch on Thursday night. ' ■ i Last year’s sovon-a-sido winners were: —Senior, OJd Roys ; Junior, High School; Iliird Grade, Star; Fourth Grade, Star C; Fifth Grade, Celtic. /, * - * * A P. Ward figures among the 'Canterbury i nominations for the ; Solith island’: .team, and probably will be selected,.'\,AV.hab would his chances be it-:'be.'-were -playing in Timaru?. tv.'f * * H. Clark refereed the big game, Old Boys v.'-Christchurch last Saturday, "na. may-.earrv the' whistle in the Canterbury* Wellington representative match to-morrow. - ■/■'- ’ ** # ' T. Manning, the husky and dashing Temuka forward, has been selected to play in tile North v. . South Maori match at Wanganui and' Gisborne, in June. The Maori team for France will be choseii alter, these games. ... V , a■ •• t» _ '(* Thh,' followfngV-tablo indicates- the positions of" the teams in the Mackenzie Sub-Union competition :

The -first senior game in the tournament to-morrow—ToUiuka A. v. Celtic, is set down for 12.41. Fairlie lheet, Wa'ihf .B. at 12.52, Temuka B. plky' - Old 'Buys A. ‘fit 1.3,' and’AYaihi meet Old Boys B. at 1.14. Star and Zingari are timetabled for 1.25. The juniors will commence at 10.29, with the game between Zingari and Point B. High School’s first gamo in this grade is-scheduled tor 11.1.1, against Ailenton. Play begins at Fra.ser Park at 9.45, and at Anzac Reserve at 10 n.m.

Probably few people will bo dis- ■ posed, to : cavil at tbo nomination of It. Stewart, D. Fairbrother, D. Stewart', Ct. -Lawson and D. Tate for inclusion in tile South Island team. South Canterbury’s share of the honours is not' likely to bo great— Stewart is a certainty, and wo may get another man in as emergency. That seems all we can hopo for with no representation on the Island .selection; committee, and some of the South Canterbury nominations may I be interpreted as an expression of tbo selectors’ opinion that certain men are playing better than others at the present juncture. If this view is correct, there must have been some fine : distinctions drawn to separate ono or two of the nominees from Strang, Gerard, and others. * * *

Tomuka had a run of minor ncci.dents' on -Saturday. McKenna started iv twisting an ankle; Barker injured a knee and liad to follow Jus skipper' off, and Loo Connolly, in making one of, .his solid tackles, hurt lii.s forehead—which was smashed up some time' ago by a kick from a. draught horse. Temuka can ill afford to spare /him, but in the long nin it might prove a good thing if young Connolly stood down for this season and gave liis wound a chance to harden up ..thoroughly. The Seadown youngster one ;of, the most promising players •Temuka, has produced in a • decade, .and ho.has all the years in front of him.;' ".I Vi v 'r/"•'%,* ..w- * yt'TJib 2?ihg;vH-Cbltie encounter was not 'a delectiible .-iffair' and’ reflected no small amount of discredit on certain of the' players and a section of the onlookens. One Celtic man, who was ih'qbahly only getting in a retaJiatdry-, blow, wits Sent’ off,7 but lie (Was iio,t;.,more culpable than others in both , teabts- P t may. be unjust to .infer, aif : «<ini<jj.people-are doing, that • Zipgari' iriini’t'"have been, primarily to blame, iis -they had participated in .. sCufflitigfga'me with AViiibi a fortnight . beforp/.'bnit , i.t l ,,.fs,Ui()l;. open to dispute that one Zingari forward has been seeking trouble lately. : : Fifty-fifty is abdjit a.;,fair apportionment of the •blanie for Saturday's iholeguiieias, hut this'does not alter the. fact that the -rough-and-tumble tendencies of tlir.ee or f6ur''mcn.-.fln either side create .an 'atmosphere which i« grossly unfair-to tjie.majority of their team-wates, ivhb Wlsli'to play the game'. .

. Star wore ji.robably a little unlucky Jlv,*not''breaking t-heir duck last week'. Certainly they had none the worst of the -play, and- in the closing stagesreally deserved a score which would 'nave turned the tide in their favour. Tim extra weight of the home team made Star’s task a hard one, and in running AVaihi to a couple of points PU Winchester Park -the visitors .Acquitted themselves well. Had the ’.game been decided in Timani it is not an unreasonable assumption that tho championship points wonjd have ifene i>he other way. Neither side was eti-eiifrtli, AVaihi taking the field without D. Stewart and Lvsaght and Thompson,- ■J. Clarice, and Stcuvarfc being absentees from Star. -O. vluirke,-: the country goalkeeper, 'gave another rhe ’’ display, ’ featured ’ bv excel tout" line-kicking, and Neutze, at <:y| I 1 v’ yec ? 11 S‘-cat game, kicking, niul AqJding-m ' iiTeproacliable st-vle A.opdvCOt half, nihde the mc-st of''ll is opportunities, and for his weight is olio of the deadliest ladders in the vmpetlfcion. AV. Quirke was a con-.•-picnquM figure in the pack, ishining also' in ’ hue-out phiv, and Opie', .Hobart,son, Best-tie and F. Mcßride worked consist'."! lv. J. Mcßride the Winger, was offside too often, ’ and tbm fault detracted from a lot of otherwise good work, Pjrie was fairly reliable at full for Star. Lewis and Forester, the wings, made some utrong runs, but Head, at centre, wan the best of the “three” line. Hislnp wais dashy at five-eighth. Oullon, at half, passed out promptly and also tackled well. The forwards grafted hard ■ against odds, McYcy. Bent, Nov,-ton. and Showan being generally close to the hull.

The good citizens of Nulinka, in tho WniPoa, district, are not, letting tho matter 'of tho ordering off of George Nepia. the famous All Black, rest, and a meeting of the hamlet citizens was held and decided to forward n rnilt-'t to the AVciroa Sub.Hniou, ,wi.t,h reference to the “ordor-ybgs-off’ftho, .Piratcs-Nubaka iairitt.

X£t sufficient credit has been given to Temuka. for their second spell stand amiinst Old Bovs. The skill and breezy methods of the Blues can always be expected to triumph over the bustling but cruder tactics of the Magpies, and did so again last Saturday, but it is not quite generous to Temuka to •suggest that the winners as a team were going slow in the second half. Stewart undoubtedly was—incidentally it will be a pity if ho allows street talk to inmicuco him from showing ills best nt _ all times—-but it is not a characteristic of the Blues to let points go abegging, and the small scoring in the second half was attributable in a considerable measure to the determined tackling of the losers. Vigorous forward rushes by Temuka again and again carried play into Old Boys’ territory, but the nippy Blues usually extricated themselves and ran through to opposition territory. Manning, Bennett, _ McKenna (who had to retire early in the first half), and Orton seem to be the backbone of Temuka ’a lively vanguard. The back division was strengthened by the reappearance at half of Edgcler (Hclom dropping back to five-eighth), who with the Connolly brothers was responsible for a lot of good'defensive work. Temuka sustained several minor casualties, and the retirement of one of their backs near the end of the game was responsible for the appearance of T. O’Connor, a rep. forward of four or five- years back. Strang, G. Lawson, Tate! and A. Lawson were the pick of the Blue vanguard, and almost needless to say, Stewart was the dominating influence of the match. The pack was strengthened again by the return of Ledingliam and Coxhead, and as now constituted is a fairly hefty seven. Gerard showed a return to something like his -best form.

It. is generally realised that the seven-n-side has been a tremendous factor in popularising Rugby with the South Canterbury public, but possibly it is not so widely known to what- exteijL it lias assisted the Union financially. For a considerable period tho 5.C.11.U. was dependent for finance upon the profit from the tournament, and in this respect it lias had two tilings in its favour—an nJmost miraculous run of fine or: reasonably good weather for the fixture, and the fact that a, public holiday was available. In its evliest years tile tournament was bold on 24th May (Queen Victoria’s birthday), but during King Edward’s reign it laid to be fixed for any suitable Thursday afternoon, usually in July or August, and the tourney itinerated between Timaru and Temuka. On George V’s accession June 3rd was reverted to, and the seven-a-sido immediately developed Into. an important and comparatively profitable aifair. It is fairly safe to say that the public holiday means a difference, nowadays of about £IOO to the Union, and it is comforting to reflect that the Prince of "Wales's birthday anniver.saiy falls on June 23rd.

[ It is a long time since Fraser Park . has been the headquarters of the i xeven-a-side. Many tournaments were played on the Church Street AVest ; ground in the earlier history of the , fixture, but the erection of the fine stand nt the Caledonian Ground praci finally forced the Union to transfer it to Patiti Point, The -provision of. a stand, and tho reconditioning of No. 2 area at the Union’s own ground have put a new complexion on the. situation, and J.he move back to the more, central position,,ip. well advised.. One , of the.last tournaments played (more correctly speaking, completed—tiie preliminaries having been decided at Temuka a week earlier) there was responsible for an incident or a, series of incidents which led to the adoption of a custom which very strangely had not been introduced earlier.. This was “taking off time” for stoppages. On the day in question a hundred-mile-I ail-hour gale blew diagonally down the ground, and it was a simple matter to kick tbo ball from one goa] to the other. A visiting team, playing in the first five minutes with the gale, scored a try: on changing ends tliev put the ball well and truly over the fence, and two minutes were lost before it was recovered. AA ben the boil rang the players were lea vim?, the field but tiie referee Gho late AY. MendeJ.son), ordered them hack to pin/- the extra two minutes. .During that- time the other side scored and converted and fhe fat was in the fire. The losers carried an npneal through to the New Zealand Union,- which naturally ruled that the referee’s decision was nnnL . I'Yom Hint dny nl! stoppages lor injuries or extraordinary oireumstances have been compensated for and a groat deal of pointing has disappeared.

£ S’ l -P O ft 1 z 4 Old Boys . . . 4 0 94 24 8 Zingari 4 0 41 23 8 IVrmii ..... 2 2 29 31 4 Celtic . . . . • 1 3 29 50 '2 1'ennika ..... . 1 3 I 5 30 2 Star ...... 0 4 31 69 0

U O •JS t -r-< P. 2 -P 8 S' ’ ; to • (-3 -ft o Aorntigi v . . 2 0: 34 -• '8 4 Te'ngnSvni' . • . 1 1 35 ",12 2 Fairlie . . • . . 1 1 19 12 2 Albury . . . * . . 0 * 2 5 * 21 0