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Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18536, 5 April 1930, Page 16 (Supplement)

The Zingari Football Club will hold a week-end practice on Ashbury Park, after which the teams to play Fairlie on 12th April, and Linwood at Easter, will be selected.

“The difference between English Rugby and Rugby as played by the All Blacks was the difference between amateur billiards and professional billiards. An amateur makes a hundred break and exploits every known shot in the game. To make his break he must be continually extricating himself from difficult positions. The professional makes a thousand break and every single shot looks so easy that the merest tyro feels he could do the same. Mechanical accuracy is the secret of success in every game, whether it be golf, tennis, Rugby, running. Soccer or anything else."—Rowe Harding in Rugby reminiscences and opinions.

The 1930 season, which is almost upon us, should prove the most interesting since 1921. when the formidable Springboks were with us and gave the first jar to our Rugby pride we ever received by finishing up all square in the Test matches, says the “Dominion.” Since then New Zealand has sent teams to Great Britain in 1924 and to South Africa in 1928. The All Blacks had a triumphant march through Britain, winning every one of the 29 matches played. It was another story in South Africa, however, and it was only by a superhuman effort in the fourth Test match at Cape Town that we managed to again finish all square with them. The visit of the British team this year will prove intensely interesting as providing a comparison between two rival systems of Rugby. The British Union have stuck loyally to the English method of eight men in the scrum, two half-backs, four three-quarters, and a ' full-back, while New Zealand still ap- ! parently pins its faith to the game it has evolved in this country of seven forwards, a wing-forward, a halfback, two five-eights, three three-quarters, and a full-back. The New Zealand style of formation apparently did all light in Britain in 1905 and again in lf'24, but it did not work out so satisfactorily against the South Africans either in Nev; Zealand or in South Africa. It is history now that the All Blacks had to change their scrum

formation to overhaul the victorious Springboks. Both the manager <Mr

| W. F. Hornig) and the vice-captain <M. ; F. Nicholls), of the New Zealand team, ; on their return from the South African | tour plainly stated that New Zealand i must alter its scrum formation if it j expected to beat overseas teams in ; future. This advice was disregarded, j and New Zealand continued to play I seven men in the scrum in 1928 and 1929. Then came another shock for New Zealand's Rugby prestige, when the All Blacks, for the first time in history, were soundly beaten in every Test match by the Australian fifteen. With such writing on the wall, it would have been thought that, with the Australian defeats fresh in our memories, and the British team about to descend upon up, those in control of the game last season would have seen to it that a return was made to legitimate Rugby in order to give our men a chance of meeting the British team on something like level terms. While New Zealanders are firmly wedded to the 2—3—2 scrum formation, it has to be remembered that this is the only Rubgy country in the world which adopts this system. Every New Zealander, however, is by no means enamored of our system of scrum formation.

Since 1920. £57.000.000 has been spent on new roads in Great Britain.