FOOTBALL

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19515, 14 June 1933, Page 2

FOOTBALL

NEWS AND NOTES. (By “Onlooker.”) The Town v. Country match next Saturday should be an interesting one. Country should be able to field a very strong side, and the game should be one well worth seeing. Temuka and Star appear to have the competition to themselves, and when they meet a really fine game should result. Point are not yet quite out of the running, but in recent matches they have not lived up to the form displayed in earlier games. Few football teams which cross the Tasman make the voyage without losing a ball. The Australian Universities’ side was no exception, but it lost only one, whereas the last New Zealand Universities’ team to do the trip lost two, both brand-new balls.

A former member of the Christchurch Training College Rugby team, now playing in the backblocks of the North Island, was physically impressed recently by the enthusiasm with which supporters of out-back teams follow the game. He had travelled some distance with his team to meet a side that .had very keen followers lining the touchline. Play was rather exciting and close. Suddenly he broke away down one flank, raced clean away from the opposition, and was flying along for a try, when he was downed by an unexpected and very splid tackle. When he began to untangle himself from his opponent he found that he had been grassed by one of the spectators!

Pleasant Point had little difficulty in beating Zingari. Early in the game they got the measure of the defence, and put on 14 points in the first spell. Cartwright was the kingpin in the attack, and the first try was the result of a blindside effort, by which he caught the opposition unawares. There was no finish to Zingari’s game, and their efforts at establishing combination were not effective. In the second spell they made a better showing, and Point crossed the line only once. The match provided uninteresting Rugby, play consisting mostly of forward scrambles and patchy back movements. Although Zingari appeared to be a little unfortunate on more than one occasion, Point held the game in their keeping almost from the kickoff, and took things fairly easily in the closing stages.

The referee (Mr A. B. Rowlands) had a hard game to control when Old Boys met Celtic on Saturday. Individual warnings were issued to three Celtic forwards, and half-way through the final session he called the Celtic captain aside and warned him that if rough tactics did not cease someone was liable to be ordered off the field. The warning had the desired effect. The match was hard and keen throughout, and the closeness of the score was no doubt responsible for the heatedness of some players.

Although Geraldine held their own in the earlier part of the match against Star, the superior combination of the visitors proved too much for the less experienced Geraldine team. The hand-to-hand passing of the Star forwards, and the exhilarating passing rushes of the backs, make this team very pleasing to watch, and extremely difficult to play against.

Although Old Boys played bright and attractive football in the first session of their game against Celtic on Saturday, the opposing vanguard gave them little quarter in the second half, when Old Boys seldom penetrated past the dividing line. Had Celtic possessed an accurate goalkicker, the tries scored in the final session might have made a big difference to the result.

It is good to see the broader minds of New Zealand Rugby prevailing in the matter of the kick-out rule (says the Sydney “Referee”). By a big majority it was decided not to revert to the amended kick-into-touch rule. Probably N.S.W., which has been “sitting on the fence,” will now fall into step with New Zealand. The arguments of .those favouring the amended rule that the old rule slows up the game is open to abuse, are poor ones. The finest R.U. football has been played and the finest teams developed under the old rule. The old rule is a magnificent one to teams properly versed in the right tactics. It speeds up rather than slows up the game, and the team which uses it with the idea of retaining a slender lead are exceedingly poor tacticians. Just ask any of the Waratahs who played under a real captain and tactician their opinion on the matter.

Tom Morrison, who was the outstanding player for Star against Geraldine, gave an exhibition of highclass football. He scored two tries and potted a goal, and made the openings for two other .tries. Morrison’s prospects for South Island honours appear, rosy.

The Moore-Provan-King combination proved that they are a fine trio of inside backs. Provan’s straight running on attack was an object lesson to the Geraldine side.

A scheme which was devised to brighten Rugby football was tried recently in a match at Devonport, England. One team was arranged in a formation oi seven forwards, a “scrumworker” (really a half-back), four halfbacks (otherwise three-quarters), and three full-backs. It was not successful. The trial was not a good one, because the members of the team which agreed to play this nevs\ formation had been coached by post, and they needed team-coaching in it. But the run of the play did suggest that instead of brightening the game, the scheme, by its strengthening of the defence, would dull it, because more attacks than ever would end in scrummages.

Roy Seaton, was outstanding in loose play and line-outs against Geraldine, and continually broke through in possession of the ball, but his game would be improved by more vigorous work in scrummaging. W. Ramage and N. McVey were conspicuous for their graft, and the former was always well up with the play. Coates and Bracken also did useful work.

Dewar was outstanding in the Zingari back line on Saturday. He came in for plenty of strenuous work behind the scrum, but acquitted himself well. On the occasions on which the forwards gave him possession, he fed his inside backs cleanly, but the ball seldom went further, wild passes and poor handling checking the majority of the movements. Ryan did not get many opportunities to show his pace against Zingari on Saturday, and was well watched. He has a tendency to run in among the forwards, which mars many of what might easily be scoring movements. The manoeuvre is sometimes useful when a winger is crowded for room, but Ryan persists in these tactics even in the open. On Saturday when given possession near the 25 line he ran in-field, and was soon bottled up. Had he made a “bird" of getting to

the corner, his pace and determination would probably have carried him through. The Star-Geraldine match was the second occasion when the latter have met a really strong team, and it was disappointing to find that so far there has been no outstanding improvement in the team's play. After the defeat of Pleasant Point, Geraldine supporters hoped for a better showing than that given on Saturday. M. Watson, S. Callanan, and W. Angland were the best of the rearguard, while, in the forwards, K. Loach, F. Mathieson, and D. Callanan played hard in a losing game.