SECOND TEST

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20782, 17 July 1937, Page 16 (Supplement)

SECOND TEST

BETTER CHANCES FOR AUSTRALIA Australia should enter the next Rugby Union test, against South Africa, even more hopefully than the last when they had the New South Wales victory to fortify them after possessing the belief that the visitors were bogey men, says "Rambler" in the Melbourne Sporting Globe.

Directly, New South Wales football has not been advanced in the slightest by the Springboks’ displays, but indirectly there should be some gain. Their coming should awaken those in charge of the task of fitting the clubs out physically, for their weekly matches, and brighten up the players themselves.

To coach “John” Wallace is deservedly being allotted praise for the

home team’s displays, but it was a pity he did not have players to work on who were in better condition and who did not require the great amount

of running about and practice at handling the ball that the N.S.W. side did.

Admittedly, too much passing can hardly be indulged in, but this could take place while having trials in other movements. The players should have had the necessary stamina, and accuracy in taking and giving transfers, before Wallace came from Macksville to burnish up the elementary work.

What were club coaches doing? Some casualness has been caused on account of the general neglect. One team knows that its opponents are similarly situated. New South Wales showed a great difference from the club form,

but theii movements were orthodox, except for some splendid variations by Towers and Richards. Lessons for Forwards Perhaps solid scrummaging with no shining forwards is tire only lesson the visitors have taught, but this is a valuable one. though still rudimentary. It is hoped the breakaways of Sydney will take it to heart. Their heads are turned by the praise given a player who catches the eye in the open. Not one of the visiting pack wanted to be a three-quarter. He had his job to do and that alone was his concern. Wallace taught N.S.W. to run straight, but this should not have been left for him. There certainly was a tendency in the test to pass without gaining much ground. In kicking, too, the empty spaces were not always found, and many times an opponent received the ball from an obliging Australian. However, the noted coach can start where he has left off and, if he make as great an advance as that shown in the difference between the club and representative form of the players, Australia will put up a great display.