“NICHOLLS AND COOKE HID DEFICIENCY”
CRITIC ON CHANGES IN NEW ZEALAND RUGBY The decision to play international rules in the Dominion this season and the discussion at the annual meeting of the New Zealand Rugby Union on the three-fronted scrum have attracted considerable attention abroad. This is what an English writer has to say regarding the changes in the game in New Zealand. “The belief died hard in New Zealand,” he writes, "that their traditional 2-3-2 diamond-shape scrum formation was the basis of successful forward play. "South Africa is equally strongly convinced that its own peculiar 3-4-1 formation 1s far superior to any other, and this conviction has always (?) given the Springbok forwards confidence that they can beat the New Zealanders for possession of the ball. "The genius of Mark Nicholls and A. E. Cooke concealed any deficiency there may have been in the All Blacks’ pack in Britain in 1924-25. "But Nicholls did not have Cooke with him on the South African tour in 1928, when what was regarded as 'the greatest pack that has ever left New Zealand’ was badly beaten by the Springbok scrummagers. Now the New Zealanders at home have seen for themselves, and their reactions were sharp and drastic.’’
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Timaru Herald, Volume CXLV, Issue 21086, 12 July 1938, Page 5
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204“NICHOLLS AND COOKE HID DEFICIENCY” Timaru Herald, Volume CXLV, Issue 21086, 12 July 1938, Page 5
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