Football Notes.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5272, 31 May 1895, Page 4

Football Notes.

[BY QUIDNUNC IN " CANTBK3CBT tflMEl/'J ! All local interest on Saturday centred in ! the Linwood-Kaikorai game at Lancaster ' Park, and fully two thousand deeply interested and critical spectators ?at in an ; appearance to watch the play. T ne Kai- ; korai team struck me as being a very fine ' one, not distinguished by several bright ! and shining stars, or containing a few ■ mediocre and weak playera. Theis ex- ' cellence and success rest, I take it, in the j fact that tine team is very even and j reliable, that the men know the gatn« : perfectly, and play it. They, of course,.; possess excellent combination, and are j splendidly geaeralled. The physique of \ the players is nothing remarkable; in j fact, when the teams lined up on Satur- ( day, it was generally considered that Lin- ■ wood possessed an advantage in this ; particular. The forwards, however, are i of the "nuggetty" order, and seem well ( adapted to mix their game, at one time ; dashing straight ahead, and at another j heeling-out very ekilfully, and all through ; displaying splendid tackling abilities. The , backs are safe and sure, .excellent tacklers I and kicks, and in addition are quite up to j the modern combined passing game, as j Tvitnesß the try scored by Armit. With : . the general all-round excellence of the ; Kaikorai team, it will be naturally asked how Linwood suffered such a narrow defeat. ; Looking back at the incidents of the game ; enables me to confidently assert that the j home team should not have been defeated i at all. A drawn game would, I think, have j given a fair idea of the p}ay, and I am ; disinclined to withhold credit to the Greens i for the fine fight they made against such j redoubtable antagonists. Were the teams ! to meet again this week, I would not care j to venture much on either side ; a : little luck either way would turn the , scale. The Linwood forwards in the first ' spell were beaten by their opponents, and j seemed somehow unable to get into posi- i tion. After tbe interval though a change J iWas noted, and Kaikorai's forwards were ; •worsted. Then the Linwood backs, one ; [and all, especially in the front division, j {appeared to weaken a bit in their attack, j 'and although throughout the greater j part of the spell the visitors were hard ; pressed, their defence was never broken j down. I again noticed a weak point I ' mentioned a while ago in Gordon's and ! Trice's play. They pass before they beat j (their man, and with a fast dashing team ; of" lively forwards their passing rushes are j almost invariably doomed to sudden death, j I will readily admit that tbe two Linwood i half-bactep had no ordinary contract on on j Saturday to beat their opponents, but at j the- same time I would suggest some j attention to this matter, as, with the fine : all-round team, the club possesses thiß j year,, scores should be as plentiful as dead ■ leaves in aatunm. < Sing, the Eaikorai lull back, well ' sustained 1 his Dunedin reputation in j keeping hia» line intact* bat thanks to the i fine work in- the tackling line of every man ! in front ofr him, he was sot called upon to ; do a great deal of collaring. Armit, j Cunningham 1 and Woods, are three light but plucky/and) fast three-quarters, without much between them in point of merit. Duncan » a- splendid half, and a thorough general, bub of course the majority of my | readers- in Canterbury have seen him before; and on the principle that "a good wine' needs no bush" I can \ idiamßßß- the genial " Jimmy.** J>." Tor* : 'ranoe and Sinclair ace both efficient ' foolf - baokfl,, the former fox attack! and tba latter for defence.. The, forwards ! •ate all good; and I hardly like to particu- ' ; larise^ ff. WiEeiinson, though, on the wing, < 'ia a 'fine places, and waa- a veritable thorn [in Linwood'a- side all through. J. Tor- : jranee was as prominent as< of yore, and as . ;I havesaidla/We the lotweie very even. ! ; I/noticed very little wrong with Orchard's work. B3e was called? upon. -on occasions !to show his tackling powers ia a very deci;3ive manner, and got through, very well, \ (Whilst his kicking was- go»&. O'Brien acted! mostly on the defensive* and through the style of play, in front of him [was allowed very few opportunities of: [attack- HoM>e was in and cut doing some ' | fine work, and! occasionally fumbling most ' s inexcusably. Stringer has dash, but has ' . still t9< learo to tale a> sudden pass 'surely and well. His inability to do so on J one occasion lost a certain try and in con'sequeaae the game. Gordon and Price I /have mentioned above, and in addition I

;may state that the Linwood skipper on ' Joocaes»n» showed a strange hesitation and delay ia getting rid of the tall. The for- ' Swanfe ware all distinctly good, Eerr, as ? usual playing a splendid game, whilst jM'Naaiara, Ward, Irvine and Fanning I were well op. Darton's absence waß mucb I felt, though, in 'front of the scrummage, ! > and I fancy M'Fariance would have been useful in some of the loose work. The game- waa a very pleasant one, well contested and vigorous, and was too even to allow of many of the popular great runs or , fancy elements. Ctoße observers, tbosgh, were delighted with the play, and personally I feel a yearning to be again allowed j the privilege of witnessing another match ! partaking of the character of the first meeting between Linwood and the famous Otago team. I The official record of the attendance at ;he Kaikorai— Linwood match on Satnriay is given aa 2206, and the total cash baken was S10& 2a 3d; this amount of . sourße including the money taiea at the itand. . j Saturday 7 * matches are Syden&am and East Christchurch, Linwood and North ' Canterbury, Chriatchurch and Canterbury j Colleee^ Merivalo and Kaiapoi.. I fancy bhe first-named teams will wia in eacb ■ oase, although the Merivale and Kaiapoi . matoh is likely to prove ver^p- interesting. I "hear,, though, that the Blues, are putting j in an extra strong team, and as Batch will be an abaentee from the K&iapoi ranks, I . inoline a little towards Merivale's chance.. ' Yorkshire being champion county foo tha Beason met a team selected from the r«st of England at Leeds- on April 8 and ! scored a brilliant victory by 21 points to 3

The team representing England, though xegarded as a strong one, contained only eight players who had donned colouars in

international matches during the season.

At a meeting of the London Bugby Union Society of Referees held on April 4, Mr G. Rowland Hill, who presided said :—

At the last meeting they came to the con-

elusion that & strong feeling existed as to

the off-side rule. It was generally thought that the three-quarters should be placed upon an equality with the half-backs in

that respect. At the general meeting of the Union, a proposition was made in

favour of the alteration of the rule. Feeling at the time that the other unions were not

in accord the question was allowed to drop for the time being, so that the Inter-.

national Board might be consulted. He, the speaker, was now in a position to state that the Board was in favour of applying the rule to all players, and, therefore, that

at the next meeting of the tjnion the rule will be revised. The International

Board had also decided to do away with appeals in International fixtures. Con-

tinning, the speaker drew attention to the

growing habit of players failing to put the balidosvh wLieii hold; this was all against fastplay, as is also the unnecessary sounding of the whistle by the referee. He

certainly was of the opinion that the whistle should only be sounded when the

ball was b. eij.g carried on, R.eyertin'* to the question as to whether the touch-Judge ehould or should not put up hia flag when the player was getting over the touch-lino in goal, he was certainly of opinion that eneh should be the case, though at the same time the referee should be on the

watch. He was also distinctly of opi&ion that referees, as a rule, were, very neglectfulas to the five yards rule ; in numerous instances penalties should be given though it was seldom done.-