FOOTBALL.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 8573, 15 March 1906, Page 4

FOOTBALL.

NOTES. (By QUIDNUNC.) Captain Meikleham exhorted the mem!>en» of the Sydenham Football Club on March 5 to conduct themselves in an orderly manner when visiting other towns. He explained that he did not wish an inference to be drawn that representatives of the club had misbehaved themselves abroad in the past, but merely wished to guard them against the pitfalls into which beams sent out by oth«r clubs had fallen. He remarked that he had been assured by a Dunedin publican that members of a Christchurch club had left 6uch a quantity of debris in one of the rooms of his hotel that a long-handled shovel had to be requisitioned to effect a clearance. The statement was received with a mild round of inoredulous laughter by the audience, but the speaker reiterated the statement in all seriousness apparently.' He advised the young men before him to copy the example set by the " All Blacks," who had made themselves favourably known in Great Britain by their gentlemanly behaviour. "Would the King have shaken hands with them?" he asked, reverting to the heroes of the "long-handed shovel Btory. " "Why not?" interjected one of the auditorium. "'What? For misbehaviug themselves?" ejaculated the chairman in horrified accent. 'Mr Palliser, the New Zealand Rugby Union's London representative, informs me (writes the • London correspondent of the "Star") that i1? is practically decided that an English Rugby t«am will tour New ( Zealand and Australia in 1908. Need- ; less to say they will not begin with the Australian matches this time, as was the case with Bedell-Sivright's team. To wre6t from New Zealand, if possible, the "ashes" of English Rugby football will be their great ambition. " I'm quite surprised (writes the London correspondent of the " Star ") - to find, on inquiry, tbat no maker of phonographio records has thought it worth while to made one of the famous war chant of the "All Blacks." Captain Gallaher ought to get his men together and remedy this glaring omissio^ unless, as I suspect will be the case, T«>me smart Yankee maker takes advantage of the team's presence in America to do so. ] When tne records are ready, I suggest that Gallaher should send one to each of the four British Rugby • Football Unions and one to the French Athletic j Association,, just to keep the "All Blacks' " memory green on this side of the great Waters. > Amongst the presents lavished upon the . New Zealand footballers on the ! eve of their departure were a number of boxes of chocolates, the gift of a •well-known cocoa firm. Each man received • an elaborately' ornamental box, with a picture of the f All Blacks." on the lid, and although the contents soon vanished, the boxes themselves will make handsome souvenirs of British hospitality. An equally well-known firm of champagne importers presented each member of the taani with a fine clasp-knife. • -$ Thus "Wanderer" of the ""Sportsman," in his notes of January 27 anent the "AH Blacks." :— " To the wearers of the silver fern. May I, on behalf of the readers of the " SnortSjman" and -myself, offer you the heartiest of wishes for a pleasant voyage, an enjoyable time in America, and a -safe arrival home? You have by your remarkable succession of victories furnished the sensation of the football season, and have provided much-needed stimulant to the Rugby game. The somnolence of our authorities has been shaken off, and your captain'e advice, 'Wake up, England!' has borne fruit. May the fillip which your visit has given to the game prove Lasting in character, and when next you come amongst us may you find that we have profited in a substantial degree from the lessons now learnt. Bon voyage! Au revoir!" The New Zealanders did not cut go much of a figure as might an.. English athletic team coming to this side: The players, while strong, 6turdy fellows, with, deep chests and broad shoulders, are not as clean cut as Englishmen, and really look like colonials. There is a suggestion of crude power in their manner, but the crispness and precision of speech and the .alertness jbf mannerthat would be so evident in a university team from the other side, was entirely lacking in the New Zealanders; But they are a prettily built lot of men, and somehow it showed even through their unpretentious clothing. They travelled niodestlv enough for a team that has been piling up the coin by playing to great crowds everywhere on the otheiside and came along demurely in the second cabin. — The New York *' Sun" on the New Zealand team. * Writing of the Rugby game in Britain a Scotch correspondent remarks as follows in "Fry's Magazine ":— We in Scotland would like to see England in her Aid position of pre-eminence again, and "hough this were effeoted at the expense of reducing our national dignity for a season, no one would care, as we are all convinoed that the Rugby game in England will never attain the position it once held there till the "ashes" are in her safe keeping, [n no country has the declension •of the game in England produced more profound regret than in Scotland, and it is only natural, therefore, that nowhere would a genuine revival of playing strength be hailed with greater satisfaction than in the Rugby centres beyond the Tweed. In its report of the social gathering at Holborn, on January 25, in honour of the New Zealand Team, London " Sporting Life " says :— There are two New Zealand teams— those who play Rugby football so strenuously and so skilfully in 'their " all black "costumes, and those who foot it lightly here and there at a dance. This much was made manifest last night. The New Zealanders struggling in a "scrum," getting their- jersoy s torn in stopping a rush, muddy and hot and eager, would not be recognised as the courteous gentlemen gracefully danciug a, polka or chivalrously escorting a lady to the refreshment room. Imagine, if you can, Gallaher. whom you have Been in the " thick of it," sudden and quick . jn action, muddy, torn, dishevelled, dancing a valse; or Smith of the kjng stride and tfbe sure pass in the midst: of a ,polka. That the tour- of the New Zealand •team has done the Rugby game much good is' undeniable (says " Fry's Magazine"). It now remains for the Rugby Union to insist, as it easily can, upon the lessons which have been taught our players not being forgotten. There is too much of the spirit abroad that Rugby is played for the love of the game only, and that players may turn out just as. late, as they choose and in