BATTLE OF STYLES ON RUGBY FIELD.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17832, 28 April 1926, Page 6

BATTLE OF STYLES ON RUGBY FIELD.

NINETEEN-YEAR-OLD STUDENT WAS HERO OF WALES-IRELAND MATCH. Below are graphic accounts, sent by mail to the “ Star ” Trom London, of important Rugby matches in the Old Country.

(Special to the” Star.”) LONDON, March IS. RUGBY CHAMPIONSHIP. Ireland lyis yet to win the international RtigDy championship, and can do it now only through the default of Scotland. That is to say, if Scotland win the Calcutta match with England at Twickenham, they will divide the honours of the season. Only in the event of England being successful, will Ireland be champions. This position , has arisen through the failure of Ireland to beat Wales at Swansea last week-end. It was a fine match keenly contested to the last kick, but the victory of Wales by a goal and two tries <ll points) to a goal and a penalty goal (8 points) was deservedly gained. Wales made two experiments. They went outside the principality, : and selected the two half backs from the London Welsh. In the case of Windsor Lewis. the fly-half. two Welshmen out of three condemned the •election on the ground that he was “too young.” A student at Cambridge, Lewis is only nineteen, and it appeared as though a risk was being run. But Wales had tried this and that player at half-back without success, and so it was probably thought that there was not much to lose and everything to gain by picking Lewis. The result was that he was a splendid success. and at the finish of the match he was the hero of Wales. He had a perfect understanding with his partner, W. C. Powell, and these two men gave the first glimpse of real Welsh football this season. Indted, the national side have not been so well served from the scrummage in any match since the war. Lewis has not yet got his blue at the University, an injury robbing him ct his chance this year, but the honour is only deferred. lie is a player of initiative and some genius, apd, taking his passes in great style, he opened up the attack against Ireland and gave Wales a winning advantage. But the Welsh forwards also played a most conspicuous part. Indeed, they are probably the best eight of the season. There were seven honest scrummagers, who pulled their full weight, and. strong as Ireland were forward, the home men wore them down, and gained a lasting ascendency. The impression which the game left was that, if Wales had played as well in all their games as at Swansea, they would now be'champions. Ireland started in encouraging style, and led by eight points to five at half-time. But in the second half though they defended heroically, they could not withstand the constant pressure on their line, and it was twice more crossed. From the evidence. which this match afforded, a revival of Welsh football is setting in, and a victory over France in the final match will put them at least in the second place. The English and Scottish teams have now been completed. Hamilton Wickes has been chosen to fill the vacancy at wing three-quarter for England. and Faithful, of the Army and the Harlequins, goes into the pack. The Scottish fifteen has been made up by picking G. M. Boyd, of Glasgow High School, as wing three-quat-rer„ and Davies and M’Mvn as forwards. The Scots are a well-balanced team of seasoned players, and it looks as though England will have to give their best display of the season to win. (Scotland beat England 17-9.) BATTLE Or STYLES. An old Lancashire county threequarters. who travelled up to Leeds last week-end to see Yorkshire play Leicestershire in the semi-final of the County championship, gives me a vivid description of the game. A typically sporting Yorkshire crowd assembled, packed like sardines round an old-fashioned ground with no banking and one small stand, and every detail of the play was followed with expert enthusiasm. “Get th’ ball, Yorkshire 1 ” was the slogan, and all the»Yorkshire players were greeted by name whenever they did something either particularly good or rather bad, alwavs with the addition of the famiiar “Lad.” A railway siding ran past one end of the ground, and grim factory chimneys smoked all round, but nothing could damp the sporting ardour of the sturdy Tykes. Commander Davies and another member of the English Selection Committee travelled up to see the game, with an eye to possible new English “caps.” They saw a Leicestershire team, drawn exclusively from the famous Leicester Chib, the Tigers, playing the new five-eighths formation borrowed from the All Blacks, decisively beaten by a Yorkshire"" team playing the orthodox style. Even though Leicester had not been deprived of the services of Day, the old Army and England three-quarters, now a master at Felstead School, whose residential qualification has been successfully challenged, though he plays regularly for the Tigers, they would have been overwhelmed fore and aft. THE HUSTLED TIGERS. Eight hefty Yorkshire forwards, of whom Whitfield of Batley strongly attracted Commander Davies and his colleague. pushed the seven Tiger forwards all over the field. though the latter cunningly attempted to wheel the scrum, finding that they were hopeless at a straight shove. The result was that the Yorkshire backs, who were definitely superior all round to their opponents, saw most of the ball, and made excellent use of their chances. Eddie Myers, England's veteran international of old days, was the Yorkshire captain, and played like a two-year-old at centre-three-quarters. His tackling was simply devastating. Every time he mowed his man down relentlessly. And once he burst away with a characteristic oldtime run that scored a fine try. The Yorkshire flyhalf, Fletcher, showed great cleverness combined with a safe pair of hands, and F. W. Roberts was well up to International form, as vis-a-vis to Myers in the centre. Yorkshire’s right wing three-quarter, C. F. Tetley, of Ilkley, of whom great things had been heard in London, is a big raw-boned athlete, who runs with great resolution. But lacks finesse and polish. After being top dogs all through the game, excepting for two thrilling minutes in which Leicester managed to score two tries, Yorkshire won handsomely. It was a complete demoralicatton of the new five-eighths school, and now the Tykes qualify to fight out the final of the County championships with Hampshire and the sturdy Sei* vice forwards. All rugger people arc pleased to see Yorkshire, -where amateur rugger has so long struggled gallantly against the professionalism of the Northern Union, experiencing a genuine sporting renaissance.

ST THOMAS’S REDIVIVUS After a long exile from rugger glories, St Thomas's have at last won the Hospital Cup, and with it the celebrated milk churn “won” aeons ago by some bright festive spirits from a large earlymorning selection on Yauxhall station. Guy’s have certainly had their day. Thanks to a fashion in South African students, all of them upstanding athletes, they have been almost unbeatable for many years. But it is healthy and stimulating that the laurels should go round, and there was a time, when rugger blues -from the 'Varsities used to make St Thomas’s their medical school, during which that Hospital was pust as invincible as Guy’s in later years. If Guy’s lost the churn, they had most of the “rag.” And they were unlucky to get their captain, the handsome curly-headed van Schalkwijk, a casualty just before the winning try was •cored. A large crowd of feminine relatives and friends attended the match, and were horrified by the wild and callous medical roar of “Kill him! ” that continually urged on the protagonists. UNIVERSITY GOLF MATCH. Though there is not a Wethcred or a Tolley in University golf to-day, and only comparatively few of the players, who will represent Oxford and Cambridge in the match which is to take place on the links at Burnham in Somerset next week, boast a handicap of scratch, the all-round standard of play is well up to the average of recent years. The outstanding player is W. R. Hartley, of Cambridge. Indeed, he is probably the best young player in the country. A pupil of the professional, Fred Robson, he had a handicap of scratch when he was only seventeen, and to-day he is one of the twenty-one candidates chosen for a place in the British team to meet the Americans in the Walker Cup match Hartley has just .passed out of his ’teens. Another interesting personality in the match is J. 11. Taylor, a son of the distinguished professional, who is at the University reading for the Church. Strangely enough. Burnham is the course where Taylor, sen., received his first professional appointment, and where he fashioned his game. Young Taylor 1 has much of his fathers’ style, but curiously enough he has not played nearly so well since he went to OxfoM as before, when competing as a member of the MidSurrey Club. On paper, Oxford appear to have the stronger side, and their captain, A. D. Cave, stands out above his colleagues. Cave suffered a severe licking in the match last year, being beaten by ten and eight, but he has made a wonderful advance in the meantime. Indeed, in matches against powerful London club sides, he has twice accomplished most exceptional performances. The first was to defeat Tollej% by making a surprising spurt when the position seemed almost hopeless. and a little later he beat an equally strong opponent in •€. O. Ilezlet, who is sure to play for Britain against the Americans, and is one of the greatest match-winners in the game. As an Irishman Hezlet fears no one, but he has now a great respect for young Cave. FOOTBALL TRANSFERS. There has been greater activity than ever during the past week in the engagement of players by the big Football League club. It, is laid down by rule than men transferred after March 16 shall not be eligible during the remainder of the season for their new clubs, if the latter need them for the special purpose, either of winning a championship or of safeguarding their position in a competition. In these circumstances there was a desperate .scramble for men during the few days before the fateful date. Huddersfield went to Scotland, and secured Devlin, a young centre forward from Cowdenbeath, and they had to pay £SOOO for him. They immediately recovered their money by releasing two of their own forwards, Wilson, the centre, and Williams, the wing man, to Stoke, who are threatened with the loss of their position in the Second Division. Then Burnley came to London, and persuaded Tottenham Hotspur to let them have Hargreaves, an inside left. Burnley are one of the clubs, critically placed at the bottom of the First Division table. Notts County, another club in trouble, have secured Mills, the Hull City centre forward. This player, an Irish international, has been much sought after by several clubs, and the Notts club had to pay dearly for him. A dozen or more other men have changed clubs under the same conditions, and there is not the slightest doubt that in many cases the money spent, could not be afforded. The consequence will be seen when the money i owed to the bank is revealed.