RUGBY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17864, 4 June 1926, Page 9

RUGBY.

OLD BOYS MAY FIELD WEAK SIDE. The senior A grade competition of the Canterbury Rugby Union will be advanced another stage to-morrow, when the third series of matches in the second round will be played. The games for to-morrow are:— Merival© v. Old Boys, on the oval at Lancaster Park. Christchurch v. Linwood, at the Show Grounds. ’Varsity v. Albion, on the south ground at Lancaster Park. Old Boys, Christchurch and ’s’arsity are the favourites. The competition is now about halfway through, and to date it has been a very interesting one, quite the most interesting of recent years. Practically every Saturday has produced an unexpected result, whilst last Saturday the results in the three games came as a surprise. At the end of the last round, Old Boys were leading with 5i points, Christchurch being second with 4b and Merivale third with 4. Old Boys have a useful lead, and many followers of the game strongly favour their chances of winning the championship this year. However, the competition has still a good long way to go. and it has been so full of surprises that it is difficult to say which team will eventually head the list.

MERIVALE v* OLD BOYS. Great interest is being taken in the second meeting of Merivale and Old Boys at Lancaster Park oval to-morrow afternoon. Old Boys have been the ruling favourites, but the fact that they will not have the services of Harris, and that there is considerable doubt whether Svd Carleton will lie able to take the field on account of an injury to his leg sustained in yesterday’s match against 55'ellington, puts rather a different complexion on matters. It he is unable to play, the vacancies will be filled by Mortlock at second five-eighths and Ogier at centre. This rearrangement would obviously upset the combination of the backs, wherein lies a good deal of the strength of the side. So far this year Old Boys have been defeated only once, and that was by Merivale in the first round. On that occasion Merivale won by 23 points to 12. The previous Saturday Old Boys had beaten Christchurch by 11 points to 6, and their defeat at the hands of Merivale therefore came as a big surprise. After their defeat by Merivale, the form shown by Old Boys was not too good until last Saturday against Christchurch, whom they defeated by 15 points to 3. In some of their matches this season, as for instance when they drew with ‘s'arsity, the Old Boys forwards have not been going too well. However, lately special attention has been paid to the forwards, and they have been putting in some hard training and practice. Further, for last week’s game a change was made in the Old Boys pack, which has had the effect of improving it. Jacobs was promoted from the senior B team and put in as lock in place of Baird, who went at the back of the scrum with Dickson in place of Low. This gave a more evenly balanced scrum, as Baird and Dickson are more of a size than Dickson and Low. Low played wing forward for Old Boys last Saturday, and he filled the position well. The pack to play against Merivale to-morrow will be the same as that which met Christchurch last week, and if they go as well as they did a week ago they should be able to hold the Merivale forwards, who are a good combination without being very formidable. Merivale are not a team to be taken too cheaply. They are a, v good side and Old Boj's will have to be at their best to defeat them. It would not be safe to assume too much from the defeat of Merivale by s'arsitv last Saturday. s*arsity have improved a lot of late. The previous Saturday they drew with Old Boys. Although beaten by Varsity, Merivale put up a great fight. At one time. Varsity wore leading by 17 points to 6. But Merivale came at it again and made the score 17 to 14. At this stage of the game it was just doubtful which way the game would go. It looked as if the chances favoured Merivale, but s'arsity came away with an unexpected burst and won by 20 points to 14. If Merivale are at their best to-mor-row they are bound to give Old Boys a hard game. The team is much the same as that which played against s'arsity last Saturday except that Davies is going into the backs in place of Rhodes. Rhodes was hurt towards the end of the game last week and had to leave the field. Davies is to play second five-eighths to-morrow and Oliver will be first. Oliver is playing great football this year and against \ r arsity last Saturday he was the outstanding back on the Merivale side. He is a powerful runner and a hard man to stop once he gets away. The Merivale forwards will be the same as played against s'arsity last week.

CHRISTCHURCH v. LINWOOD. The game between Christchurch and Linwood is to be played at the Show Grounds. 55 r hen these two teams met in the first round Linwood created a surprise by making a draw of the game. Christchurch, however, should be able to win to-morrow, though they will be without the services of Johnson, who has left the city. There has been some questioning of the wisdom of Christchurch in playing Johnson seeing that he was able to play for three Saturdays only. However, it must be remembered that at one time it was thought that Johnson would be here for two or three months. There is no doubt that Johnson was a big help to Christchurch and that they will now miss him a lot. Probably they will go back to the old arrangement of putting Hart live-eighths with M Gregor and placing either Cowlishaw or Fyfe on the wing. Fvfe will be playing on the wing to-morrow, with Cowlishaw as emergency. Of the two Fyfe is the better player, though the Christchurch selector seems to have a preference for Cowlishaw. Cowlishaw certainly has weight and pace but lie lacks the dash necessary for a good scoring three-quarter. In fact, Cowlishaw is the sort of player who might make good in the forwards if he were given a try out. To-morrow Christchurch will be without the services of Godfrey, one of their best forwards, who was injured last Saturday. Christchurch have a good substitute forward in Farrant, a very promising young player whom one would like to see get a permanent place in the Christchurch pack. The Christchurch pack looks as if it required strengthening up and there are one or two of its members who could be convenientlv dropped. Linwood have a good pack and if they are at their best they may prove more than a match for the Christchurch forwards. The Linwood team to-morrow will be much the same as usual. Diedrich is to play five-eighths a nd it is presumed that J. Turpin will be wing-forward. The other Linwood forwards are:—Burns, M’Cormack, M'Puff, Manihera, 55'ard, Hearn, and Morrow. This is a good solid pack and if they are on their game they may prove the dominating factor, es-

pecially if the -weather should happen to be wet.

VARSITY v. ALBION. The game between s'arsity and Albion will l>e played on the south ground at Lancaster Park. In view of their vastly improved form the students are warm favourites and they should add another point to their number to-morrow. The team will be the same as that which defeated Merivale last Saturday ;; id with a dashing pack of forwards, behind which are a nippy set of backs, it looks as though s'arsity will create more surprises ere the season is finished. Jackson makes a fine leader of the, pack, which includes such honest grafters as Thompson among others. In the backs are Brodie and Grant, to say nothing of other useful plavers. Albion started off the season well by effecting surprises on some of the higher teams. Owing to the retirement of men through injuries, however, the side became somewhat disorganised, and latterly they have been more or less at sixes and sevens. 55 ith such men as Lilburne, Mortlock and Raxworthy in the backs and 55'v ie, O’Connor and Beaumont in the for wards there is no doubt that the material is there.

SYDENHAM CLUB. The following are the teams for Saturday : Juniors v. Technical Old Boys, at Lancaster Park West—W. Ferguson, K. Hooper, A. Henderson. Ledgard, B. Faulkner. T. Jackson, Poult on. ,1. M. Page, A. S. Kennedy, Cairns. J. Gibbs. G. Hill, C. Greatbatch, C. Gibbs, G. Goodwin, W. Calderwood, Lord. Thirds Open v. St Andrew s Old Boys, at Waltham Park No. I—S. French, F. Easton. A. Flannagan, Haworth, J. Greenfell, A. Seelen, H. Roberts, Page, C. Blyth, J. Dyer, H. Brown, Pegley, J. Jackson. C. Roberts, J. Brown. Under Nineteen v. T\ est Old Boys, at Sydenham Park—F. Kerr, J. Kiddy, A Drury, B. Lapslie, C. Bell, L. Templeton, W. Illingworth, W. Bayliss, W. Betts, R. Gibbs, Laurie, E. Deans, A. Walklin. T. Thin. C. Clark. Chalmers, A. L. Brown, J. Fhilipson, F. Carter.

PROGRAMME FOR THE ALL BLACKS IN AUSTRALIA

At the last meeting of the Management Committee of the New Zealand Rugbv Union, the following programme for the All Blacks’ visit to Australia was submitted by the New South 55 r ales Rugby Union: — July 6—Arrive per s.s. Ulimaroa. July 7—Civic reception by Lord Mayor at Town Hall, 11.30 a.m., and public reception at Town Hall, S p.m. July 10 —First test at Show Ground. Julv 11 (Sunday)—Motor outing. July 12—Third annual Rugby Union ball at Ambassadors. July 14—Play New South 55'ales at University oval. Tulv 15—Inspect Lever Bros.’ factory. July 17 —Play second test at Show Ground. July IS —Afternoon trip to Taronga Park. July 19—l'ree. July 20 —Third test at Show Ground. July 21 —Leave for Malbourne. July 22 to 26—In Melbourne. julv 27—Back in Sydney. July 28—Play match. July 29—Official farewell. July 30 —Leave for 55’ellington by the Maunganui. The programme was approved. “ 55’e are looking forward to making a tig thing of the All Blacks’ visit this year,” wrote the New South 55 r ales Union, “ and from our club matches to date indications point to a record attendance at your matches, provided we are given good luck with the weather.” The Victorian union wrote as follows: “ The standard of play this season has so far advanced that we shall be able to field a full fifteen which, we are sure, will give a good account of themselves.”

OTAGO BEATS NORTH OTAGO

Per Press Association. DUNEDIN, June 4. Otago beat North Otago by 24 to 6. The match was played as a benefit for Len. Williams, the New Zealand and Otago representative, who was injured in a club game last season. It is expected that 55 r il!liams will receive £250.