BEATEN IN THREE TESTS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18056, 17 January 1927, Page 11

BEATEN IN THREE TESTS.

LEAGUE TEAM HAS FINISHED TOUR TSF OF OLD COUNTRY. With the third test match against England the tour of the New Zealand Rugby League team has been brought to a close. The tour can be described as a partial success, in that it. was successful on the field of play, but a disastrous failure off the field. In the mind of the sporting public, the victories on the field cannot balance the distasteful memory of dissensions in the tourists’ camp. Some dirty linen has been washed, end the material has been sadly frayed in the washing. There is more to be done, for the New Zealand Rugby

LEAGUE TEAM'S BADGE.

League Council will probably be asked to hold an inquiry into the whole affair. The team's manager, Mr E. IT. Mair, has stated that he will reply oil January 18 to statements made by the discontented players who were suspended. This will mean more recrimination, more washing of linen. And all the while the public mind is being confirmed in its view of associating the word “League” with “ Trouble.” Soon, maybe, the words will be joined by a permanent hyphen.

The victorious tour of the 1925 Rugby Union All Blacks was a splendid advertisement for New Zealand abroad- The New Zealand public, and the English public, had little to complain of in that tour. There was practically only one regrettable incident, the ordering off the field of a Hawke’s Bay player. Public sympathy was behind the team, and the incident only slightly clouded the glorious triumph of the tour on and off the field.

Has the Rugby League tour been a good advertisement also? It is feared not. On the field the team showed a high standard of play, but it was off the playing grounds that the harm was done. For the first six weeks the tour promised well. The tourists’ camp seemed peaceful, and ten of the fourteen matches played had been won. Then was exploded a bombshell from which the dust has not settled yet. Seven of the forwards sent an ultimatum to the manager, complaining of his strict training methods and of an alleged disproportion of matches in which each man was picked to play. The trouble was quietened for a time by the withdrawal of Mr Mair from the Selection Committee, which body for the next few matches put all the malcontents in the pack. They are all sterling forwards, and provided a short run of victories until trouble broke out again. The same players were concerned; at least, whatever Was real cause, they took the drastic action which resulted in their suspension for the remainder of the tour. The manager was also suspended by the English Rugby League. With their morale and playing strength sadly weakened, the remainder of the team . battled on against odds. They had a run of losses, but these are not what spoil a tour, for it is the game and not the result that counts. The tour finished on Saturday with three test matches lost; seventeen games won and sixteen lost; 540 points scored and 532 notched against the visitors. Without the fullest information on the subject it would be unjust to place the full blame for the troubles on the discontented players. "Whatever their collection of reasons, and some have been given, they may be to some extent justified.

Before the team sailed from New Zealand's shores there were many who saw the possibility of trouble ahead, and they have been proved right.

Numerous critics saw the unwisdom of appointing an Australain to coach and manage a New Zealand team. Sentiment and patriotism enter la.rge.ly into sport while on tour, and a New Zealander, even one with less qualifications than Mr Mair, been appointed. he would

have felt from the start that the players were with him. The appointment of an outsider as manager destroyed any patriotic sentiment, and made the tour appear more of a business than an outing. Taken all round, what are the lessons of the tour? The effects are that public opinion in New Zealand will be influenced against the code for years to come, that the finances will suffer instead of being added to, and that a fair proportion of the touring players will probably retire from the game." One of the lessons is that League authorities will have to foster the code as never before, if they wish it to make up the leeway. The trouble in Canterbury* for aome months before the tourists sailed had its disquieting effect over the whole Dominion, and severely tested the loyalty of Canterbury players. If there are any more internal recriminations it. will make the disaster complete. It may, in theory, be a splendid thing to bring every quarrel to the bar of public opinion; but it is not always so.

HOW THE TOURISTS FARED. A cablegram received this morning states that the loss on the tour will be about £7OO, which is much less than was believed some weeks ago. The industrial depression in England no doubt had much to do with the small gate takings, and resulted in one case in a match (that arranged against Featherstone) being cancelled. Wet weather also depleted the. attendances. Internal dissentions undoubtedly did the rest, so much so that the English Rugby League terminated the lour before the. full programme had been conducted. It had been arranged that if the tour wiere successful, matches would be played at Crystal Palace, London, and in Paris. These arrangements were cancelled. The defection of six or seven of the forwards for the greater part of the

tour put a heavy burden on the remainder of the pack. H. Avery*, the cap-

tain, and E. Herring, were called upon to play in twenty-eight of the thirty games staged. Matches were played on an average of two a week, which must have put a severe strain on their fitness. It is a great testimony to the New Zealand pack that it was able to keep going with more than half the minioer absent. 1 h«e fact that only half of the games have been won by the New Zealanders does not indicate that, the standard of play is poor. Mr Mair, speaking before the League team sailed for England, said:—“The New Zealand people do not generally know that the standard of the League teams in the North of England is considerably higher than the Rugby Union clubs; that the best Union players are quickly snapped up by the League authorities when they make good, under assumed names or otherwise; that, a League team is often harder to beat than a Test side, that each club is one of specialists, and that a. 60 per cent., success of the 1926-27 League team is at least, on a par with the undefeated record of the New Zeland Union team of 1925 in England "