Sport and Sportsmen.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18546, 21 August 1928, Page 9

Sport and Sportsmen.

Mr James Musson left with a partv of his pupils for Auckland on Saturday vening to attend the amateur box ing championships. Wellington's challenge for the Ran'urly Shield is to be decided to-morrow afternoon, when the Wellington representatives meet Wairarapa at Carterton. Special arrangements have been made by the Railway Department for Wellington enthusiasts desirous of going to the match. The Wellington team will be much the same as that which met Auckland on Saturday, though room; of course, has been made for C. G. Porter, who captained the North Island Saturday, Commenting on the defeat of the All Blacks in the third test, the Wellington “Post” says:—"The best that the All Blacks can hope for now is to finish up with honours easy, and to this end the best attacking players should be given a chance, players such as Nicholls, Lucas, Rushbrook, and Strang. Backs picked mainly for defence apparently had ample ooportunities on attack in Saturday's game, but in some cases they did not make the most of the chances. Let attack be the first consideration for the final test! The Springboks, with a second leg-in, will be right out to maintain their present position of supremacy, and they will, no doubt, present an even tougher defence in the final test. To penetrate this. New Zealand’s attack must be of the best. With due consideration to the difficulties which the New Zealanders are up against, the Springboks have registered a fine performance, and their playing ability, backed up by the tuition from good tacticians, has been further emphasised by the result of the third test. The All Blacks know this only too well; and they were among the first to compliment the South Africans upon their greatness.” :: » a One of the differences between the Rugby League rules in New Zealand and in England is that in England a scrum is ordered for a forward pa when a supporter takes the ball front of the man who has had pos e sion. In New Zealand this is ruled a: being off-side. The difference amounts to this: That here the taking of a forward pass constitutes the infringe ment, for which a free kick is awarded; while in England the forward pa.sitself is penalised by a scrum. If, however, an opponent takes the pass and cuts in, the advantage rule operates, and no scrum is ordered. The New Zealand rule appears to be the better one, for the heavier the penalty for off-side play the better it is for the game. The English rule means that a player standing off-side and taking a forward pass, is not penalised half as much as he would be if, being off-side, he missed the forward pass but immediately tackled the opponent who had gained possession. In either case he is off-ride, and no discrimination should be shown between the two offences. It is mainly in regard to this interpretation that the Englishmen have been puzzled and chagrined in most of their matches to date.

Right from the outset a hot pace was set in the Wellington v. Auckland Rugby match on Saturday, and this was well maintained throughout the first spell. Snappy, open play was the order, and, though there were not always the final touches needed to bring success to movements, it made up a sparkling first spell. After the interval there was falling off, much of the play being ragged, though there was still plenty of incident and the scoring position was such as to hold interest to the end; indeed, the final stages were very exciting, with Auckland striving hard to snatch a win. They failed, but not by much. Wellington’s untried representative team went quite well for a first outing, and its performance would have been more impressive had all the forwards been up to the mark. An outstanding success so far as the local backs were concerned was the trial of Chaney at second fiveeighths, a position which has given the selector one of his most difficult problems. Chaney was the best back on the ground.

Describing a tennis match played in Toronto on Sunday, cable messages say:—“Australia won two of the three matches with the Canadians to-day. The only Canadian victory was that of Nunn, who defeated Hopman in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4. Crawford out played Ham in the final singles. 6-2, 6-0. Nunn’s victory over Hopman was surprising, in view of the fact that the Australian has been displaying fine brand tennis, while Nunn has not been up to usual form. Nunn broke through Hopman’s service repeatedly, and experienced little difficulty with the Australian's sizzling drives. Hopman’s service was poor, and many points against him were due to double faults. Nunn received much applause for a sparkling performance. Crawford’s defeat of Ham was expected, for the Australian's play has been a feature of the series, and has impressed the Canadians that he is a coming star. Ham was distinctly nervous, while Crawford was cool, deliberate, and extremely clever with his work at the net and returns from the back court.”