INTER-ISLAND GAME

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 458, 20 May 1932, Page 8

INTER-ISLAND GAME

RUGBY.

Prospects of Canterbury Players. MATCH HERE ON JUNE 4. Keen interest in the South Island— North Island match has been aroused and a great crowd should be present at the game, which will be played on the Lancaster Park oval on Saturday, June 4. Considerably more attention will be paid to the fixture this year in view of the fact that it is the first inter-island clash in Christchurch for some years, and also because it will be followed by the selection of the New Zealand team to tour Australia. Nominations for both .teams have to reach the New Zealand Rugby Union not later than noon of May 28, and these should be forwarded by the various provincial unions very soon. Canterbury will have a very strong team to defend the Ranfurly Shield this year, and can nominate sufficient men to fill over half the South Island team; men who should have more than an outside chance of being chosen. A good deal of speculation is being indulged in by enthusiasts as to the Canterbury nominations, and general opinion indicates that several men are certainties to come before Mr A. M’Donald, South Island selector, for consideration. Strong Canterbury Team. It is in the back department that Canterbury shine, and the province is likely to nominate a man for every place except half-back and one of the wings. George Hart, recognised as the Dominion’s best winger, will be a certainty, and A. W. Roberts, crack Albion and Canterbury full-back, has a good chance of filling the position in the southern team. G. Day, Merivale and South Inland five-eighth, should again be next to the half-back, and could profitably be partnered with Gordon Innes, who has developed into a fine attacking and defensive fiveeighth. C. Oliver, who also has played for the South Island before, should fill the bill at centre. When this player is on form he rises to heights of brilliancy comparable with the best in the country, and he has now reduced to a minimum his lapses into the mediocre. The captaincy of the Merivale side seems to have given him a solidity that he lacked before and ability to work In with the other backs and make some fine openings. Prospects are that these five backs will go forward for selection. There are four forwards who also have good chances of taking their places in the South Island rcrum. A. I. Cottrell, who is a certainty for any New Zealand pack, selects himself; J. Manchester, Cottrell’s Christchurch clubmate, is in much the same category. A. H. Andrews, who on occasions is practically the ’Varsity vanguard on his own, can step it out with the best and he has reduced to a fine art his play to the amended rule cutting out the wing-forward. Sydenham have some fine young forwards of whom K. Brown stands out as the one most likely to go into a South Island fifteen. The Canterbury backs will not have a very strong lot of fellow nominees from other unions, but plenty of opposition should be forthcoming among the forwards. Southland can always produce some solid pack men, while Otago, the West Coast and Nel-son-Marlborough usually have an outstanding forward or two. (Other football news appears on Page 11.)