SOLDIERS’ SPORT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 January 1942, Page 4

SOLDIERS’ SPORT

RUGBY IN EGYPT BIGGEST MATCH OF SEASON. NEW ZEALANDERS IN TRAINING. (N.Z.E.F. Official News Service.) CAIRO, January 25. Twenty New Zealand Rugby players, including several All Blacks, have been selected to train for the biggest match of the Egyptian season. A team approaching All Black strength will be selected from them to play the rest of Egypt at Alexandria on February 1. The New Zealand fifteens have an unbroken record of successes this season. By a comfortable margin of points they have beaten South African, Australian and Combined Services teams. Their Rugby superiority in the Middle East forces will now be tested in this match against a side which is expected to include several internationals.

The players picked for special training are as follows:—Fleming (Wellington), Morrison (South Canterbury), Perriam (Otago), McAneney (Poverty Bay), McHugh (Canterbury), Welsh (Wanganui), Burgess (Canterbury), Grace (Southland), Parsons (South Canterbury), Wells, Lambourne, Hegglun. Coull, Wales (all Wellington), McHugh (Auckland), Mahoney (Bush) Finlay, Pye (Manawatu), Leith and Hobbs (Canterbury). The team is expected to be particularly strong in the forwards, all of whom are experienced players and have shown excellent form this season.

Because of recent illness the backs are without the services of the centre. Sullivan, whose brilliance dazzled the South Africans in a Western Desert match. The selectors’ chief concern will be to find the best inside backs. None of the men selected have shown particular brilliance in the trial matches. The game is part of a sports afternoon organised in Alexandria by the British Legation for the Legion’s Greek charities. N.Z. AIR FORCE TEAM TO PLAY ARMY FIFTEEN. (Received This Day, 12.15 p.m.) LONDON, January 26. The New Zealand Army Fifteen is playing the New Zealand Air Force team on January 31. Both sides have been making an effort to make this fixture for some time and keen rivalry has arisen.

The R.N.Z.A.F. team is as follows: Sergeant Guise, fullback; Sergeant A. G. Sutherland, Pilot Officer E. Grant and Sergeant W. Fulton, three-quar-ters; Sergeant C. Saundercock, halfback; Pilot Officer A. E. Ellis and Sergeant J. H. Wetere, five-eighths; Pilot Officers O. W. Knight and E. Cox, Sergeants S. D. Wqlls, G. Samson, L. P. McLoy, Cochrane, R. Grant, O. R. Buckley and Aircraftman Blomfield, forwards.