FOOTBALL.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume L, Issue 12715, 29 January 1906, Page 5

FOOTBALL.

THE NEW ZEAILANDERS AT HOME

THE BIG MATCH

ANOTHER (DESCRIPTION

"DEFEATED AT LAST."

By the Special Correspondent of the " Manchester Guardian."

The city is throbbing with excitement. Plethoric. with the emotions of their team's great victory, Welshanen everywhere Are singing and dancing and "cheering and ."generally enjoying themselves- with good-humourned. extravagance of conduct. Only the Irisfh policemen sitting astride restless-eyed horses preserve an outward calm. Immediately after the match I encdtintei*ed a company of men, with leeks in their cape, cheering and dancing around a new and strange picture of tine Red Dragon of Wales. The monster's looped tail, car? ried horizontally as a rule, was represented as' loftily, erect, and the change delighted Welshmen because this revision of the work of Heralds' College reflected the common elation of the ■moment. When the match was over everybody seemed impelled to employ some safety value for their exuberance to escape by, and only a few of the many thousands could share the coveted honour of 'hugging the WeMi players and_ carrying them shoulder high to the pavilion. ISO an ingenious man made the ■new portrait of the Dragon, and carried it in triumph through the city. The result of the mjitch was a.n occasion when much rejoicing was abundantly justified. Rugby Union football is in Wales a national pastime in a very special sense, and the success of the Welsh team in defeating the most bail- j liantly successful combination of Rugby footballers that has ever toured through the British Islands was counted an achievement of national distinction. Football even in Wales never stirred the emotions as tihe play has done to-day. Directly the players came on the field we had some intensely dramatic and. emotional moments. The New Zealanders,' isolating themselves in a little group, chanted their Maori song, stamped their feet and waved their arms according to their custom. Forty thousand people 'hushed their babel and listened, and then shook the' air with a roar of amused laughter and cheering. At that moment the Wales players clustered together the tumult was hugfoed •again, and we heard a thin chorus from the centre of the field. The stranger within the gates may not have recognised it, but to-day the stranger was a very small minority.' Of the 40,000; people crowding the stands most were Welshmen. They Iqiciw; y^hat. the, redjerseyed footballers were singing, and suddenly they made the thin chorus into a mightly uprolling volume of harmonious sound, tens of •-thousands of; voices joining in the refrain of a beautiful hymn which expresses in perfect form "the Welshman's love of his inheritance.; What the New Zeal an dens thought of it, and how they were affected by it, wo should be interested to know.. But to, the Welsh team this thrilling appeal to national sentiment was a magnificent stimulus. The impressive singing of such a chorus would have steeled the heart and warmed the blood of weaklings about to enter on a much sterner struggle, and its effect on the Welsh players was electrical. In a moment a* nervousness which had been ill-conceal-* ed when they walked on the field disappeared ; the singing seemed to brace them to their giant task, and they went "to their work with a confident determination that was a tremendous asset in the 'beginning of such- an encounter. Wales won the match by a single try, the only score in the match. There were some exciting moments before this try was got. Wales were the attackers, almost from the kick-off. In the first half-dozen scrummages the ball came out through a cluster of New Zealand feet, but the 'New Zealand backs were never allowed1 to get away. Presently the WeMi " hookers " in the" scrum began to get the 'ball as often as. their opponents, _ and then . the gajme\"grew very lively and hearts thai?-had drooped over the results of the first scrummages began to be'gladdened.' The referee was uncommonly sharp on . Gallaher,.' ,Ha watjshed the <New Zealander.'^vitH an untiring eye, gave several. [ penalties. against him, and harassed him .merci--lessly with his whistle. Mr, Dallas seeitf r ed once or twice .to be almost .too ready to pull up«>New Zealand players,. .Once he stopped a movement of the backs for a knock-on that* was no knock-on, and no pass that was.nptpiXKnounoedly backward escaped- without s thej v shriji "Halt "from the referee, ■;< Twenty-five minutes 'from the start Wales: ought}: to have scored. They had been pressing hard, and'thanks to their own.ffull-back they had never been forced back on their own home quarters. Time after time the Wales backs got going, but the swuf tn€ss of the New Zealand forwards in leaving the scrummagg. and backing up their rear division kept the Welshmen at bay. Once there came a real opening. A Welsh forward took the ball from Wallace and gave it to Llewelyn. That player took the ball awkwardly, but got it secure enough to travel some, yards. He had practically a clear course for the line, and the .try- ought to have been a certainty, but by some mischance Llewelyn dropped the ball. The crowd was shouting with excited anticipation one moment and. dumb amazement and ' disappointment the next. But ten minutes later the great reward of a whole side's spirited exertion was reaped. There was a scrummage on the right of the field of play. Owen j the half back, got the ball away to Pritchard. the extra hack; Pritchafd flung it high and far away to Gabe, the left inside three-quarter, lying well across the field. .It was a splendidly judged pass, because all the (New .Zealanders were on the aught of the field— caught for onoe by surprise. Gabe took the ball well, drew upon himself the only New. Zealander who could get near him, and then passed the'ball surely to Morgan on; the <wing. Morgan dashed in and scored.

Then, indeed, there were a sight and a sound of a lifetime —a,sight of tens of thousands of closely packed upstanding people jumping and waving their arms and throwing up their caps, and a sound that was such a mighty roar of triumph as men long experienced in popular demonstrations of excitement have never heard before. One of has (Majesty's judges leaped to his feet on the impulse of the moment, the Lord Mayor's hat was high in the air, and scarcely a man or woman or child there did not add something to the ebullition of the moment. The kick at goal failed. None caa-ed for that. Three points were safe, and Wales had a. lead. The first half was nearly ended before New Zealand fought the Welshmen back to the (home " twenty-five." Once they did it, and were beaten hack. Again they did it, and got at last •within five yards of^the Welsh goal line, and then the referee hlew' his: whistle for^(halftime. It was a happy relief for the Welsh, but hardjuck indeed for New Zealand, because people who had timed the game knew that the (referee had made a mistake. .(He had allowed insufficient time for stoppages in the play, sjMjd have given the New Zea*f§tij|&rs the benefit of.,their, advantage L-J&Hat least another minute. . ki^e second half showed the Welsh "defence at its best, a fortunate - circumefatfHSfelifpr the side, because in this half the NeV Zealandera pulled themselves together and wei-e often heating up towards '.thie Welsh lines. There was far

too mucn whistling on the part of tin!* referee to permit the game, to become: attractively open, and the scrummages* ■ must have run up to a tremendous total. In the scrummages Wales quite; held their own, and the attempts of the New Zealanders to wheel when they could not get the ball to their heels* were well met. The (New Zealand backs, had a fair share of openings made for them, and their half, Roberts, jlayed most brilliantly, but Mynott, one of the five-eighths, and Deans fumbled the ball : badly1 time after time, and bo Hunter and 'M'Gregoir were wasted. Gillett, the-.-... full-back, was strikingly weak; he, fielded poorly and did little by his kicking, to help the forwards. When the Neinr Zealand backs did get moving they found rare spoilers waiting for them.. To try to dodge through the Welsh defence by jerky runs as they have dodged through &> many defences.during theitt torn- was to-day as vain as for a herring: to try and get through a shrimp net. . The Welshmen were splendidly alert,, and tackling magnificently kept theirline in away that no other combination), of to-day could possibly have'done. Winfield at ; full-back was never at fault. He preserved splendidly-the traditions jof Welsh full-back play, and found touch at great distances'with unerring, sureness. "Good old Bank of England/ (spectators shouted to express their appreciation of his sureness. In this second half there were two memorable thrills. The iNew Zealanders twice nearly scored, on/both occasions by com- . ■bined movements begun by Roberts at half. Hunter dashed down on the left and was forced into touch close by the corner flag, and (McGregor, on the right,. " made a tremendously fast and threatens ing rush which was stopped only** yard? out. Once the lead of Wales was near-, ly increased., Two yards from the halfway line Bush made a nroraderful drop* at goal, and the surely aimed ball fell only a couple of yards short of the bar; Both sides lasted well and played at a. great pace to the finish, but the New Zealanders •■•; never had the slightest, chance of making the last five minutes memorable like the last five minutes of their game with Scotland. In this case* the whole period of the game, must count as memorable. It was a superbstruggle between two splendidly matched teams playing according to New Zealand methods, and on the day's play Wales, the were just a trifle better than New Zealand, their teachers." ' ■ •■ ' ■".""": ■- - ' ' ■•"■."" '