FOOTBALL

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXI, Issue 18791, 28 May 1923, Page 7

FOOTBALL

RUGBY OF BOTH SORTS A LITTLE THAT MAS GOOD. AND A LOT THAT MAS BAD. IN M’ALES v. FRANCE INTERNATIONAL. The two Rugby 1 Internationa matches played, ended as was anticipated. Wales beat France at Swansea. and Scotland, for the first time since 190 6, was successful at Dublin (says a writer in the Athletic News). The game at Swansea was far from satisfactory, some of the Frenchmen playing Rugby that is not in accordance with the best traditions of the game. Kicking and striking Welsh players, however, was no justification for the action of a spectator who showed his displeasure by throwing an envelope filled with stones into the seats occupied by the French committee. WALES WIN AT LAST SIXTEEN PENALTIES IN MATCH WITH FRANCE. Rugby may be a game of strange contrasts were not quite so vivid as cointrasts were not quite so vivid as we got at Cardiff three weeks ago,

■ and at Swansea on Saturday. 1 Against Scotland we had a rousing ' game with a rousing finish; against France we had a backboneless sort of game, a game of “shreds and I patches.” , l The satisfactory feature of the match could be counted on the fin- , gers of one hand; those which were unsatisfactory were far more rtumerous. Roughly speaking, there were five minutes worth the watching. No game with sixteen free kicks In It is going to be satisfactory. Such a glut of penalties tells its own tale.. ; It tells oi. offences for feet-up which spoilt innumerable scrummages; it ' tells of off-side offences which stop- ' ped attacks. And it makes no record I of offences against the unwritten . rules of the game, for if all those , i had ended in free kicks poor Mr I M’Cowan would have needed a new whistle. This Irish official had a ■ pretty thankless task as an introduction to international refereeing. Every year we go on telling our II French friends that they have a lot to learn in the way of football. Oc- ; ■ casionaiiy, as at Twickenham last : year, when they gave England a : fright, and only failed to win be : cause of the fine kicking of Day, we think they have come into their own. ; Then they slip back. Now they have ' found what they have long been looking for—an outside half-back—anti what they have got to lose is the methods of some of their players. OVERSTEPPING THE LINE. One does not want to be unduly severe, and one is prepared to make a lot of allowance for temperament land a natural excitability. But, at the same time, it is no kindness to j France to ignore a tendency which. 1 if it is not tackled with a strong i hand, will do French Rugby incal- ! culable harm in the eyes of the other nations. More than one of the French forwards—one particularly—does not realise where to draw the line? be tween a vigour which is perfectly legitimate and a vigour which borders on the brutal. He was twice hooted. Another forward apparently thought it was part of the game to

try and boot a Welsh forward from behind—an action which was so funny as to cause a roar of laughter. But that kind of thing is not done. Frenchmen must surely realise that not only arc such flagrant abuses injurious to their own reputation, but that they spoil a game. Unfair tricks breed a spirit of resentment; wildness begets wildness, and with the speeding of the sense of calmness goes the ability to play good football. I think this had a lot to do with the poor quality of the play we saw at Cardiff. There were, admittedly, human factors which played their part in making the game a poor one and, so far as the Welshmen were con cerned, those factors were both in front and behind. There is still a weakness forward in the matter of heeling, and time after time, especially in the first half, the ball was ■coming out on the French side of the scrummage. EXPERIMENT THAT FAILED. And when the Welsh front rank men did get it the ball was never heeled out cleanly. It hung about, and Delahay had to ferret for it instead of finding it shot back to him and giving him an extra yard or two to get away in. I do not think that Delahay played anything like his best game, but at the same time there was seme excuse for him. His new partner, the youngster John, needed none. He fully justified his selection over the head of Clem Lewis, and was responsible for opening up the game more frequently than the Cardiff man had shown himself in either of the two previous internationals. I Whatever one may think of the scrummage half-back’s chance of being picked to play against Ireland, 'one can Im very sure of one thing, name!'- that Melbourne Thomas will not be the right centre. The Welsh selectors tried an experiment here, and although it may be open to question whether Wales does not possess a regular centre who might have been given the position, still the lack of dash, or what is called penetrative power, diselo: 'd at Twickenham and Cardiff certainly justified a little gamble. Thomas is not a centre, but ho is known to be a thrustful, powerful wing, a bit on the wild side, but always a player with posibilities. He was asked to play a game or two in the centre in club football in the hope that he would shape all right for Wales. Well, he didn't. He dropped his passes, and he didn't I give any decent passes; he was out of ! position, and he played as though he knew it. That is really all there, is to be said about it. There is even more excuse for Thomas than there was for Delahay, for the halfback, at any rate, was not forced into a position for which he is unaccustomed. One result of the absolute and undoubted failure of the right centre was the thrusting of an undue amount of work upon the left centre. Fortunately, Albert Jenkins was able to do two men’s work in defence. He was distinctly better than he has been in other big games this season,

but it is strange how, with all his chances, he still cannot drop a goal. A WINGER AND THE WINGS. Little fault can be found with Rees at lull-back except to wonder what he was doing when he missed tlje easiest of chances to drop a jjepalty goal towards the end. Before we leave the Welsh team, there is one aspect of the play which must be causing some concern to the Welsh committee. The reference is to the forwards. Individually, the lot are good, and Llew. Jenkins, Steve Morris, Baker, aud Gethin Thomas played very finely. But there is something lacking even apart from the obvious inability to get the , ball. I wonder if our old friend | Hiddlestone. one of the heroes of the game with England last year, and now quite recovered from his injury, is the man needed to put some necessary dash into the others. i I had almost forgotten to refer to the two Welsh wings, rather a singular oversight considering how well both Rowe, Harding, and Johnson played. Wales clearly has no need' to worry over her two outside men. It is quite a simple matter to put one’s finger on trie most satisfactory feature of the French team’s play. It was the outside half-back. France has always been weak in this position, and fast and strong runners in the three-quarter back line must often have looked with envy upon other international teams possessed of a halfback able to majZ-i openings We know that some Frenchmen do not look with a kindly eye upon haltbacks who do more than sling tho ball out. But, obviously, this has entailed too much work upon the - backs, and the benefit of having an outside man who can play his part in beating one man or even two before he parts with the ball was clearly demonstrated at Swansea. Lacazcdieu is quite the best outside half-back France has ever put in the field. He is quick, and be is clever, and he made a number of very useful openings at Swansea.

OYSTER TACTICS It was strange to see a French team without Crabos, who has played ill more international games than any other Frenchman. Teeth trouble pre vented him playing, and so we had tn the centre Ramis and H. Behoteguy, a younger brother of an original choice. If these two men were act ing to orders in playing close up to tho Welsh centres then they carried out < their instructions wifh remarkable exactness. Jenkins and Thomas were hardly given a yard in which to move. Tho two Frenchmen were on them as soon as (and sometimes before) they got the ball. As an illustration of the spoiling game it was remarkably good, and this, maybe, can be written down as another reason why there was so little open play, or, at least, wliy ,so little open play was allowed to develop to its natural end. We had one very picturesque piece of play by the French backs which gave them their first score, and it showed that the men can handle the bail with the best. The two wing are fast, and in Lalande France ha> a newcomer to the International arena who is full of promise—a speedy, powerfully-built lad this from the well-known Racing Club. Clement gathered well, and he stopped some awkward looking rushes; his first-half failing was that his kicks were not finding touch. As for the forwards, one is sorry to have io confess it, but one’s mem ory is too full of “unfortunate episodes” to enable one to remember their good points. Any reflection tills remark may convey, however, does not include Lasserre, the French captain, who, in every respect, set his followers an example they would have done well to emulate. Fortunately the attention of Mr Rutherford, the French touch-judge, was called very pointedly to tl-.c French forward who made several attempts to strike a Welshman, and it. will be interesting to see whether that very pugilistically inclined gentleman gets his place again in an international side. I know what I should do with him! TWO GOOD SCORES. Possibly enough hag been written to give a pretty good idea of the game, and a few lines will suffice to describe the scoring. At first, so bad wag the scrummaging and so futile the attempts to get the ball in the scrummages, that one began to fear the game would never reach the scor ing stage—unless it was from one of the penalties which, alone, broke the monotony of forward infringements and dropped passes. Twenty min utes passed before Wales scored. It was a delightful try. It started in the Welsh “25,” indeed within s dozen yards of the line. Delahay got the ball away to John, and !v in turn gave it to Jenkins. The centre dashed between Lalande and Be hoteguy, and, racing up tri Clemen! served Rowe Harding with a perfee! pass. The wing man took it an;' ran in from the “25” for Jenkins 1? complete a great movement by kick ing a goal.

That was the extent of the Weisn I score up to half-time. Drops at goal | by Jenkins and John and a remark- I able miss at the simplest of penalties ' by Beguet all went astray, and 1 the only other score fell to France, i Lacazedieu slipped out of a tackle by j John and got the ball out to his backs. Ramis and Behoteguy did : their part neatly, and when Lalande | got the ball he went for the line as a wing man should. He could not get I right round, and Beguet missed the ! kick. Thus Wales had a two points lead at the interval. They soon lost it, for when Dela- I hay gave out a poor pass intended ' for Thomas, Jaurreguy picked it u;> and was through the Welsh defence like a shot. Faced by Rees he passe 1 to Beguet, who in turn handed to Lasserre, and the French captain raced the opposition to get the ball down. Beguet’s shot at goal hit tho off post and, very considerately, went i on over the bar. These two tries were quite the best i features of the game. The French j score left Wales in arrears, but a ’ short run by Melbourne Thomas, I which produced a try, a penalty goal j well kicked by Rees (one he landed | later was neutralised by a Welsh i forward being in front of the ball), I and a further try by Gethin Thomas, |. the goal being kicked by Jenkins, ; ended in Wales keeping up her un- ; broken series of successes against ' France. ——- <