FOOTBALL

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19539, 25 March 1926, Page 4

FOOTBALL

INTERESTING SUGGESTION CHAMPAGNE OF FOOTBALL. ALL BLACKS v. MAORIS. EPIC GAME FOR MELBOURNE. SYDNEY, March 24. A newspaper sporting writer, referring to the proposal from New Zealand that the All Blacks and Maoris play an exhibition game at Melbourne, says: “Such a match would be the (greatest football fixture of any code : staged for some years. It would be | wasted ou the public of Victoria, where the Australian rules game is invincible and the Rugby codes are little understood or appreciated. A match between two New South Wales teams of a decent standard would give all the demonstration necessary in Melbourne, when if as a result of the exhibition public interest in the game was evidenced the New Zealand teams could be sent over in subsequent years. There is no doubt that if an A,ll Blacks-Maori match was played in Sydney followers of both Rugby codes would take the opportunity of seeing : the game as played by two New Zealand teams of first-class standard. Value to Sydney. “Another argument in support of a Sydney match, is that New South , Wales is seriously considering return- , ing to the two-three-two scrum for- , mation and the wing-forward, especially in view of the report of Mr Har- : old Baker, manager of last year ’s New South Wales team which visited New Zealand, who said that the principle of i wing-forward play had been consider- ' ably changed and in place of the old stumbling block of the past is a roving back or an extra five-eighth, who were often than not is a distinct advantage • to the backs rather than a hindrance ; to the forwards. Hitherto critics have been able to base their arguments only : on the exhibitions of one side playing a seven pack and the other an eight pfek, with the referee probably all at s< a. A great deal more would be demonstrated and learnt from an exhibition of two teams playin'-' with a sex en pack and a wing-forward in a game such as the All Blacks against Maoris, when the wing-forwards would be opposed to each other, and the use : each makes of his position would be ; amply shown.” MERELY A SOP PROPOSAL OF LITTLE USE. RUGBY AT HOME AND ABROAD. N.Z. DELEGATE’S OPINIONS. [Per Press Association.] CHRISTCHURCH. March 24. With reference to a London cable- 1 gram on Monday about the International Rugby Union’s decision for an annual conference with representatives of the Dominions, Mr S. F. Wil- J son, who attended in 1924, says that the proposal seems of very little use : and almost in the nature of a sop. Such a yearly conference would be im- ; possible for financial reasons. It would also be a waste of time, because the International Board last year turned down a proposal for an advisory board after it had been approved at the 1924 conference with the Dominions. KAIERAU CLUB $ Members of the Kaierau Club are reminded of their practice at the training shed to-night at 7.30.