INSIDE BACKS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 77, Issue 152, 29 June 1934, Page 8

INSIDE BACKS

N.Z.’s RUGBY WEAKNESS CONTRIBUTORY FACTORS. COOKE AND SPOILING FORWARDS (By “Cross-bar.”) Ne-w Zealand Rugby to-day is trying to bridge a gap and, at the same time adapt itself to a changed mode of forward play so as to be proficient enough to cope with British teams which have never played any other type of game. Two fundamental weaknesses present themselves at the outset—the last line of defence andj the inside combination immediately j behind the scrum. As yet there is no full-back on the pedestal of George Nepia and there is no combination in sight to equal the Nicholls —McGregor—Cooke trio of 1924-25. The difference between the insides of to-day and those of 1924-25 is really due to the wizard-like ability of one man—A. E. Cooke. His remarkable speed and clever kicking were his two main attributes and, when in combination, those two phases of his play stamped him as a. super Rugby footballer in a class by himself. There have been tacklers quite as good as Cooke, players with just as much ability so far as anticipation, fielding and ordinary kicking were concerned, but no players have been able to follow through and profit from the stab-kick like he could do. It did not matter whether the ball came off his own boot or that of a player inside him, Cooke could get it and non-plus the best of oppositions. Other players tried to emulate him. but. did not possess the ability to achieve the success which provided such finish to. Cooke’s play. In the final test against the British team of 1930, played at Wellington, Cooke gave two striking examples of his follow-through tactics and scored two tries. Yet from that match New Zealanders came away well aware that the New Zealand backs had been disappointing. It was purely Cooke’s lightning ability to get through behind the ball which lifted them to prominence. How many times did New Zealand profit in 1924-25 from Nicholls kicking through and Cooke following up? So spectacular did that type of game become that it stamped itself into New Zealand Rugby. So long as there was a Cooke on the field it was quite a good policy to keep it going when all else failed. It provided a means of overcoming a deadly defensTT side. But to-day, when there is no Cooke to follow up, we see the sorry spectacle of backs trying to emulate his famous speed and handling. Nine times out of ten it fails. While New Zealand has been encouraging five-eighths to play for the deadly pace of a Cooke the inside machinery has lost the art of making openings. Cooke’s individuality, plus the ability of Mark Nicholls to appreciate it, has had an important bearing on the game of to-day, and we are struggling to bridge the gap but are not always appreciating just what the gap is. There is another factor which has entered into the game of recent years and that is the scrummage. It, too, is having an effect on New Zealand’s inside machinery. The North-South match of last year provided an example of the force of a. pack tuned to smother opposing backs. In the first spell the North rearguard functioned rather well and the spectators were treated to Killeen cutting through. Five-eighths were playing as they should behind a pack that was just holding its own and no more. But what a transformation came over the scene in the second spell when the Southern pack, realising that it was a ease of smother the North backs, played the game calculated to du it. There were “a hundred spoilers abroad.” Five-eighths faded out of the picture, wing-forwards reappeared and the cry went up that New Zealand was poorly off for inside backs. There was every justification for the howl and there is still justification for it to-day, but there is a tendency to under-rate the actual five-eighths who are playing and not made full allowance for a type of scrum which has bred a race of Gallahers in place of the hard-pushing forward of long ago. In short, the fiveeighth of to-day is having far more to contend with from the set scrummages than was the case years ago. In a talk with the writer on this subject, Jimmie Hunter, the mercurial fiveeighths of the All Black combination, of 1905, agreed that so far as set scrums are concerned the harassing of the fiveeighth line is more intense to-day, but the wing forward of the older teams was a much freer agent. “I do not think the set scrum is the proper place to attack and prove five-eighths, however,” Air. Hunter added. “If you have two opposing lines of backs each well fitted to mark the other, like the two lines of Wellington and Taranaki, which played at Hawera the other day, there is a man marking a man and the chances of making openings are small. The play in that match proved it. The best time to attack is from loose rushes. Backs who can snap the ball up when a loose rush breaks down get the best opportunities for attack, and nearly always go through. ” Taking Mr. Hunter’s opinion as a guide, a study of the weakness of New Zealand’s inside back machinery must be approached in a mood that is not influenced by a mere superficial examination of the position as it appears to be.