RUGBY IN REVIEW

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 172, 22 July 1936, Page 4

RUGBY IN REVIEW

COMMENT ON PLAY AND PLAYERS

By '• CROSS - BAR " Victory against Waikato yesterday and Taihape last Saturday has given the Rugby public of Wanganui a good deal to enthuse over. Yesterday’s match was peculiar in that the team with the far lesser share of the ball won. The story of the match was that the Wanganui forwards outplayed the Waikato inside backs, the visitors being extremely unlucky in losing Solomon from the five-eighth line. Had he retained his place the scores might hava been reversed: urobably would have been.

It could be said that tne team which played the better football lost. For seventy-five per cent, of the match Waikato had the upper hand, but the players tired a good deal. Perhaps the ground was too fast for them. Until the second spell Wanganui was anything but a match-winning • team. It lacked cohesion in the backs, i was outhooked in the scrums and i beaten in the line-outs. Its tackling, too, was poor. Waikato made n’.ne > points during that time. They would , have made more if Aitken, at centre. . had kept playing his wings up in- i stead of stab punting. Waikato tackled solidly and played the had kicking game whenever a W'anganui passing rush was broken. That gave Welsh a great deal to do to cope with a rolling ball. The W’anganui full-back improved to a great extent, and patched up many of the mistakes of the men in front of him. He began indifferently, and was badly beaten by Buick, the j winger, who opened the scoring b* such a fine finishing run. Until the closing stages Wanganui’s tackling was feeble. The three tries Waikato scored were registered because the home backs hesitated to j take their men low. • ¥ Barton played a sound game at centre, and was the best Wanganui , back. Thompson, at first live-eighth, i ranked next, with Chase close behind him. There was nothing prccisive . about the attack of the Wanganui . back line, however, until towards the | end of the game. The Waikato pack packed low and I held together well. While its condition lasted it kept the ball well shel- i tered from the opposing side. James ; was Wanganui’s best forward. He I played a sound game in both tight | and loose, and distinguished himself i by determined tackling. Walker, i the Huntcrville player, who went into j the pack when Hutchinson was not ; available, also played well. Bullock-Douglas did not play, being ■ unable to get the necessary leave. His ■ place was taken by M. Dickie, Waver- j ley. who did not quite rise to the oc- ( casion. Burgess, the other Wanganui ; winger, scored two tries, both of I which were gained by a clear run in. , At times Burgess found his opposing [ winger just a bit too much to man- • age. Russell and Aitken were Waikato’s ■ best backs. Aitken was inclined to over-kick instead of pass, but he was • a solid force against the opposing j side. Buick was the strongest winger on the field and one would have liked ■ to see him get more to do. Lissette j was safe, without being brilliant at , full-back. The whole of 1 he. Waikato packmen were good in the tight, but met their match in the loose. That lost them the game. A great deal of fumbling took place in the Wanganui five-eighth line, due in some measure to the slippery ball, but also to the close supporting play of the visitors. The Taihape challenge lor the Pou nail Trophy was an indication that the standard of Rugby in that district has declined. Some hard thinking will be necessary to make restoration. Are there too many clubs, or is it that grade football in Taihape has fallen away, leaving the senior grade without the basis necessary to build on? Rugby administrators will have to tackle these questions seriously if the union on the Main Trunk is to win back the prestige it had not long ago when it could beat Wanganui. There was but one back in the Taihape team on Saturday who was up to club standard on the day. Allowances had to be made for the ground, of course, and a certain amount of attention paid to the long travelling of the visiting team. But more than those two factors lay behind the side’s disappointing showing. Wanganui, of course, is congratulating itself on a marked improvement in city football. That is true, up to a point, but the real problem standing out from the match was that Taihape’s form has slumped badly since the day of Beiliss. O’Connell, Leahy and the rest of them. What can be done? Perhaps an amalgamation of clubs might achieve the purpose. Perhaps, who knows, that far end of the Wanganui Rugby district may one day find itself clinging to the Moye Scheme as a means of salvation. For long years W’anganui has regarded Taihape as so far away, over those long, twisting, never-ending bends between Mangaweka and Utiku, that inter-club football with Wanganui or Rangitikei has been out of the question. But improved roads, making for smoother faster communication, might one cay bring even Taihape into closer touch with Spriggens Park than it has ever been and will send Spriggens Park players more often to make themselves conversant with the heavier going on the Taihape Domain. R. Chase was the one star in the maroon backs on Saturday, and the fact that he played so well for a losing team justified the selectors in placing him in the representative side for yesterday’s match. Notwithstanding that “Drake” Thompson was treated unfairly in being relegated to the bank to await a defection. If the writer had had the choice of a representative team after Saturday’s per-

formance the backs would have read: Welsh. Campbell, Barton, BullockDouglas, R. Chase (2nd), Thompson, Brogden. Bullock-Douglas would have got preference to Burgess in that if play had gone the same way for the last-mentioned winger as it did for : the Kaierau man he would have been ; just as much in the limelight. If I Dave Jones (Kaierau) had been fit i he and Campbell would be the wings, | with Barton at centre. ; But there are any amount of teams ! selected, good, bad and indifferent, . and it is the selectors’ job after all, | and their’s alone. Sometimes they must feel flattered at the amount of j interest taken in their work. Jack Morgan, as was predicted on Saturday, has challenged the selectors on the reserves question. He refused to play full-back against Taihape. It was a pity that he did not register his protest so as to bring his action within the jurisdiction of the “Big Three" selectors rather than under I the immediate eye of Selector H. Whiting. Actually, Saturday's team did not have much to do with the work of the Wanganui Union’s selectors and was purely a Metropolitan matter. It would be fairer to players and all I concerned if the selectors and corrijmittees of management cleared up the | matter of reserves so as to avoid the I possibility of misunderstanding. The | writer has profound sympathy with selectors. They have a hard job, can ; never hope to please everybody and are at the mercy of critics good and ! bad. But there is some consideration .'due to the players, particularly those | players whose form is such that they (stand t>y, time after time and never 1 let. the union down when the call is imade. Spoon-feeding is not suggested, j nor molly codling, but just plain com- ! mon sense. ; If a player understands that he is Ito be a reserve after the ball is [kicked off he can have no kick comiing if he is passed over and another 1 man chosen to fill a vacancy occurring before the match begins. Time ; becomes an important factor once the • referee’s whistle to kick off is soundj ed. and a selector can sit back in his seat in the stand a great deal more ! peaceful in mind if he knows his reserve line is well held, but if a j player has not been told the position ! and he walks into the dressing room • to find a new man stripping to go on. well. understanding human nature, we can well make allow- : ances if somebody “sees red.’’ It was pleasing to see W. Moffett | (Old Boys) show form in Saturday’s match in keeping with that expected iof him. A newcomer to the pack j this season, he showed up well throughout the match. A word of I commendation is due. too. to the I hooking ability of Chris. Reynolds. ; He got a goodly share of the ball for I Wanganui. j Wanganui's immediate concentra- : lion must be on the second five- | eighth position. Knox Welsh, who ' played there on Saturday, did well, I but the introduction of a really class i back to that region of the field would ! give the River City much more confidence. Brian Thomas (Waverley) | looks a likely sort, but perhaps his I real berth is in the place closer in. To ! comp straight from school and play ; football like he has done warrants an | eye being kept on him for next sea- • son. Let it be hoped that, like a lot j more players who show tip-top form i immediately on their migration from I school, he does not fade away and ' disappoint his supporters. He has a I great future before him if he can hold what he has learned and improve. j A school match is to be played at ; Wanganui to-day between the Wan- . ! ganui Collegiate School’s first fifteen . 1 and Te Aute. This match is invarij ably looked forward to to provide one l' of the Rugby tit-bits of the year. ; i Both teams are reported to be in . i sound fettle and it is hoped that a ' good tussle of the bright order will ■ result. Commenting on the match at Ratana last Saturday, in which - Pirates went under by 19 points to [ 11, an enthusiast forwards the follow1 ing: j Ratana won the toss and. with the i wind behind them, played an inspired ' first half, clapping on a lead of 16 Ito 0 by half-time. In the second spell ! Pirates had settled down to the con- ‘ , ditions and until the wind dropped : i looked like a winning team. I The game was productive of much good football on both sides, the s Ratana backs playing a particularly ■ i fine game on attack, their handling being above reproach. The final score , of 19—11 fairly correctly represented - the meirts of the teams, although the - winning of the toss was undoubtedly s the decisive feature. r The first try came Ratana’s way 2 when Dalton at half sold a nice P dummy to let Tanerau in for an easy t score in the first minute of the match. s Paki missed the kick. Tanerau scored 3 another good try soon after when he ' crashed through Lowe’s tackle to ground in the corner after a good run. Paki again missed. A splendid movement by the Ratana ? backs let Wepia over in the corner 1 for another try. The kick missed. ' Moses coming round in support t snapped up Tanerau’s pass to score > again and shortly after distinguished 2 himself by potting a nice goal to bring ’ the score to 16—0 at half-time.

Just after the resumption a good movement by the black backs let Spriggens over in the corner. Lowe kicked a nice “conversion. Duncan next scored a typical try, wriggling his way through the forwards close to the line. The kick missed. The highlight of the match came when Tanerau raced the length of the field with Pirates in lull cry after him, to score his third try. In the dying stages of a most exciting game Grayson crossed to make the final score !9—H. For Ratana, Tanerau played a fine game on the wing, and was well supported by Moses (centre) and Dalton (half). The forwards were a very even lot and it would be hard to select any as outstanding. S. Dicker (Pirates) was the outstanding player on the field and this fine forward must soon merit attention from the selector. Grayson, Agnew, Pidwell and Pedley also went well. Lowe’s handling of the greasy ball was a feature of the game. Duncan is still the best half-back in Wanganui. McGrath and Stewart also played good | games. While winning, the tos was a decisive factor. Pirates made the tactical error of playing an attacking game against the wind. Had the black backs been content to play up close and smother the Ratana backs they might have won. The Ratana backs threw the ball round in exhilarating fashion and made many fine openings. Ratana forwards also hooked the ball almost all day.