BRITISH RUGBY TEAM IN SOUTH AFRICA

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 190, 13 August 1938, Page 4

BRITISH RUGBY TEAM IN SOUTH AFRICA

DID WELL IN SCRUMS SOUTH-WESTERN BEATEN BRITISH CENTRES PLAY WELL OUDTSHOORN, June 22. The British Rugby tourists to-day defeated a South-Western Districts fifteen by 19 points to 10 before about 3000 spectators. Glorious sunshine favoured an attractive match, in which the home side proved surprisingly hard to subdue. The tourists were overwhelmingly Successful in the set scrums, the ball going out to South-Western’s threequarters only on very rare occasions. But, owing mainly to the unshakeable defence of the home side, the Britons were never able to turn their superiority in the tight to complete advan- t tage. Graves Hooks Well Hooking for the first time on the tour, Graves, who received plenty of support in the scrum, got the ball back almost at will; and Tanner, the Welsh scrum-half, who was making his first appearance in South Africa, gave a good service. He threw out long, hard passes, which enabled Cromey to get well into his stride by the time he took the ball. When the little Irishman occasionally stood closer to the scrum than usual he found Tanner’s passes most difficult to take, owing to their bullet-like speed. Cromey moved with speed and proved himself a quick thinker; but he seldom attempted to do more

than act as an efficient link after he had drawn his man. On one or two occasions on which he did attempt to break, he usually found it impossible to escape the resolute tackles of the home inside backs and loose forwards. The two British centres, Leyland and Macßae, could not have, desired a greater share of the ball. They played delightfully open Rugby and threw the ball about in what has now come to be regarded as the customaryfashion of the British players; but they, too. found it most difficult to get past their grimly tackling adversaries. Leyland Strikes Form Leyland gave his liveliest display of the tour, varying his crisp passing with attempts to go through on his own. Macßae, as usual, was dangerous whenever he got the ball, but he repeatedly went crashing to the turf as the result of a hard low tackle just when he seemed to have found a gap in the opposing line. The packs fought a great duel in the loose, the honours resting with the visitors on account of their superb backing up. Purchase, Taylor and Couchan were always up with the play, the first-named in particular proving an adept in gathering cross kicks. Duff often appeared disconcertingly as if from nowhere to harass the home backs in the open, and Howard was prominent in the line-outs. Dancer, Graves and Marks, the frontrankers. battled hard, and all were prominent on occasion in the loose. Elvet Jones, on the right wing, ran determinedly until he injured his foot early in the second half, but Boyle, on the other wing, was never able to evade the smashing tackles of his vis a vis, Louw. Jenkins, at full-back, gave about his best display of the tour so far, although he occasionally kicked poorly with his left foot. None of their backs had the chance to do much on attack, but the forwards. of whom Van der Riet, Meyers, Segall and De Klerck were about the best, fought hard in the loose and broke quickly from the scrums to make Cromey part speedily with the ball. Line Uncrossed The South-Western players never crossed the British line, all their points coming from kicks. They opened the scoring after three minutes. when Manefeldt scored a penaltygoal in front of the posts. Tanner having been penalised for being offside.

I BEATEN BY WESTERN PROVINCE SPRINGBOKS FIND A CENTRE VISITORS DISAPPOINTING CAPETOWN, June 26. The famous blue and white-hooped jerseys of Western Province were borne to yet another famous victory to maintain the province’s brilliant Rugby history-, when the British touring team were outplayed at Newlands yesterday. The prestige of the Western Province had suffered a blow the previous week, as a result of the uninspired showing of the Town and Country side, who were generally considered very lucky to beat the tourists; and the sympathies of a great section of the crowd were with the Britons, when they took the field yesterday. There had been suggestions that Western Province selectors, rendered panicky by the poor display of several members of the Town and Country' team, had been stampeded into choosing a Western Province fifteen which could not be expected to do even as well as that which had played the previous Saturday. Brilliant Football But from the start the home team played Rugby of the finest standard. The home pack combined splendidly, every man pulling his weight in the early scrums, while the eight forwards hunted together in irresistible fashion in the loose. They fell away somewhat towards the end of the game, however, when the British players, with seven forwards and a disorganised back line, staged a gallant rally and won the scrums in a manner which was nothing short of astounding. But by then the issue had been settled bey-ond doubt. De Wet Outstanding The problem facing the South African selectors in the matter of inside I backs to face the visitors in the inter-1 nationals may well have been brought very near to solution by the display of De Wet, who yesterday rocketted past McCrae in a manner which seemed incredible to those who had seen the brilliant Scottish centre in previous matches. De Wet had the knack of suddenly streaking into top speed as he took a pass and this deceptive quality in his running, combined with his ability to sidestep in brilliant fashion, enabled him to cut through the British line on several occasions. Unfortunately, however, there were invariably two or three defenders between him and Williams on the wing, after he had found the gap, and neither of De Wet’s attempts to go through on his own nor his long lobbed passes to Williams succeeded in bringing the reward which these breaks deserved. The Britons gave their most disappointing display so far. By comparison with their opponents they were ragged on attack and uncertain on defence. Behind the scrum Reynolds and the great-hearted Giles were as good as usual, but as an attacking player Macßae fell from grace to some extent. The Scot lobbed his passes and ran irresolutely. On defence he hurled himself with unfailing determination at De Wet, but, although he often crashed the Western Province man to the turf, he was outsmarted on more than one occasion. Defence Shaky The British defence seemed shaky for the first time on the tour. Every credit is due to Williams for the try which he scored by cutting in and beating several players, even after he had appeared momentarily to have lost his balance, but sound tackling might have prevented him from getting anywhere near the line. It seems unlikely, however, that the result was a true reflection of the tourists’ strength, and, now that they know what it means to play against a good side, they are likely to do all they can to esure against another lapse of this kind. The Scoring Brand opened the scoring for Western Province with an easy place kick, after the visitors had been penalised in front of their posts from a scrum infringement. After 15 minutes’ play, Williams cut infield, eluded a number of defenders, and scored under the posts. Brand converted. Five minutes later Jenkins opened the Britons’ account wi'h a penalty from forty yards out, to make the score S—3 in favour of Province at half-time. There was a sensational start to the second half. Bester gathering the ball after Morkel had kicked off and running right through the British team to score. Brand again converted. The home team hammered at the British line and Boy Louw started a handling movement from the line-out which ended in Bester’s going over in the corner. Brand failed with the kick. Western Province were now having by far the better of the game and de Villiers broke round the scrum on the British line and scored for Brand to ' convert. I This completed the Province tally, however, for the visitors proceeded to * come back in fine style and Giles broke round the blind side and passed to Clemont. who was pulled down when in sight of the line. Giles was not to be denied, however. and a few minutes later he again found an opening and passed to McCrae, who dived over. Jenkins was successful with the kick. About five minutes before the end Jenkins landed a fine penalty from 45 yards out. making the final result Western Province 21, Britain 11,

GOOD FLY HALF BRITISH TEAM BEATS WESTERN TRANSVAAL GOOD GOAL KICKING BY JENKINS POTCHEFSTROOM, June 29. The British Rugby team can thank their blonde fly-halfback, Frank Reynolds, for their victory by the margin of 26 points to 9 over a lighting Western Transvaal side at Potchefstroom to-day. Fourteen of those points came from the boot of the Welsh full-back, V. G. J. Jenkins —four conversions and two penaltygoals—but three out of the four goals scored by the tourists were due to the genius of athletic Reynolds, who found a way past the inside players on the home side like a ghost. Actually Western Transvaal put up a better fight than the final result would suggest, as ten minutes from the end they were within reach of the British team’s lead, the score at that stage being 13—9. But in those last ten minutes thirteen quick points were added by the Britons and Reynolds was largely responsible for ten of them. Reynolds made the defence of the Western Transvaal fly-half and centres look silly, and one had to look at the programme to convince oneself that these players were actually participating in the match, for while Reynolds was corkscrewing his way through he made it appear as if there was no-one there to stop him. He also used the touch line on occasions with great effect, bringing opportune relief in this way when it was most required, or else most effectively putting his side in an attacking position. Tanner’s Fine Service The British fly-half had the benefit of an excellent service from Haydn Tanner, the Welsh scrum half. This twenty-one-year-old player sent out his pass from the scrum like an arrow from a bow, and it travelled quite as far as one is accustomed to seeing Danie Craven, South Africa's ace scrum-half, fire his passes. Only twice did Tanner dive to send out his passes. Generally it was a jerk of his strong wrists that sent the ball right into the hands of Reynolds, and with a long enough range to give the fly-half a start that meant headaches to Western Transvaal flank forwards. Western Transvaal were paid the compliment of having a powerful combination pitted against them, the British pack averaging 203 pounds per man. One came away from the game with mixed feelings about these forwards. Follow up Well These visiting forwards arc a fast, hustling pack, who follow up smartly and hunt as a pack. But their work in the line-out in the first half left a lot of room for improvement. Their marking was bad; and before the interval the Western Transvaal forwards, with Grobler—the outstanding home forward—and du Plooy the former Pretoria police lock—jumping for the ball, actually won 13 lines to six. Walker must have spoken to his men during the interval, because in the second half the British forwards paid special attention to both Grobler and Du Plooy, with the result that it was the turn of the British tourists to get the upper hand in the lines, which they won 14 to nine. In the scrums, the tourists owe a lot to the excellent teamwork by the three front rankers, and it was the assistance he got from his two partners, Walker and Gamble, that facilitated the success of the clever visiting hooker, Bill Travers. That front rank always got down smartly, and even though the packing of the scrum as a whole seemed high, when judged by the South African pattern, the British eight had the upper hand in the scrums against a pack that was only 201 b lighter in ail. But that the touring forwards did not give everything they had in the scrums throughout was obvious from the figures for the match. It is true that they had the experienced 2001 b hooker Van Niekerk operating against them; but that does not explain away the fact that in the first half they were winning the scrums 5—2; later B—4, and finally only 10—9. In the second half, they took some time to settle down to the hard work in the scrums, the home team having a lead ot 6—2 and being encouraged on one occasion to call for a scrum instead of a line-out. But, in the end, the Britons won 14 scrums to nine. There was no Louden or Hodgson in the pack to-day to act as the spearhead of the forwards in the loose, though both Taylor and Duff—Duff particularly worked very hard throughout and put in a lot of good work. Mayns and Howard, the locks, also played well. One feature at which the British forwards excelled was in their excellent smothering in defence. The Three-quarters Neither Macßae nor Leyland in the centre did anything sensational today, though Macßae was most unlucky earl/ in the game, when he worked Boyle clear on the wing, only to see his pass dropped. It must have led to a try had it been accepted. Boyit was always a trier and his defence was sound; but Unwin was a little disappointing, showing a tendency to hesitate, instead of going all out for the line. Jenkins played soundly at full-back, though early in the first half he pulled a thigh muscle and may now not be able to play again for a couple of weeks. While he was warm, he did not feel this so much and he did exceptionally well in the circumstances to collect his 14 points from place kicks. But towards the end he was obviously handicapped by his injury.