The English Team.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 7828, 22 August 1904, Page 6

The English Team.

The Taranaki Match.

Ml , Bedell-Sivwright stated to a reporter, at New Plymouth, that his team did not expect to win, as they had been ta!d everywhere of Taranaki's grand pack of forwards. He was surprised bsyond measure at the great hold the game had on the public, and said the standard of Rugby was equal to that in the Old Country, and that a New Zealand team must have a successful tour in the British Isles. The team they had met at New Plymouth was the bsst that had yet faced them on this trip, and he had not seen such forward play anywhere. They wero about equal to tho New Zealand pack which played last Saturday, while the backs handled the ball better and displayed greater confidence than the colony's rep. backs. He was unable, under the circumstances, to give an idea what the rc3ult might have been on a dry ground.

The qualifications of a football referee arc thus set out by a correspondent to a contemporary;—-" He should have eyes

all round his head, be able to run like a rabbit chased by a charge of No. 4 shot, have the ready-wittcdncss of a blockaderunner, tho presence of mind of a Canadian lumber-vaftcr, and the judgment of v Lord Chancellor. His decisions must be firm, instantaneous, and accurate. He has to make them while dodging a rush of lost humanity at a pace of 40 miles an hour, and keeping his eye on the ball all the time."