N.Z. RUGBY TOUR.

Waikato Times, Volume 102, Issue 17220, 1 October 1927, Page 6

N.Z. RUGBY TOUR.

The selectors, whose duty it is to decide upon the 29 players who are to represent New Zealand on the Rugby fields of South Africa next season, arc now well advanced with their onerous task of sifting the “wheat from the straw.” After the North and South Island game at Wellington to-day one match remains. Possibles and Probables, chosen from both Islands, will meet at Wellington on Wednesday next, after which the selectors will finalise the team which is to make the tour. Those who have closely followed our national winter pastime this season feel convinced that the chosen side will worthily uphold the honour of the Dominion in the leading Rugby country to which they are going. When the South Africans vvere here in 1921 they proved worthy exponents of the code. In the intervening six years Rugby, in New Zealand has improved to a prominent degree. The unbeaten record of the side which toured the United Kingdom in 1924 bears indelible testimony to that fact and the standard has, at least, been maintained in the interval. There is likely to be a fair leaven of the 1924 team in the combination chosen for the coming tour. With the players who have advanced to international grade of late years a strong side will be available. The claim that the standard of the game in South Africa has also advanced is supported by the Rugby authorities of that country. Great interest will be shown when the best of New Zealand and South Africa are engaged on' the Rugby fields next year. Whatever the result, the playing of the game beyond the prize will, as always, he kept in the forefront.