THE ALL BLACKS

Waikato Times, Volume 118, Issue 19759, 14 December 1935, Page 12

THE ALL BLACKS

COMMENT IN ENGLAND. CLIPPINGS FROM NEWSPAPERS. CONCLUSIVE IN A CRISIS. (Times Air Mail Service.) LONDON, Nov. 17. The All Blacks are a big draw wherever they appear and the newspapers in England are devoting considerable space to their activities. The London Daily Mail, commenting on their match with Hampshire and Sussex, which the All Blacks won by 14 points to S, says:— There seems to be some inevitable quality about the New Zealanders which enables them to win matches. You can call it luck, opportunism, or w’hat you will. Probably the Greeks had a word for it. But the fact remains that at Boscombe, when the Counties were only four points behind and the crowd whipped into a slate of excitement by the promise of a very close finish, the New Zealanders made a quiet rally. Corner got a try, Gilbert converted, and the game was as good as over. Gilbert’s goal was, in a way, typical of the whole New' Zealand Lour. He had had several previous attempts and failed, but when it came to the kick that mattered, as at Oxford, he never looked like missing. The tourists as a team arc like that—unconvincing up to a point, but conclusive in a crisis. The New Zealanders have found

forward play in this country vastly superior to what they had_ been/led to expect. Hence then comparative eclipse of men like Manchester and McLean, who have to spend most of their time shoving in the scrums instead of light-heartedly joining in passing movements like their predecessors. The forwards they met at Boscombe were characteristic of home improvement. Tarr’s hooking was invaluable, and he had a finger in every other forw'ard pie. Pike, Boast, Wallis, Hordern, Owen, Newton, Kemp—they more than held their own. Behind the scrums it w'as a different story. Not Good Enough. The Counties •were good, but not good enough. Dean was the perfect scrum-half except that his passing w’as eccentric. Whitworth, London Scottish, came into the team instead of Cov'ey, injured in the Welsh trial, and the substitute played the game of his life. His fearless tackling and enthusiastic running were a tonic. Ronald, at fullback, was his usual reliable self. I thought that Caughey was the best back on the field. He was well fed by Oliver, and took proper advantage of this comfortable state of affairs. Hart, on the right wing, had the measure of Lundon, and Corner played one of his best games. 'This plucky little scrum-half, however, has not yet got used to the spoiling tactics of men like Kemp and Newton, and is consequently slow in getting the ball away. McKenzie scored two tries for the Now Zealanders, Hart one, and Corner one, which was converted by Gilbert. Hart’s try was one of the best of the tour. The Counties were attacking when Tindili kicked across to the right wing. Hart gathered, passed inside to I

Caughey, and was up again to take a final pass from Caughey to score. The Counties’ try w r as reminiscent of the New Zealanders themselves in its opportunism. Before a line-out was properly formed Whitworth threw the ball in to Newton, who stormed over. Owen converted and later kicked a mighty penalty goal from nearly half-way. Hart’s Great Tries. Commenting on the Leicestershire and East Midlands match, won by New Zealand by 16 points to 3, the Sunday Express says:— It was a thousand pities that Slow, the Combined Counties’ stand-off half, was injured in the match at Leicester, in which the New Zealanders beat Leicestershire and East Midlands by 2 goals and 2 tries to a try. Before Slow’s mishap there was little to choose between the teams, and though probably the better play of the visitors’ three-quarters would have meant their victory, there would have been a close fight if the losers had been at full strength throughout. Slow had been in the thick of it for the first twenty minutes, both in defence and attack. The highlights of the match, however, came in the second half, Hart, the New Zealanders’ right wing threequarter, scoring two glorious tries. The first was an orthodox one, but the way in which Hart utilised his speed showed that he was probably the fastest man on the field, and his cleverness in avoiding tackles brought him a roar of applause from the 30,000 spectators. His second try was entirely different. Taking advantage of a temporary slip in the defence, he went away with the ball at his feet, controlling it in a marvellous manner—a good deal better than many Association forwards can do with a round ball.

Visitors Deserve to Win. He dribbled clean through, kicked past the full-back, and made a flying leap on the ball just as he looked to be overtaken. It was indeed Hart’s day, for he was the man to spoil the Combined Counties’ best individual effort when Charles had gone clean away and looked almost certain to score in the corner. Hart, however, again using his speed, went right across the field just in time to check him. As the game went the visitors deserved their win, but there were many times when they had to defend very stubbornly, and even when the home team had only seven forwards their pack was quite as sturdy as that of the visitors. The home centre threequarters, however, were not too good. Wynyard scored a couple of tries for New Zealand in the first half, and Gilbert converted both. Hart added two unconverted tries after the interval and Longland crossed for the home team. The most pleasing feature of the match from the English point of view was the fine form of Gadney at scrum-half. He has probably played himself into the national side. Cambridge Completely Eclipsed. The News Chronicle in commenting on the All Blacks match with Cambridge University, won by the All Blacks by 25 points to 5, says:— The Light Blues were completely eclipsed, but to those who would make acid contrasts as to what happened at Oxford, where the All Blacks only won by a single point, I may mention that Cambridge played a man short after the first ten minutes of the match. Labordo, one of the forwards, hurt, a leg and retired and the remaining seven in the pack were no match at all for their rivals.

Before Laborde retired, however, the visitors had scored a couple of tries through King and Mitchell, one of which Gilbert, with his patent trick from the touch-line, had converted. The All-Blacks started as if they I desired to give one of their best displays. They got the ball six times from the first seven scrums, and it is a very suggestive fact that Cliff Jones did not touch the ball at all during the first 10 minutes. Desperate Defence. The New Zealand front-row forwards served their side magnificently and the ball came out cleanly and speedily enough for Sadler and his rearguard to perform all sorts of dazzling moves. Yet the first try came through a miskick by Wooller, and Sadler then sent in Mitchell from some blind-side passing. We saw very little of the Cambridge attack. It usually broke down and was turned into Mesperate defence. On three occasions that Cliff Jones tried to get going his opponents made profit from his good intentions. He and Wooller were closely marked —on one occasion four of the All Blacks concentrated on stopping Jones. They succeeded, but two of them had sore heads for their pains! ] It was unusual for the All Blacks to gain such superiority. This gives us a chance of seeing what their backs really can do when thus favoured. They ran and passed the ball freely, and the surprise to me was that they did not get more than seven tries. They were 14 points up at half-time. Mitchell had got another try; Wooller was tackled in full flight by Caughey, and Oliver, picking up the ball, senti his wing in, and the next instant | Caughey, admirably attended by Hart, who had gone inside to him, passed inwards, and the wing man scored. Gilbert failed at each ,

| Hart played a glorious game, and one touch-line run by Mitchell, when I he beat two men with some sideI stepping with hardly a foot’s space | in which to operate, was delightfully done. Fyfe had a bad day, for, owing ! to Woollcr’s eclipse, the ball rarely ! came his way. Once he had an openl ing and was nicely clear for a pass, ! but Wooller kicked to touch. There | was no enterprise on. the Cambridge j side such as Sadler, Griffiths, Oliver | and Caughey displayed. These men [ were always spying out the gaps and going through them. The Cambridge backs never saw any gaps—until near the end, when their opponents, sated with success, became a little casual. Cantabs Overawed. Oliver got the fifth try with a glorious diagonal run at top speed. The next two came from Sadler, who slipped round the blind side (as he did against Oxford) for one and then rounded off some passing between Griffiths and Caughey for the other, which Gilbert converted. These three tries came within a period of seven minutes, and the quick scoring reminded me of the All Blacks’ predecessors’ rate of scoring. Cambridge had their desperate moments near the end, and Low broke away to score by the goal post, and Parker converted. The Cambridge form was surely too bad to be true. The forwards seemed overawed, and their packing, heeling and work in the loose was all dreadfully poor. W. B. Young, the old City of London schoolboy, played a rip-roaring game, however, and there were occasional flashes from Dinwiddy. Low was, of course, handicapped at scrum half, and the men j behind him suffered in consequence. The Jones-Wooller combination has never been so subdued. —44 -414 *ituae, good tackling,

and Parker a few good touch kicks, but it was a disappointing day indeed for Cambridge.. All the winners played well, but the bright stars were Sadler, Oliver, Caughey, Hart, and those forwards, who are now becoming a very menacing division indeed.