OTAGO NOTES.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1256, 14 May 1914, Page 24

OTAGO NOTES.

(By Telegraph—Dunedin Correspondent)

It was the Egyptians, was it not, who were asked to make bricks without straw? Well, I feel very much like the Egyptians must have felt, for this week has been so uneventful that there is no straw to make this brick. However, as the Egyptians “did” make bricks without straw, I am going to have a big try to make this letter as interesting as possible without material —scant material, anyway. Once the football season starts seriously—as it has now started in Dunedin —the teams gradually step into their stride and one gets an idea of the standard of play that may be expected for the next three months — a standard on which representative form may be fairly judged.

There are nine senior teams in the competition, and two rounds of matches have already been played. So far the best form has been shown by the University and Kaikorai teams, presided over by Jock Cuthill, the New Zealand representative threequarter, and Alex McDonald, the AllBlack and last year’s captain of the New Zealand team which toured America, respectively. At the outset let it be understood that Cuthill and McDonald are playing wonderfully well, and if a New Zealand team was chosen to-morrow the ’Varsity centre and the “All Black” forward would be among the first selected —that is, if they were picked on present form. When the New Zealand team for America was chosen last season I stated in a criticism of that selection that McDonald on his club form of last year was perhaps fortunate in getting into the side. Subsequent events in America did not prove that

contention, but it is nevertheless a fact that McDonald did not show the form throughout last season as he has opened with this year. Now, the secret is this, and the All Black himself will bear me out: At the beginning of last season McDonald had entered into a business on his own account which required a tremendous amount of physical exertion —not one day in the week, but every day right up to witkin an hour of playing football. The result was that the New Zealand captain was exhausted before he took the 'field, and was unable to do himself justice. This season McDonald has no such taxing work to do, and now goes on to the field fresh and as fit as a fiddle. His three months’ trip to America, too, did him the world of good, and he says himself he never felt better. The Sydney critic who wrote the other day, in perhaps a somewhat sarcastic strain, that “McDonald would be in the next New Zealand team for England,” probably never realised how near his remark aimed at the truth. McDonald is a veteran in experience, but he is playing like a man in his prime. As captain of the Kaikorai team, the “All Black” is leading the blue and blacks in the way they should go. He has enthused such a spirit into the players that they will follow him anywhere, and let me say that it is McDonald himself who heads all the rushes.

Apropos of this, on Saturday last Kaikorai met Zingari in the big game. Zingari forwards were supposed to be exceptionally hot, as in truth they were —on paper. A team that includes big Sandy Patterson (the New Zealand forward), Symonds (another Otago forward), Davidson (one of the

best forwards in Otago last year), and other hefty scrummers, is not to be sneezed at. It promised to be a Titanic struggle, and one almost imagined the clash of arms and the. crunching of bones (as “Off-side Mac” wrote of the memorable test match New Zealand v. the British team on Athletic Park, Wellington, in 1908), but after the first half-hour there was only one team in it, and that was Kaikorai. The ground was heavy, but the ball was dry, and McDonald told his men to make it a forward game. The All Black himself was in the van of every rush. Immediately on his heels were six of the best trained young forwards in town. Well, they simply bowled Zingari over like nine-pins and went through the first line of defence like an acrobat through a paper hoop. Sandy Patterson and Co. wondered what had struck them. McDonald and his pack in full cry ate up the half and five-eighths in one mouthful or brushed them aside as one would brush butterflies off the wheel of a cannon. Then bulldog met bull-dog. In the Zingari three-quarter line, planted fairly in the centre, was a bull-dog in Watson (who helped Otago to nearly tear away the Ranfurly Shield from Auckland at Alexandra Park two seasons ago). Watson simply tore the ball from under the feet of the Kaikorai pack, and with a fine line kick sent the blue and black bull-dogs yelping back after it. Not once or twice did this occur, but many times, and when it was not Watson who stopped the Kaikorai rushes it was Bond, the fullback. But two bull-dogs against seven was fearful odds, and McDonald’s pack got there at the finish by 11 points to nil. In this little sketch of incidents in last Saturday’s big

game ! merely wish to illustrate that Alex McDonald is not only playing a great game himself but he is leading the best pack of young forwards that it has been my lot to see in any team for a number of years. The form and combination of this season’s Kaikorai forwards reminds me forcibly of the days of “Snowy” Torrance, Dave Torrance, Duffy McLaren, Andy Miller, and others whose names are written in the history of Kaikorai football —when football was football, and not ping-pong. If the Kaikorai backs were up to the same standard as the forwards Kaikorai would be the best side in the competition and a safe pick for the championship. Unfortunately, the backs are only fair. Scott, who created such an impression as fullback two years ago, and was an Otago selection for New Zealand honours, is playing full-back for Kaikorai, but he is not the Scott of old and has lost his punch, or rather his powerful kick, which used to so disconcert Northern forward teams. He can still tackle with the best, but the weakness of his kicking has reduced his sting. Dryden, the midget half-back, who played for Otago against Auckland, and who was regarded as one of the best for his inches in New Zealand, has been bereft of his place at haltback by Duff, an ex-Kaikorai player, who was for a couple of seasons in Auckland, where he played, I fancy, for Ponsonby. Duff has shown great improvement since, he was last in Dunedin, and now makes a useful member of Rugby society. That he was able to put Dryden out of his place as half behind the Kaikorai pack says something for his usefulness. Dryden now plays five-eighths, and promises to fill his new position with credit.

Richardson, last season’s Otago five-eighths, has been on the injured list and is only now recovering. It will, however, be a Saturday or two before he is able to turn out again, and then the problem faces the Kaikorai selectors where to place him, as the present pair of five-eighths threaten to harmonise perfectly. Atkinson, the West Coast member of the New Zealand team which devastated American Rugby teams last season, is not yet showing anything special in the way of form. Perhaps the fact that he has been so used to playing in the lock has upset his game as a support. Still, any useful forward should fit into a position on the side of the scrum. The contemplated benefit to Steve Casey, the All Black, has been held over until nearing the end of the season. This is Casey’s last year, and it will be interesting to know who will be the last of the All Blacks to survive another season. “General” Booth, the ex-Otago and All Black, in Sydney, and Alex McDonald will fight out the honours. The latter, barring accidents, should be the last of the Mohicans.

The crack University team with its speedy backs has not yet found its proper team, and this week the selectors are endeavouring to find out what is the trouble at half and five-eighths. The absence of Childs through illness forced ’Varsity to try a new player in Blundell (late of Auckland) at half in the first match, and Burtenshaw and Wilson at five-eighths. This was discovered not to work too well, and as Blundell is a five-eighths he was tried last Saturday in that position. On this occasion it was the scrumhalf Burtenshaw who was at fault. Now in desperation the ’Varsity selectors (of whom Jock Cuthill and Geoff Fisher are the principals) have decided to “stand down” Blundell and Burtenshaw, replacing them with new players. Failure in one match should not condemn any player, and this experimenting is dangerous to the ultimate combination of the team. Southern, with all its fine forwards, including “All Black” Casey, Graham, Douglas and Atkinson of the New Zealand team, and one or two Otago representatives, have not played up to reputation. The black and whites will have to show much improved form to get through the season without a defeat.

Messrs. Harris (president) and Wilson, of the Otago Rugby Union, are the two Otago delegates who will travel to Wellington this week to attend the annual meeting of the New Zealand Rugby Union. By the way, the annual report of the parent body is a masterpiece in its lack of information. The young New Zealander who went to sea and on being wrecked cabled to his parents: “Wrecked— Saved,” gave more information in two words than the Management Committee of the New Zealand Union has done in its alleged annual report!