INTER-UNIT MATCHES

Camp News (Northern Command), Volume 1, Issue 3, 17 May 1940, Page 6

INTER-UNIT MATCHES

Championship Won By Wellington Team

(N.Z.E.F. Official News Service.) CAIRO, April 2. Its succession of victories z unbroken at the end of the eighth and final match, the Wellington Battalion’s Rugby football fifteen has won the New

Zealand Division inter-unit championship competition and become the' first holder of the cup presented by the

Divisional Commander. Last week Wellington met and staved off the challenges of its two strongest competitors, the Auckland Battalion and the - Machine-Gun Battalion. The former team went close to halting the progress of the Wellington fifteen, losing narrowly by two points. The other match, played on Saturday, was the decisive one, for the Machine-Gun Battalion had previously suffered only one reverse. Wellington was victorious again, however, winning by 11 points to nil. Wellington’s success was another leather in the cap of the team’s cap tain, J. L. Griffiths, former All Black'; for it was he who led'the New Zealand representatives to victory against a Combined Services team at Easter.

Ea!St Saturday’s "cup final” .was played in abnormal heat on one of the ■ desert grounds in the New 'Zealand ■ camp area. There was every expectation that the game would be one of the closest of the series, and so it seemed for the first half, which ended without score. In the second half Wellington took advantage of greater possession of the ball; and the . backs were sent away on attacking moves which the machine-gunners were unable to check. Tries were scored In Cochrane and R. Arnold in quick succession, and another by Phillips. Griffiths converting. The machine-gunners’ team had undergone alterations which robbed it of some of its strength and dash. Earlier in the season its back line had been made up almost entirely of former South Canterbury representatives—--1 arsons at half-back, Blythe at first ne-eighths, Gaffaney at centre, Morrison on. the wing, and Rollinsoil at fullback. , On Saturday, however, Parsons' 1 and Gaffaney were the only available members of this quintet, The cup was presented after the match, to the. Wellington captain, Grif- . fiths, by Mrs. Frey berg, wife of the Divisional Commander, who also pre- : sen ted medals to members of the team i Results of the sixth and seventh ounds of the cup. series are as fol- ' lows: — ” ■

• Sixth round: Machine-Gun Battalion 21, Divisional and Brigade lI.Q. ()• Wellington Battalion 9, A.S.C. 3'; Auckand Battalion 14, Cavalry and. Ambulance o; Canterbury Battalion 14, Sign n and Engineers 3; Field Regiment 0. R.M.I. Company 0. Seventh round: Machine-Gun 7 Battalion 8. Canterbury Battalion 5: Field iegiment 3 ’ Cavalry and Ambulance 0: el mgton Battalion 5, Auckland Battalion ) 3: ! R.M.T. Company 11, Divisional and Brigade H.Q. 3; A.S C. heat Signals and Engineers by default.