NEW ALL BLACK TEAM WANTED IN LAST RUGBY TEST

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 15, Issue 67, 10 July 1950, Page 6

NEW ALL BLACK TEAM WANTED IN LAST RUGBY TEST

A New Zealand Rugby team will visit Australia next year; and in 1954 will come something more important, a tour of Great Britain. By that time, most of the leading players of today will have handed in their jerseys and taken a seat on the bank. Should not part of the present season be devoted to finding new talent? • ~\

Several good judges of Rugby hold that it should. They contend that the visit of the British Isles team affords an invaluable opportunity to build up strength, and that for the fourth test, at Auckland on July 29, New Zealand could, with marked advantage, field a fifteen entirely different from that chosen for the third test in Wellington.

Remarkable Record The All of 1924 which toured Great Britain unbeaten would not have built up its strength and achieved that remarkable record had not the selectors of the previous season acted with bold vision and resolve.

Their action (writes .“Korimoko”) gives a strong and striking precedent for the selectors of 1950. The New Zealand selectors of 1923 were Messrs D. M. Stuart (Otago), W. Drake (Canterbury), A. J. Griffiths (Wellington) and E - Parata (Bay of Plenty). New South Wales toured New Zealand that season, and the team the selectors chose for the opening test at Dunedin was: R. G. t Sinclair; J. Steel, W. Potaka, A. Snodgrass, P. Peina, F. Tilyard, J. Mill, D. McMeeking, S. Gemmell, L. Righton, L. Williams, J. Richardson (captain), M. Brownlie, L. Petersen and E. Beilis. New Zealand won 19-9. Now the 1923 selectors had to choose their second test team for the match in Christchurch on September 1.

Did they go to sleep on the fact that there was to be a tour of Great Britain very soon ?They did not. No fewer than eight changes were made in the New Zealand side for the second test. The selectors wanted to see what likely talent was found the country. So they brought in W. A. Ford, F. W. Lucas, Q. Donald, A. E. Perry, R. Bell, R. McCarthy and A. Pringle, all to play in All Black costume for the first time, as well as Alf West, who was coming to light again after hitting the top rank in 1920 and 1921. Why not see if he still had something? He had. This second team of the T 923 selectors proved a success that must have astonished everyone. It won, 34-6.

What about the team for the third test of that season, played at Wellington? The selectors did not boggle over that problem either, They made a clean sweep—fourteen changes. Fourteen New Faces The men brought in were. A McLean, H. D. Morgan, E. B. Stewart, H. G. ,Nicholls, L. Paewai, H. E. Nicholls, C. Porter, W. Irvine, L. Tunnicliffe, Y. Cupples, R. R. Masters, J. Ormond, A. White and R. Stewart. These made up the team, plus Fred Lucas who had been brought in for the second test.

The fresh team did not disappoint. It romped home, 38-11 in the third test.

Now, was that good policy or not?

Had the selectors of 1923 been lacking in the courage and wisdom to make experiments, they would, it is practically certain, have robbed New Zealand of the chance of discovering some of its most famous players for the ensuing tour of the British Isles. A similar opportunity presents itself now.