FOOTBALL.

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 16988, 10 November 1920, Page 7

FOOTBALL.

* MAORIS AND SPRINGBOKS. j COMING TOOTBAIiL INVASION OP j AUSTRALIA. ! Maoris and South Africans •will play football in Sydney next season, and possibly a French team. Franco will certainly send a representative team in 1922. _ England is favourably an invitation. A j great revival in Rugliy Union football is j imminent in Australia (saya the Sydney i "Daily Telegraph"). j Adherents to tho old Rugby code are very | hopeful of the future. "The game wil! recover all its old-time popularity -and pre®' | tige sooner or later," eaid a prominent enthusiast. "Do not let it be thought that wo aro vanquished- Far from itl Wo arc moving placidly—but strongly in the right direction. We are not losing ground. There are no fireworks. We don't want them, The gamo can stand on its merits." ,At the meeting' of the council of tho New South Wales Rugby Union, Mr Palmer, secrotary of the Rugby Union, reported, that the' South African visit next season had beon definitely arranged. The "Springboks" will play three matches in Sydney early in June, £fnd three matches later in the season on their return from New Zealand. The management committee's acceptance of the. offer of a visit from a. Maori team next seaeon. was confirmed by the council.. The Maoris will play in New South Wales during the period that the South Africans are touring New Zealand. Mr Palmer also reported that a New Zealand University team had acoepted the invitation of the Sydney University to make A return visit next winter. The dates proposed were:—Saturday, May 28th; Friday, June 3rd; and Saturday, June 4th. Thin would probably mean that the visit would synchronise with that of the "Springboks." At the end l of next season a representative New South Wales side of 21 flayers and a manager will be sent to New Zealand to play a series of seven matches. ' It was _ further announced by Mr Palmer that replies had been received to the invitation extended to the unions of England and France. Great Britain has cabled, "Favourably considering the proposal." The original invitation to France had been extended for the 1921 season, but Mr Cyril Rutherford, 'hon. secretary of the Comite Directeur_ de Rugby, of France, in accepting, provisionally, considered this too early, as France wished to "send out only their best" availablo team. The council, after discussion, confirmed the re-arrangement for 1322. On their return from Australia tho French team will travel via the Cape, as the South African authorities, Mr Rutherford writes, have requested that the Frenchmen play there on the way back, in tho event of their vieitine Australasia,