ALL BLACKS OF 1924.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18409, 16 June 1925, Page 12

ALL BLACKS OF 1924.

MR S. F. WILSON'S ADDRESS.

An address on the tour of the All Blacks of 1924 was given before the Canterbury Referees' Association last night? by Mr S. F. Wilson, who accompanitd the official party as a delegate to the Imperial Rugby Conference. Mr J. F. Peake presided over a large attendance.

Mr Wilson said that on the trip Home the team trained assiduously, commencing with "physical jerks" at 7 a.m. With regard to the opening match against Devon, he considered that the All Blacks failed to win by more than they did for two reasons—they were not quite so good as they thought they were, and they were confused by the ruiiligs of the referee, particularly round the scrum. It seemed to Mr Wilson that a good deal of trouble was due to the attempts that were made to bounce the ball into the scrum. The first four matches undoubtedly gave the All Blacks trouble, the referees evidently making up their minds that the best way of dealing with breaches was to give scrums, which, bung so continuous, proved monotonous to the All Blacks. The referees appeared loath to give a penalty kick except for a most glaring breach. With regard to the matches in Wales, he did not like the Welsh people as barrackers, althouglrbefore a match and after it they were fine follows. In the Newport mateh Mr Freethy was referee, and the speaker was bound to describe him as a capable official, quite up to the New Zealand standard. The Newport team worried the All Blacks from the jump, and on the run of the pl.iy the latter were lucky,to win. As for the try Svenson scored, it was Mr Wilson's opinion that no one could have stopped him. He simply flew for the line and scored a brilliant, try.

Great things were expected by the critics from the Leicester team, which was the bulkiest Mr Wilson had ever seen, being much bigger men than the All Blacks. The club were not popular with the English footba.ll authorities because of their methods of recruiting players from all over the British Isles. The speaker had been taken to task by Mr Osborne, an Englishman, for criticisms made by him while the All Blacks were the gueGts of professional

clubs. As to this, the position war that the professional clubs on whose grounds the All Blacks played were always paid a percentage of the gate; so it was hardly stating the case correctly to say that the All Blacks were guests of those clubs. The Aston Villa ground was a wonderful ground, but from the facilities provided for the players he thought the ground savoured too much of professionalism. The Knglish forwards were generally about 100 per cent, better than the All Blacks had expected, and his opinion was that the average English county forwards would beat a New Zealand interprovincial team so far as scrum work was concerned. They would not beat them in the loose, however, although they know how to dribble. .Regarding the English backs, lie said that the halves' were good, and so also were the wing-three-quarters, but the inside men were generally weak. Their sole aim seemed to be to get the ball out to the wings, and if they failed in this they were lost, us thev appeared to have no initiative. It was seldom that the inside men attempted to score themselves. Speaking of' Yorkshire and Lancashire, the stronghold of the League code, Mr Wilson said that the Union game was going ahead there by leaps and bounds. The League code seemed unable to breed their own players, and were always on the look-out to buy Union players. In Wales their efforts in this connexion were very considerable.

At Sunderland the All Blacks saw the launching of the steamer Quirimba, which event had- been held over for three weeks to enable them to be present. This brought Mr Wilson to the match against tho champion county, Cumberland, the result of which proved a silencer to the.critics. Touching on the match Mgainst Ireland, Mr Wilson said that the All Black forwards here played their best, proving too good for the Irish pack, which, he could assure those present, was a really good one. AVhilc on the matter of Irish football, he did not wish to talk of politics, but it might be interesting to mention that football was the only game in which the North and South of Ireland sank their differences and played together.

Mr Wilson described other matches in which the All Blacks played and went on to speak of the conservatism of English Rugby, stating that one reason of this was that Englishmen lived in the midst of traditions, which could not fail to have .a great influence on their liv%s. An interesting point about Rugby in England was that a match was never postponed 'owing, to bad weather, except fog. Occasionally matches were abandoned, but, as he had said, never postponed. Speaking of the French players, Mr Wilson said that if such a team were

to come out to the Dominion in 19-' they would become a good side, if they v••■inld stand a defeat or two. as thev always endeavoured to play the game. The French players were good sports, and so also were the spectators, who were every hit as fair as the British onlookers. Rugby jvn.* a populfQ' game in France, and was compulsory in the arniv.

There were about 400 clubs round about Toulouse, and there were more players there than in the Dominion. There was no doubt that Rugby was their game. The people were "mad" about football, and would talk of nothing else.

Mr Wilso.li had the pleasure of meeting the president of the Spanish Rugby Union, from whom he learned that the game was being played extensively in the North of Spain; "so it is quite on the cards." he added, "that the next team that goes Home will play in Spain, too." Mr Wilson dealt briefly with the tourTieross Canada, and in concluding stated that a lot of comparisons had been made with the two All Bhfek teams of 1905 and 1924. He would admit that there wns no Wallace in the latter team, but lie thought that Dalley, if not quite the equal of Roberts, was in that player's class. Neither was there a Deans or a Stead in the team. With the exception of the players whose names he had mentioned lie considered that the 1924 All Blacks were as good as their predecessors. At the conclusion of his address Mr Wilson was accorded a vote of thanks on the motion of Mr W. Fuller.