Australian Team Went Out To Play Rough Game

Chronicle (Levin), 13 September 1949, Page 7

Australian Team Went Out To Play Rough Game

GREYMOUTH, Sept. 12. "It was "evident that the Australians went out with the idea of >playing rough football, " said Mr. R. R. King, an All Black in the years 1934 to 1938, and the captain in the Tests against the Springboks in 1937, diseussing the critical dispatehes published in Australia from the correspondents travelling with the Wallabi.es..,, .V "There was evidently some rough play in the Maori * matches in Australia this' year, and ;something liappened at Blenheim. . With this background the team apparently'went on tb;Rugby Park with the determination to play rough,' he said. Had the Australians played from the outset as they did in the final period there was no doubt tHey would have won. The game, as a whole, was in keeping with many international matehes — they 'played hard — with the exception of punching and "stoush" that went on on Saturday. ' ' Wilson should have been ordered off," he added. . "The referee (Mr. R. Pratt) showed cbnsideration for WiJson's international status^ when he asked liim to return. An lneident oi' this nature should not be condoned by a referee anywliere, and a man who allegcdly kicks another on the head has no right to be on the paddock. " Referring to the criticism of the referee as the 16th man, Mr. King ridiculed this statement, adding that Mr. Fratt made a "pretty good job" of the hard match. The referee, be pointed out, was always in the better position to see the infringements than any reporter sitting in the stand. The description of the Greymouth crowd as biased was not supported by Mr. King, who pointed out that the Australian correspondents had apparentlv forgotten the brilliant play of the Wallabies in the final quarter of an hour which had been loudly applauded. After R. Garner scored the first trv the crowd cheered him as he walked ' back. "It was a vvonderful exhibition, and it is just unfortunate that the crowd took too much out of some of the incidents and the the Australians adopted a belligerent attitude," Mr. King added.