FOOTBALL.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 869, 16 July 1910, Page 12

FOOTBALL.

—6- . RUGBY, .' V

INCIDENTS AT THE PARK.

• (By ARiaTountDß.)

Petone Performances. Petone'senior team has a poor record at Athletic Park this season, having been beaten by St. James, Oriental, and Old There does not now appear to be y any chance of tho suburban team winr j niog the championship this season, but .'.. it is generally reckoned that it will' be • an important factor in the second round. - .....In ouo respect, the Old Boys-Petone ~'match last Saturday was like the Orien-tal-Petono fixture played on. the same ..ground a few weeks previously, .for', it "wasionly- won in the last-part of the sec-, ' ond spell, though the finish last week was not so sensational as on the previous .- occasion referred to. Taking last week's match right through it appeared as if Petone.were.slightly inferior to their'opponents in all departments. ■'- The tuckiing on both sides was very good, and Grace and .Dawson, in the Old Boys team, both excellent in this - respect. s On the other hand,,-there is no ; gainsaj'ing the, fact that-the Old Boys passing was weaker than it should have been.; They had several excellent chances in.tho second spell, 'which should, have, been attended with better 'result. First Picot failed to' take a pass; and a few minutes later Gilberd declined to accept one, and then the climax was reached • .when Grace, after taking a pass, set out .--for' a' clear .run to ~the. line, but after . going five yards let' the ball- go. . Evidently the majority of tho' backs were over-anxious. Two Fliers, One effort of Dawson's in the second ipell deserves special mention. Jas. Eyan was running with the ball in his own' twenty-five, and was just about to kick for' touch when .Dawson brought' him'down. The ball then rolled a iew "yards, .and Dawson bounced to his feet arid picked it up. The Old Boys' threequarter had u-clear opening to score, but he unfortunately kuocked en. His effort deserved a better result. . H. D. Thomson, Who took the field to replace an injured player on the Old' Boys side, did some useful work for'his eide, though it took him a couple of minutes to get used to his surroundings, - and his first couple of kicks simply, rolled . along:-the ground. As he was out of. training, he was feeling tho effects of his. exertions for some days after the match,' and on that account may not be anxious to., assist his'club again. . rAmong the Old Boys -forwards, Avery ind Dodd were perhaps most conspicuous, though all appeared to be doing a. fair share of the hard.work. Avery, how : ever, seemed to be improved consider-' ably by the Australian tour. Dodd's hooking, combined with his dashing ' play in'the loose, secured him a place in to-day's representative team, but unfortunately he is unable to take his place. ' Haidham played in his usual dashing style for Petone, but his habit of so. frequently appealing without tangible rea'-'' son appeared to upset his forwards a good deal, and they were more than once, waiting for the whistle to blow when, they should have been keeping the ball rolling. Dent, Mfjefarlane, Prouse, and Aston were conspicuous among the scrummers. /'The first-named is undoubtedly a very promising forward, and should earn representative honours when he is more conversant with the finer points. of the game. . ■ • Excepting that the full-back was • a trifle weak, there, was not much' fault, to find with the ■: Petorio rearguard. Joseph Eyan made two fine dashes for the scoring area in the second spell, ana - it was only clever tackling by Grace and H; D. Thomson-that prevented him from scoring. In fact, he was that close that If he could have adopted Duncan M'Gregor's famous "dive," he would have . " .scored on both occasions.' Dunedin Rugby Going Back, A Dunedin writer deplores the quality of the southern game in tho following words:—"The standard of local football, .. which brightened up a few Saturdays ago, has fallen back, and we appear now to be hopelessly in the ruck. The.public of late have been disgusted with some of the. exhibitions' given ,in "cluV football, _ and the attendances are showing that' something is radically wrong. The fact is, that the players of the present day do not give the same amount of brain attention to the game as in the old days, with the only possible result—colourless foot-' ball, remarkabhi more for its crudities than for its brilliancy. Forward, .the standard is passing fair, with a tendency to petty tricks on line-out and in the scrum, but back of the scrum to the' three-quarter line, play and players are decidedly poor. The public are beginning to cry out for a brighter and more spectacular game." N.U. Game in the South. "Northern Unionism is in the air, remarked, a writer iu the Southland '"News"'the other day. "In fact, it is more than aerial—it is an established affair,, so far as Southland, for one,' is concerned. The inability of the New Zealand Rugby Union to administer justice or to do anything off its own bat, so to speak, lias had its result. Perhaps the rubbish spoken by Mr. F. H. Campbell as chairman at the annual meeting of the- New Zealand Rugby' Union had , something to do with'it; perhaps it had • not. In.any case, that it was rubbish is now fully established. Northern Union--ism, despite Mr. Campbell, is going to be a factor in tho land, and the attend.ances.in, Australia speak for other lands, too. Advices are to hand of the Northern Union movements in the North Island, . Nolsod,. Olago, South Canterbury, and Southland, and the invasion of the Englishmen' will give this spectacular game a decided filip in the Dominion. A nuni- . her of leading amateurs in all these centres have been tapped, and they have expressed their readiness 'to throw in their little lot with the new game. So far as Southland is concerned, without giving any names, a goodly number of senior players are implicated, and therelare'sufficient players to run a couple of j very likely teams. Teams have .been 'formed at Bluif and Invercargill,- and another country centre is mentioned, but' with what accuracy or foundation this writer knows not. It .is not yet known whether Southland Is t ( i have a niatch with tho Englishmen, but, if not, several local players will figuro in tho South Island match at Dunedin,. and perhaps in the New Zealand test matches. It is possible that one may find a place in the Australasian team, but the question of fitness will decide. The Southland League was strictly amateur in its operation in 1908, and it is understood that it is the' league's intention to carry out its operations on a similar basis this season. There is room for.both Northern Union and Rugby football, and there is no reason why the more spectacular game sjbould not merit a share of tho public support." " • Those Scrum Tactics. -Some surprise, if not indignation, has been aroused among the All Black forwards just returned from Australia by a comment which appeared in a recent ' issue of the Sydney "Referee," which stated, among other things, that "tho New ' South Welshmen complained that the New Zealanders put their hands in front of the hooker's face in order that he could not see the ball when it was put into the scrummage. This and other ..matters gave rise to foul ploy in the centre of the scrummage." ' According to one member of the All Blacks there is Bo ground whatever for this statement, ond more than that tho "boot is on the other foot." That' is . to say, • the New South-.Wales team, and the Australian team adopted all sorts of questionable tactics in the scrum, one of the principal, offences being to put the ball into tho scrum most unfairly, and so make it extremely difficult for the New Zealand hookers to secure possession. Asked why the matter had not previously been mentioned by members of his team, the All Black'stated that as his team had only been defeated once on the tour, it would

hardly have been correct to come back and say harsh things about the Australians. - "They eiitei-taiisd us, and wo beat them at play, it would not have been nice to come, back and say. we should hare beaten . them by mdre points." He added that the. Sydney clitics may have - felt that their owli players were guilty of unfair methods, and had decided that'the best way to defend them wus to attack the New Zea-' lander's. Apropos of the above, the writer once heard that a "hooker," who represented Wellington on more than one occasion, had rather a quaint notion of what, was the first rule in "hooking." It. was alleged that Invariably when he .entered a scrum he administered a good kick to his opponent, and then, With his freo hand gave him a. sound slap in the face or caught hold of him by the ear or the-hair. It so happened that his hooker-partnor in club, football was an extremely mild young- fellow,- and was considerably annoyed when" the representative player advised him to adopt similar tactics. "But why do I want •to do that?" he. asked. -"Well,"" said the Wellington representative, "if you don't kick, them, they'll kick you." Ineffective. Melrose. ...',. - Although soundly beaten" "in theninalch; against Poneke on Saturday, Melrose did not put'up an altogether hopeless display. . In taotics and dash, they weio. saury lacking, but throughout the game they-displayed a stubborn courage considering tho circumstances under which they played. Disorganised as they.were, and incapable of developing a sound defence or dangerous attack, they never went altogether to pieces, but blundered along'in the latter stagis of the game with the same .stubborn pluck as marked their.opening play. This is another way of saying that Melrose has the crude | material of a team. •Poneke Forwards like Hailey's Comet. •'lt is not good for-a team like Poneke to.bo uuttebepV ogiiui'st'. Sine so below it iii standard as 'Melrose. At Ivuion, on Saturday last, Poneke showed only at times the quality of a high-grade team, and too often .the..disorganisation into which Melrose fell was reflected in tuu' .ranks'of its easily successful opponents. At UDiiM I'onefa stiffened up, and the backs swept doivn the fjeldi guiding the affairs .of. a passing rush with beautiful precision. If this style of thin>: had been continued throughout the game the Poneke score would have been doubled or trebled. Tho actual happening, illustrated the fact that easy victory is sometimes more dangerous to . efficiency, and good 'play than a contest'fought against odds. All the snmei Poneke carries a few shocking "passengers" in the forwards, and the team generally is. not in training. It is always good, taotics for a good team to run Poneke'about as much as possible, and wait for- the, second spell. Long before then the. string of "passengers"will be obf.erved'trailing out behind the play like, the tail of Hailey's Comet. Wellington Representatives. When the Wellington representative team was made known, last Saturday it was generally admitted that the selectors had chosen a very strong team to represent the city, anil though it was considered that there were plenty of players worth, a 'place; there were not many prepared to suggest that the team could nave been improved. It was ■ thought, however, that in view of. the harder matches that . the representatives will have to play.later.on, it.would have been advisable for the selectors to have let* out some of the men recognised as abfe to represent the city, and tiy somi of '.ho others that will have to be drawn from for the touring team. ..Among those who 'might' have been omitted are "Ranji" Wilson, Avery, ■ M'Kellar,. Roberts, Jas. Ryan,, and Mitchinson. This'would have given the selectors a chance of trying" Grace, Dawson, Pyle, and others among tho backs, and also two or three forwards., • The whole, six players mentioned abovo need not have been, left out, •but two or three might have been left out and told why. The selection of Tilyard as half has giveu general'satisfac-. tion, because it is recognised that Roberts cannot last fo:- ever, and C. Green is not; hero now to fall back upon. Tilyard is undoubtedly a brainy player, and should improvo by being included in : the representative team. With Roberts and Mitchinson as five-eighths, tho team reads very strong. At the present time the. Dominion appears to be lacking in this department, tor there are none of the standard of Hunter or Wood or Stead to choose from. The more one thinks'of it, however, the more one is convinced that in associating Roberts and Mitchinson, tho selectors ■ were seized with a very happy idea of ■ strengthening tho back division. St. James v. Hutt. . Hutfr are keeping up their. reputation of inconsistency, and are practically on the same footing as Old Boys were some years ago, the only difference being that Old Boys would bring off a victory when least expected, whilst Hutt do not quite secure a win,-'though they only lose' by. a narrow margin. A couple of weeks ago they made an excellent stand against Poneke." Then came Victoria v Cbllege, who simply played with them. St. James, it v;as expected, would inflict the greatest defeat of all, yet the town team ' were lucky to win.- Hutt's one defect—and a big one, too—has been in evidence ever since they were a senior team. And that is the. want of .a scoring man. Collectively they manage to complete a movement up to a certain point, but then it falls to pieces. Cudby, Kilminster, and' Routley were a fine trio of backs for Hutt, and Turner, Tanuahill, and Higgiubotham did some clever work in the vanguard. St. James's general play wa9 only fair, particularly in the. back . division. One thing very noticeable was the way in which some of the St. James men avoided stopping rushes. On half a dozen occasions, when called upon to go down to the feet of the Hutt forwards, these men would smartly sidestep ouf of the road. Thomas was safe at full back. Bradley made some fine openings,' which, by the way, were not accepted. King, Tyler, Bruce, and Wright v;ero the best of a good team of forwards. Referees and Spectators. From what one can gather of the incident at the St. James-Hutt match last Saturday, the Referees' Association seemed to have been .rather officious in dealing with the complaint. of the referee. On the occasion of a similar occurrence a fortnight previously the association wrote to the offender and asked him for an apology before referring the matter to the Rugby Union. Surely, the same course might have been adopted in the present instance, and. then if apology or defence was not forthcoming the matter cnuld have been passed on to the Union. The alleged offender in the case under notice appears to be generally recognised as an impartial spectator.,/ If the referees commence and report every person 'that comments on their decisions at Athletic Park, "who shall 'scape whipping?" ' On Monday evening last ■ (says the Otago "Witness") the members of the Alhambra Football Club met in the European Hotel to make presentations to one of their clubmates—Mr. Claude Young, who is being transferred to Wellington.