NOTES ON PLAY.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1528, 26 August 1912, Page 6

NOTES ON PLAY.

WELLINGTON MEN ALL AT SEA. NO ELEMENT OF LUCK. IBj Telecraph.—Bpurinl Corrospondont.l Auckland, August 21. Thero was no element of luck about Auckland's win. Wellington, wore' outclassed in practically every department of the game, and, hi the second spell, they were seldom dangerous. If was not a great game to watch, play being confined mainly to the forwards, but after the interval, the Auckland backs, by pretty passing, somewhat relieved (ho monotony of the scrums and line-outs. Wollinaton a Stone Heavier. Thero was a great disparity in the weights of the teams, Wellington forwards being fully twelve pounds heavier all round, and, with this advantage, it was thought that they would dominate tho scrums. However, Ready and Elliott proved no match for Scllars and Tresizo, who raked out the ball whenever they wanted it. Not only in securing in the scrums wero tho Auckland-forwards superior. In the loose they simply ran away from their opponents. They also kept together letter, showed greater cleverness on the lineout, and followed up more consistently. Wellington, on the other hand, left tho following-up of the high kicks to one or two. Macky the Hero of the Day. The Auckland backs played n great game, and, when they gained a little confidence in the second spell, they hrought off some tine bouts of passing. ' Macky was the hero of the day, scoring tho whole four tries. Unlike the Wellington backs, the Auckland rearguard tackled liko demons, and M'Kcnzie and Ryan were e ]j given very little ground to manoeuvre. 7. Their line-kicking, too, was splendid, being I v in direct, contrast to that of Wellington, l: \ who simply ran their own forward- -IT , r? their logs. Ed Roberts Not Quite Himself. *' F. Roberts was obviously not himsel , behind the scrum, but stuck gamely t his task, ami it was not his fault'tho "> Wellington lost.' j* While the Wellington backs made mm " erous mistakes, the Auckland rearguar ; ? " could do nothing wrong, and one en; -• scarcely recall a single mistake made b , one of them. They simply had.a "da, J" nut," and, judged on to-day's ar V tho soundest provincial set in the Domin '!" ion. One cannot help thinking, however that they played above themselves. j; Chances that Wellington Lost. a> Wellington had two very fine scorini i S chances—one in each snell. In the firs ,„ instance a cross-kick by E.Ryan wastakei nj by Ready in Auckland's twenty-five, but ,1 instead of sending Hie ball out to Rams 1( den and Grace, who were unmarked, th< r . Potonc forward kicked for tho corner w Dag. Auckland forcing. In tho seconi spell, AVilsnn cross Auckland's line, bul „ lost the ball when tackled. .. A pleasant feature of tho game was th( j. absence of rough play, and there were I also very few knock-outs. :,' Well Beaten at the Finish, d Strangely enough,' two of the most eonj, Ms!«nt goal-kickers in New Zealand--Stohr (of Taranaki) and MaeFarlane (oi - W<ulington)-kavc failed to notch a single rl point on successive Saturdays. To-day :1 MaeFarlane had at least two fairlv easv •- shots, but. in each case, the Kill fell 1 yards short of the posts. In club games this season Eamsden has 1 always beou noted for consistency in finde >hg the line, but to-day ho was 'quite at - fault, and, although given most of the s free-kicks, seldom, if over, found touch. He appeared to be nervous, and the same, mav be said of M'Kenzie, whose tricky side-step was never in evidence. Tho Wellington backs, ns a whole, plaved too far away from their opponents, with the result that lie Auckland centre-backs had plenty of ground to work in. Towards tho end of the game Auckland were running all over the Wellington forwards, who were quite plaved out. j riio r( , ~-„, 0 ], 11!ro nT |.p n ,] nr | C(>i f„i] v ! 20.000 passing throueh the gales. The , takings amounted to bvcr'.EGOO. MARLBOROUGH-WELLINGTON B. DULL GAME TO WATCH. The Marlborough Rugby representatives met Wellington's B team on Athletic Parkon Saturday afternoon. The weather was perfect, and tho ground good, so' a fast game was looked forward to. In this the spectators were badly disappointed. Tho spectators, by tho way, wero very few. Thero wero only about 200 people on the park, and, probably, only about half of that number paid at tho turnstiles. The counter-attraction was, of course, tho Lcaguo match, which attracted a huge crowd. The match was one of the poorest and most uninteresting ever played on tho park. Neither team played good Rugby. Wellington wero particularly slipshod in their work, and had tho Wellington backs worked well together, Marlborough would certainly have gone well under. Murphy (tho Melrose five-eighth), who played half, nursed tho ball nil tho afternoon instead of passing, and Morris (tho Poneko centro-thrce-quarter), who played five-eighth, gave the most awful passes that anyone over tried to take. On the only occasion on which Morris gave a reasonable pass during a bout of passing the Wellington backs easily beat their opponents and scored. -Mr; Charles Atkinson was referee. Tho teams were.— Marlborough: Full-back, M'lsaac; threequarters, Dunkley, O'Brien, Daly; fiveeighths, Godfrey, M'Guire; half, Marshall; wing-forward, Jackson; scram,

Boyle, Avery, Webster, Forbes, Parker, Boyle, and Sheridan. Wellington: Full-back, Dingle; threequarters, Lambert, G. M'Kenzie, Boyd; five-eighths, Morris, Irvine; half, "H. H. Murphy; wing-forward, Cunninghame; scram. J. Murphy, W. Sullivan, D. Sullivan, Bell, Levick, Perry, and Parrant. For a considerable timo after the commencement of the game, close forward play at about midiield ensued, Then Wellington set up an attack which was repulsed by the Reds after strenuous fighting. The forwards apnearcd to Iw fairly well matched, but haff-way through (ho spell the Marlborough vanguard went away with a sweeping rush* which shifted play more than half the length of (ho held. Daly, the Marlborough wing-three-quarter, wound up the rush by picking up the leather and balding over on his own. Jackson took tho shot at goal, but failed. Marlborough, 3; Wellington, nil. Three minutes later the visitors went over again, Sheridan scoring from a forward scramble right on tho Wellington line. Again tho kick at goal was unsuccessful. Marlborough, fi; Wellington, nil. Jackson, and O'Brien had shots at goal from penalties, but neither added to the

score. Wellington attacked solidly during the Inst quarter of an hour of tno spell, nml it was tlio bud play of the home team rather than good defensive work by the visitors which kept Welliuston from scoring. Eight on tho lino Wellington had half-a-dozen good chances, and always a bad pass, or a pass missed, spoilt absurdly easy opportunities of getting over. The spell ended: Marlborough, 6; Wellington, nilWellington attacked immediately the second half was commenced, but the Bed forwards did not, allow them to remain masters- of the situation. However, at an early stage, tho Blacks scored. The try came irom the only good passing bout of the whole match,'and it. was effective. At ths time, play was at about the Marlborough twcnty-ijvo line. Morris obtained the ball, sent it on to M'Kopzie, who passed to Lambert, and the long-striding wing sprinted across. M'Kour.ia failed in his attempt to goal. 6; Wellington, 3. The complexion of things at this stage was (hat Wellington would 'ontinue scoring and win handsonielv, but [he Black backs had a relapse into slovenly methods. M-irlburough had the better if the remainder of tho game, and s-weral .iuios individual members nf the 11-rd back ■livision went close to scoring. Towards he end nf the game Parker put. the issue icyond doubt bv polting a splendid goal. [t was a great kick taken, left-footed, rom ab-"it 40 yards out, when the kicker lad little time to think about things. >r the match ended: Marlborough, 10; Wellington, 3.