RUGBY.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1557, 28 September 1912, Page 12

RUGBY.

, " [Bt Amstobuxus 1 Curtain! When ".the Park' sexton JolJed" the bell whioh ■ of the ; Cup final on Saturday, he drew the curtain aoross the Rugby season of 1912. The season has been ono in which the union' has. had to contend-nvith an overdose of bad weather. About a tliird of tho playing Saturdays have been wet. ■ -The year ■ has also been one in-"which Auckland / added another date-plate to the Ranfurly Shield. Athlotic's Final Win. , _ /.-. ; The Cup-final- between Athletic' 1 and Petone resulted in Athletic retaining the title of champions which they won last . year. At the beginning of the season Athletic's" oliancea looked good. They had practical! , all the . last year's players, ' and some valuable additions— E. Roberts, . H. Roberts, and R. .jPaton. . .However, as. tho season progressed , Petone's; shares rose high, and until close upon tlia end of the season they .were looked upon as, certainties. To Athletic's great.-credit they played them- : selves into the final,, and then beat Petone for the honours-of the-season. The .Great Blue Forwards. The the 'cham--pionship was 1 " watched with' interest 'by .' the largest crowd the union has had this year." The game was not of the exceptionally bright: description, but was a particularly hard, determined contest. Tli% Athletic' forwards ' won the day. These forwards-are an_ unusually hefty lot, anil, they were trained fit to, go at, high';pressure from start to finish; -The Petone forwards'.seemed lighter, and, in any "case, they; were,not, quite a* match for their ,'opponents. -" " Pet'ono, held,<tho, Athletic vanguard in a manner which reflects credit oil Petone, . but the Athletic pack dominated the situation. ■ Not only.did t.hey bent the Petone forwards, but they frustrated the efforts • of the Petone" backs, and prevented the Petone backs getting under way- except on rare occasions. v. The great Athletic forward, A. Wilson; played a game that"will'rank' among the best which • ho-'or' any other > forward has • ever played.' ~ "-V What Happened to Jones? Everyone must regret that , the Petone backs, got so. few opportunities of displaying their great quality. It would have livened up the proceedings to have had a few "nioro. of the items' on tho. programme provided by M'Kehzie, . Eamsden, and Ryan, The howling failure -of the Petone backs' was Daly, Mt--wi,n'g-three-quarter. .••••• Daly, as was explained in Mondar's issue, let his side down. Petone courted that result bV keeping Daly in the team. One ortwo -r people seem to have taken' exception to \the criticism of Daly. \ The chief ;thing, "however, seems to be 'that tne criticism - too true, and another point is that -Rugby criticism- is somewhat of an innovation. -. I . . ■ V Even the-objectors may view f Jt in its righUigh-t In time. They ought to know already that this column is not kept as . a receptacle for sloppy praise for players whoso play deserves adverse criticism. What was written of DaJy's play was an unbiased opinioni which. it is open for anyone to . endeavour, to shake.

Criticism oh .Wellington, Favourable and 'Otherwise..' The following . paragraphs . are,- culled from'a review of the Otago representative team's tour, ..appearing in this week's "Witness,", from the.-pen, of, "Fullback":— " • Wellington, showed the best football seen on the tour, and, taking a line through the Otago match, the 'standard of play is higher than elsewhere. In this game Wellington, I am told, by those who ■watched their form in. previous matches closely, played above themselves, and with ' Otago playing degrees below, they were able to show to advantage. This notwithstanding. Wellington struck me as being: team in Nefr Zealand at the present time. Their forwards are food. without being .superlative,, while theiiVbacks are in a class by themselves. E. Roberts is a half-back, and Hamsden and M'Kenzie are the best working'pair of five-eighths I .-have seen this season.. ;I.ias particularly impressed with Kamsden. The three-quarter line is better for. the good work of the five-eighths. But 'the Wellington team on tho form, against Otago proved tho best'of the sides met. on the tour. There wasno,uniform standard of refereeIng, and one found all too little of the smritof the laws of the game'introduced. The best referee met on the tour was Mr. •T. Peiike, of Christchurch, who, while keening a fine touch on the game, interpreted the laws in the truest spirit.." Tho tour is full of memories—many of th<!m -• pleasant,- . but some; otherwise. Among the unpleasant, incidents.was .the lack of consideration and attention by the Wellington Rugby Union as compared with '.the unions in other centres where. Otago played. The lessons to he learned are very real, and not the least of these is the necessity of mapping out future tours to avoid the weary railway travelling which had such a distressing effect' on tho Otago team's play. Our Disastrous Financial Season. "It has been a disastrous .season financially." That is v;hat Mr. W. Perry, treasurer of the Wellington .Rugby Union, told a reporter a day or two'ago.; .1 j • Mr. Perry had not tho figures beside him, and could . not give the exact amounts, but he instanced the bad luckthat dogged the union throughout tho. year. Firstly, there were four postponements, and on'several other occasions it either' rained or the weather was bad enough overhead to keep the public away from the Athletic/Park. Then the representative matches' "were all 'disappointing" as far as "gates" went. The Canterbury match onlv realised .£2OO, instead of tho usual ',£3OO, while the Otago match— • nlaycd--oU'Uf"frightful" day—brought - in but. .£IOO. It'even rained-on the day of f lie Rotorua match, while the gate for the Marlborough ' fixture;, wasspoiled 'by the counter-attraction of the big -League matcK at Newtown Park.,...... ,

Theonly bright spot in tlio whole finnnriai area was the. Cup final, and.probably the union will be al>out =£600 or ,£7OO to 1 the bad on tho year's operations. The Season in Sydney.*'» - Speaking of the past Bugbv season; in Sydney. "Wanderer," in tha 'Daily Telegraph.;" -has,"the. following:— ' "The commencement of the 1912 season, with .its attendant regulations and limited finance, saw practically, all..tho district clubs >ith a larger membership roll than ever previously in their history,- They also, 'curiously enough, in view. of . the . fact that they received no:financial assistance from the union of ,\v;hich they'formed ah integral part, all started tho season with a decent. credit balance. The plavirig mason itself hns been a great one. The grade competitions -have been productive of most interesting, enjoyable, and exciting football, the,; public interest- in which- has continually-increased as v tho .season lengthened. "The most pleasing feature, about the plnv in all grades, though, has.'been tho 'clean' nature of play,-and- (a word of praise must, here be given;. to., tho New, South'.Wales Referees'-Association) tho absence of 'appealing,', which moro'than anything else tends,, if in, to cause unpleasantness on the .field. "Financially also .the season has been a success, and the Metropolitan Rugby tinioii has been able not only to meet all the season's current expenses, but to pay oIT the greater portion of the debts left it as a legacy from 1910. The'same applios to- the Now South Wales Kngby Union, whose inter-State fixtures with Queensland, in addition to providing, attractive football and bringing forward several young players previously new to 'rer prese'ntative' honours, resulted, after defraying alt expenses in connection with tho representative team's visit to Queensland, amß placing teams in the field in Svdney, iu a net credit balanco of over the public and great public schools, Hi» former not receiving any financial assistance from tho Rugby Union, as in dav*. of yore, the game continues to flourish." ' ' • • ■ '

Merely Bank Gossip. ■ ' , The Athletic Club have now carried oft the senior championship five times, viz., in 1882, 1884, 1591, 1911, 1912. Tiio championship competition was instituted in 1882. : , ' - In reference to certain which appeared Monday's issue regarding tlio judgment of Daly in the big match last Saturday, .wo received the following over tho-telephone from' an ex-AVellingcon representative. "Nothing finer or truer has appeared in' a press report on football for years." -Something in the neighbourhood of i! 220 was taken at the turnstiles at Athletic Pai-k on Saturday last. ' Among the spectators at the AtlileticPetona match on Saturday was Frank Mitcliirisoh, who is. apparently back in Wellington pro tern. His address of late nas boon some unpronounceable place or other up in the King Country. , As will be seen from an extract somewhere in this column tho Otago men were impressed .with tho "Wellington play. But, Scottish fashion, the Otago journals have plenty of faults to find. One is a complaint that the whole city of Wellington -did not "down tools" and rush to welcome th'em when they arrived, or something to that effect. • Looking back at tho Wellington season, one is inclined to think that the province owes a good deal to Mr. V. R. .Meredith. He lias not only been selector, but also dictator and coach. An official who can successfully play all three iroles at once is a; ;great asset for a province to have.