RUGBY FOOTBALL.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1782, 21 June 1913, Page 12

RUGBY FOOTBALL.

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Correspondent's Letter. Everyone is, of course, willing to do tho selector's work for him, so that Ml'. .Vr R, Meredith should Teally_ have a sinecure. The! director of this column has never been able to i seo > what useful . purpose'is served by, two things-(l) Suggesting to selectors what teams they ought to select; (2) laying the heavy hand of criticism on referees. However, there is no accounting for tastss, and hereby one letter on one of: these banned subjects is allowed to see the light of - publicity. It leads:— ... sii.,—l will be pleased if you would irrant me space with reference to the (selection of the Wellington representative team selected to play Taranaki, and probably Auckland. I think the selection is a very poor one, and it is high time that tho union reverted to the original method of selectors, to have three men to select the team, .like Messrs. Roberts, Wallace, and Thompson. Tho team I should like to see go north is as follows:— I C. Hills, W. > Sullivan; D. Sullivan, A. Wilson, :,W. Bell, J. Moffitt, R. Paton, forwards; J. Cunnighame, wing forward; "B. .Roberts,, half-back; J. MKenzie, H. M'Leod, fivMighths; A. Evenson, P.. Mitchison, E. %an, three-quarters; G. . Kmvig, .-full- , back. Thanking you'.very much Iffiv-TS. Heketa. The most' striking feature of the St. James-Melrose match, which was played on No. 2 ground at the park, was the play of Heketa, St. James's wing three-quar-ter. One can hardly say that Heketa played brilliantly, yet it was Heketa3 flashes which were entertaining above all other incidents in the game. Solid ana dashy, Heketa is particularly hard to stop, and on Saturday he was in great form his bumping, runs. . . . • -As to the match itself, 'St; James had. the best of it, and Melrose were very lucky to draw. They only got even a few minutes before the end. With the dwindling of their chances of'winning the championship, Melrose, are .-playing with less of that dash which they displayed earlier in the season. However, St. James are not easy to beat. Bad, Tackling. .

-.Bad tackling- was. the.: cause ..why Oriental -sailed-perilously close to defeat by Wellington last Saturday. The magpies won the match at length by a comfort* able margin-of points, .hufc,they .were an uncomfortftblj- :lorig- time 111 Retting a lead, and exceedingly lucky altogether to win. It seemed .that Wellingtonhad the same won when Khivig potted that goal, and, after that, Oriental managed to puo up a few more points. The Black and Golds had all the best of the game until men, however. , . .. , . - Too many Oriental men were inclined to try tackles by the head or a loose piece if jersey—any way but the right way and the result was as always that men Were missed. This meant that the Wei: fington backs were not penalised, as they Should have been for foolish pas + snng, and jot • too accurate handling of the ball. (The backs of both sides, with one or two exceptions vwere very .uncertain in taking the baft, but the difference was | that for the Orientnl backs the punishment was swift and sure, while Wellington got off for. the most part soot free. In the close forward play , the Wellington ■oack were immeasurably, superior to tho Black and Whites, frequently driving them in pell-mell disorder for long lengths 6 Wellington back's were. a very'weak team. Getting the'hall from fairly often as they did, they~must needs attempt passing, and their attempts were hopelessly bad. 3 ' The ball, was repeatedly sent across-field when not .a single feck was movine'J. and,, of course; these stationary'passing bouts aro the stupidest kind i side can try. No good can ws=iblr come of them, and harm alKnyarfeoa. AVithoutLamtot and Grace the' Black and Gold backs are St uiful- as an attacking combination. The team misses Lambert sadly wiien place-kicks' at goal are offering.

Slashing College: Mateh. It is a"• pity f or -tk® the ,'nmo in this city'that Wellington patrons of . Rugby could not look forward to a week-end exhibition „«iual__inquahty to that given at Palmerston North onWedT,esday'.last;by p tho senior- (S----of Wanganni College and Te Aute Lol le ft was not a> dame that was great in evew department, but it was a fine game to watch. 'The Wanganui backs are cap,l,l. n p- thrilling any crowd with tho Sitl of thei? attack, but there is one thing which would probably upset them: fchev mi"ht easily crumplo up before the living tackling of a team like the Melrose boys or the fierce dumping of such a fifteen as Athletic. - , However, there was no such superb collaring on either side, though the defence was far from weak. Magnificent Three-quarters. The star company of the two fifteens was Wanganili's magnificent tbree-qwu'ter toe. For a college team it was « magnificent; for any senior team it would, bp absolutely first-class, and there is not a senior three-quarter lino in Wellington appeared to be the pick of the W6 Is Lala, the; hefty PiJian He got few chances and did .not paddle in the limelight quite so much as Cowper, the other wing, but one could not resist the impression that Lnla T ls , ev . en f °' t J >e " ter man than Cowper. Lala fast, ; it Rtrong runner whose 13st. odd makes him Singly hard to stop, and Ike uses his . head more than the other backs. Cowper who scales just under 13st., is not of tho unaggressive Htrpp-nuarter; he is an ofr-slioot 01 tne old school of. fending, fighting wmnß man. Ono might say that a last low tackle would put aji «nd to his fending, butthat Would bo uiider-estimabng his Proficiency in tho art of battling. He would not be easily stopped by oven the b The of ce t ntt le lree-quarter, Humphries. is the greyhound.'.ot the team, but, un lii-n flip- trace is liis chief asset. That is to say, that he iloes not possess the all-round ability of his two confreres. Still,-bis turn of speed makes him an exceptionally dangerous ™ a "\ , a $J. 1 - in addition, a very useful goal-kick. Word.to the Wellinflton Union. Of the rest of the Wanganui team, Espiner, the wing forward, was the man who • did most d*unaKe« . The To Ante boys were not as cleyex in throwing the leather about a? their oppowfnts were, but their work in this and other departments was distmctiy creditalTho match was just one of those exhibitions of good back play which shows W How TC about U !he Wellington Union mokins; an effort to turn on such a, game AHilotif Park? If our Saturday championship fizzles out unexpectedly it would bo worth wliile keeping the ball rolling by some such <lrai\, and if the affair was properly handled it would paj well. The union, of course, would givf the money, to charity. , Why is Manawatu Not Cured? One wonders that this annual mate! does not do Manawatu Kugby more gooi years now -Rugby hM.beonon ib uppers in the district, and this year agaii :| q duality is poor. Foildinj? has been, o lato years, the stronghold the Ramo ii MoniOThJ, but even in Feilding medio C '&PalmeX United .team beat Md ine this year, and for a while created th mnression that Rugby in the hub of th Manawatu was on the up-grade; but 01 1 ,Mrsecond meeting Feild ng lowered th colours of tho men from the bigger town Choosina' University Teams. 'iv-nentty a New Zealand University < earn to meet Australian University Rugby.

men was chosen-chosen from the chief schools of Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedm. , . „ The scope for choosing a university team is not very wide, and it seems a pity that it is limited to sucli an extent that players from such noted Eugb.v schools as Wanganui and Te Aute are cut °Readers can gather for themselves that there are some- Wanganui backs who would considerably- strengthen the present university" team; and there cannot be any :hann in suggesting to the scholarly gentry. Who engineer university Rugby that some means of getting all the best, instead of only some of tho best, players available should be thought out. Remarkable Passage in : the Park Match. . An instanoe of how a minor mistake may change the complexion ot a football match was demonstrated in tho AtiileticiPoneke contest on Saturday last. During the first spell, Athletic were attacking right in front of a goal, and as a scrum broko up, the ball came out to J. Cunninghame. The latter saw S. Wilson in a capital scoring position and immediately sent the three-quarter- a pass. The ball missed its man and went travelling up field. J. Elliott, the Poneke three-quar-ter opposing Wilson, assisted the progress of the ball with a healthy kick and then racfcd after the leather again and gathered it in. Mitchinson was handy and Elliott passed in-field to him. Mitchinson, with wonderful judgment, got in a splendid centre kick and th© ball dropped down at the posts. Irving and Jacobsen next raced after it and Jacobsen scored the try, which Mitchison, converted. so that what had less than a minute before looked like an ■ Athletic- score was changed into a reveTse, and resulted in points for Poneke. .

"Centre!" "Centre!" As this try.was the outcome of a good centre kick by Mitchinson it may be .mentioned! that m the second spell another capital exhibition of the centre kick was given from the Poneke side. This was by Elliott. Mitchinson rushed no and took the ball on the Ml. St even as he did so he was surely tackled by an Athletic.back and the effort came to an end. Frank Mitchinson. While he is not yet back to his best form, Mitchinson is fast Retting Dear that condition and probably before the season closes he will be called on for bis football again. At the present time, the Ptfneke back has probably got more football brains than any city footballer other than E. Hoberts, but his brain works a little too fast for Ins legs. Condition tells. The New Madden.

Evenson and E. Roberts continue to play their solid games for Athletic, and M'Vay is another useful man at full, but easily the most improved man m the Athletic rearguard is Madden, who made a capital showing on the wing last Saturday. He has plenty of pace now and can take and give a pass in approved style, while his defence is quite sound. Best ot all, however, he is not in the least selfish and is always ready to hand on the ball if he thinks any other member of his side is in a better position to score. The. Great Blue Van. ■ What an excellent pack of forwards the Athletic Club manages to keep together from season to season! The Blue scrum - mers have quite maintained their reputation this season and they prove formidable opponents for every team that offers. On Saturday last they appeared to be up against" it" for some little time in the second spell, as the Poneke .forwards came charging'down towards the grandstand at the Park. In the long-Tun, however, the Athletic men got the upper hand, and just towards the finish of the match the Poneke forwards, were not in it with them.