RUGBY FOOTBALL.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1854, 13 September 1913, Page 14

RUGBY FOOTBALL.

[BT ABisTOßcmg.] ■ , "PARK WILL NEVER CO." Tho All-Blacks, In tho last week wo have twice seen the All-Blacks at play. They trounced Australia by 30 points to 3. and they . chanced, to win against Wellington by <" 19 to 18. The representatives of tho • leading Rugby country are a great sido. ■ Tho weakost points so far as wo. have , 1 seen here are ones whioh can bo remedied.,' In mentioning this, ono may, for the purpose of judging the. strength of , the .team, mako comparison with the 1905 Now Zealand team, which toured Great Britain and other .countries. It is this comparison. which reveals tho ' weakness referred to, Gray and M'Kenzio (five-eighths), and Taylor (half), are not up to the standard-of and Myriott (five-eighths) and F. .Roberts (half). But E. Roberts is with the team to play half-back, and his inclusion.in tho chief games will improve tho team. Further, there are several good centre men,'and from R. Roberts, Mitchinson, Cuthill, and Stohr the selectors .will bo able to find as good 1 men to feed tho wings any provious team has had. Roberts is a great five-eighth or centre, we all know how brilliant Mitchinson is this season, and Cuthill ,has proved ito. bo a champion. As. tff "Wiffgs, "Lynch seems to bo quite a star. In the two matches played hero ho was given five chances of-scoring,, and. he scored five times. The ex-St. Patrick's College boy • is very certain in handling tho oval, and ho is exceptionally hard to stop when near the line. Another whosa work on the wing - was of tho highest possible .character was Cuthill, who played right-wing in tho first spell of tho match against Wellington. Stohr, too, is a'fine scoring Tying : his tremendous pace is ono of his chiof assets; M'Gregor, tho little Auckland winger, has shown us two good exhibitions this season. In addition, .Poneke's Mitchinson has ferf'betters on the wing, ' taking , his form this season as the guido. The Blacks as Kickers. The All-Blacks en route for California do not lack kicking ability.' Chief of the kickers is .Stohr, the best place-kick tho country has had for years—the best since Dufty. •R. Roberts has proved in the matches played in Wellington that he is' a first-class place-kick, with ex cellent judgment for adverse conditions. Then there are Cuthill, Mitchinson, and some of tho forwards. Amateurs Will Hold the Park. v Amateur • Rugby seems "up against it""in Wellington, but adversity is bringing to light many true friends of the game. Speaking at Mitchinson's farewell, Mr. Dawson (a member of the .Wellington Union) made the following unexpected statement:—"The park will never go out .of tho hands of the Wellington Rujjby TJnion. This is decided by the members of the Rugby Union and also by Poneke's- respected president (Dr. A. K. Nowman) and other citizens. ... If it does fall out of our hands it will be cut up into sections. . . We have made up our minds about that, every roan jaclc of us. We may have to call on you of you who can afford it.' For those who havo the park have amateur football." How R. Robsrts Played Against Auokland. In' Taranaki Rugby Is ahnpst a religion, and perhaps it is because "Dick" Roberts) the ; All-Black, comos from, ( thore tinat he is the ..enthusiast over amateur/Rugby tihat'he,, is. A few. weeks ogo. we. all read, with great pleasure l that the wearers of the Amber' an<l. Black had . vanquished Auckland and' raised the Ranfurly Shield, and we were glad partly because wo, know thorn "to be such good sports who had played tho game far. the game's sake under sucn difficulties so well for. so long deserved the highest honour." Roberts played in- till at game, and played his part as t)he champion ho is. The 'night'_ before tho match ho was many a mile from Auckland, away in the back-blocks of tho King Country. While all the other players were comfortably housed l , "Dick Roberts was ridinjj through tho bitter cold and dark or the island's roof, urging a willing stock horse on. on, on, in thoir sixty-miles lone-hand dash to reach tho railway and . eventually 'arrive in Auckland 1 in •time to play for tho honour of the province. The difficult sixty miles were covered in good timo, but still 1 ten miles to the Taivway, and that ten to bo covered on foot. And. per boot "Diok" Roberts trudged this span, and covered it in time to catch a slaw train, en route for Auckland. The traiiin arrived in the northern city in time for Roberts to reach the playing field just in timo to ■ go on and play. . And whilo the like of "Diok" Roberts,; of Taranaki, are on deck tfhe amateur gam©; (in which Roberts .Is a firm believer and ' staunch supporter) will not go under. Our Referees. A small body of men to whom Rugby owes a good deal this-"season, is tho / .Wellington Referees' Association. Very often tho referee's lot is, in tho evergreen phrase of' Superintendent Cullen: "Not a happy ono." The chairman of flhe association (Mr. D. M'Kenzio) said a ,fow words tho otlher evening whioh should bo taken to heart by followers of tho gamo. Ho, pointed out that there wero many ex-' •players who could "blow a whistlo," and as there wore so many matches' to bo covered every Saturday, all who could should asaist. • ' _ Mr. M'Kenzio has- dono his share— sixteen years in the field as a referee, and long service,on the association. Foolish V/lsh for Limelight. There is one thing • concerning the Tefereos which needs to bo knocked stone-dead. A refereo _ said tho other day that tho 'Wellington Union had not done right in not distributing the chiof games among, tho, senior referees. It will bo remembered that this matter caused somo trouble about half-way through the season, but tho tact of the union overcame the difficulty. The referees cannot bo favoured in any way to tho sacrifice, or possible sacrifice, of tho gamo, and 1 sanely they can realise now that had they had thoir way tluw would not have been the smooth running which was assured by 'the union's policy. The courso tho union insisted ore was obviously .the safer ono of tho two. and to anyone with the good of the old gaina at heart that .should bo tho last word. It is a tawdry business to clamour for tho games carrying with them the moro honour and limeilight, and it is tho men who unassumingly sncrifico all their Saturdays ■on the suburban grounds to'whom the gamo owes its best thanks. Wellington's Tour South. The Wellington, representative team which -loft for tho South Island on Thursday niiiht ~ plays its first match to-day—at dbristohiireh, against Canterbury. , 1 Tho' ■ team 1 is not anywhere near full .Wellington, strength." _ Tho programme for l tho tour is: September 13—Play Canterbury, at Christotiuroh. " ' September 17—Play - Otago at Dunedin.

September 20—Play Southland at InvercargJll. As A. Wilson and J. Francis are playing in the test matches, thoy will only bo available for tho match against Otago. ' Hard Luck! H. Nunu, of Petone, one of the most promising half-backs in Now Zealand, had very hard luck to miss the trip south with the Wellington representatives. Hurt early in. Wednesday's match .with Now Zealand, he had to leave tho field, and his Bhouldor iB too bad to pormit his going south. It is misfortune in any case, but so far as the writer could see, there wore special circumstances which made a luiu's retirement particularly annoying. Nunn is an admirable little sport on the field and he deserved better treatment.No doubt ho feota very keenly having to stand down, for he should never have been hurt. The Wellington Union, i Very pleased indeed is tho writer that the Wellington Rugby Union has corde in for a host of compliments during the week. . Thanks to these? good amateurs is overdue. The union's row is a hard one. They are.hoeing it well, and, above all, earnestly. __ Said the Rev. Father Eccleton, of St. Patrick's College, at a smoker the other evening: "The school owes a very gre'at debt of gratitude to a very much ' maligned institution —I. hear the remarks on the bank at times—and that institution is tho Wellington Rugby Union. . I would like to say that I havo experienced nothing but kindness from tho secretary and members of the union. I don't think it is their usual (experience to be thanked. Iheir experience is that of Aunt Sally to be shot at." .' _ „ Mr. J. P. Ryan, of Victoria College, reckoned that all players owo a debt of gratitude to the Wellington Union, likewise the Rugby public. ' _ _ ' Tho secretary of the union (Mr. W. G. Talbot), who is in a position to know what the members of tho union do, said: "Tho union is a small representative body of men who do an immenso. amount of work for the game. Tho union has been working very hard to keep things going. '. A certain number of people go up to tho Park ovcry . Saturday, and'see a big crowd, audi wonder what the union is doing with tho money. They forget, that the proceeds from the Park matches aro eaten up in providing nearly forty other grounds. Still the union exists, and it will continue to do so. There are a number of sports who will see it through.