THE CAPTAIN.

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

THE CAPTAIN.

SKETCH OF "ALL BLACK" CHIEF. [BY Gtbo.l Early Days. Dark in complexion, not tall, but splendidly built, physically very strong, a player that can gallop fast all day without feeling it, master of all the points of llugby from A to Z, and quite tho popular idol in Dunedin, tho city that knows him is Alick M'Donald, tho'captain of tho "All Black" team which has just sailed away "up nor'ard somewhere" in S.S. Willoclira. \ , Taking a lino through M'Donald's career—it is now fifteen years since ho began tho game as a boy—ono sees quite quickly that ho has seldom _ remained iiuore than a single season in any ono grado. If any higher grado was in his reach anywhere, he was promptly in it,, and his promotion never camo by any lucky chanco or favour. As sailors would say, ho got it "all through the hawse pipe"; as cricketers would say, ho "did it off his dwn bat"; as ordinary citizens would say, ho deserved it— every inch of it. He entered the stirring little world of llugby in 1898, casting in his lot with a third-grade club called tho Northern, and taking a humble berth in its second fifteen. Like Alexander of Macedon he soon began to pine for fresh worlds to conquer and, next year, his membership application came in to the powerful Kaikorai Club. His Deolslvo Step. To a young player this ohange could hardly have seemed to offer much of an avenue for promotion. Tho stars'in the first fifteen wero many, and the chances few. Tho Kaikorai first fifteen of those days was possibly the strongest club team which Now Zealand has Been. It ran like a machine, with the famous "Jimmy" Duncan as chief engineer. For years—ever since 1893 —it had had a wonderful record j and, in two seasons, tho only scores registered against it had boon a brace of potted goals, In these seasons their lino was not crossed and seldom seriously threatened and, in their hoyday, evory second passing rush by the Kaikorai backs meant a try. Such well-known players as "Tom" Cross had' battled long and hard in its second fifteen waiting for the step forward which was slow in coming. However, M'Donald joined. In 1899 he was one of the Kaikoraf second but, in the very next year, he' was asked by tho club's Mat-ch Committeo to step up higher. And, ill 1900, tho public saw him as a colt in "tlio KaiItorai firsts." They soon saw more of him and, as our expressive American cousins would put it, they "froze to him." He has "played on unbrokenly for Kaikorai ever since—with, just ono spell of enforced idleness, and a rather curious one. During the course of tho 1903 season a Kaikorai player (H. Porteous) was ordered off the field in a match with tho Dunedin Club. To the members of tho Kaikorai team engagod tho decision by the referee seemed so unjust that they left tho field en bloo. The usual inquiry was hold, Porteous was acquitted but, strangely enough, tho other fourteen Kaikorai players were suspended till the end of the season. Among them was the present "All Block" skipper, and no doubt they led a quiet and retired life for tho remaiudor of tho winter. Club and Other Career. In 1904 M'Donald won his representative cap, touring north with tno Otago team as far &s Auckland, and playing in all tho chief centres en route. And, in the same year, ho was in tho South Island fifteen. Htf represented tho South Island in 1904-5-6-7, but not afterwards till tho present year, in which tho South so severely lowered tho pres. tige of tho North. T]jo fact is that "Alick" lias not been ablo to travel North for some years, otherwise his South Island record would, doubtless, havo boon an unbroken one. For tho same reason ho has not toured north with the Otago representative team for somo timo -though a place in it (as captain) was always open for him if lio cared to go. Homo tics prevented it. howovor.

It is, of courso, within rcccnt momor.y that Jl'Donald was one of tho original "All Blacks" which left Now Zealand in 1905 and hia doings durinc that momorablo tour wore at least as cood as tho doings of tho othor Now Zealand forwards, which- is saying a very Croat deal. As to tho present, the fact that ho hnppens to como from Otago will not, lot us hope, prejudice tho judgment of any ardont North Islander. Tlio stern Otago school of football in which tho "All Black" captain graduated in tho 'nineties was a very different sort of tiling as compared with tlio fifth-rate sort of football which tho southern province now goes in for; but that is nn-ot-her story. • The Real M'Donald. Tho great point about Alick M'Donald's play is that ho can be always seen in a game, but never in tho Beneo in which tlio opportunist and tho pointer ar« seen. Ho is on tho ball in tlio mush and ho is on it in tho loose. His instincts aro not defensive—ho bolicves that' an ounco of attack is ever and always worth a ton of defenco, and he acts up to that all tho time. Ho can handle tho ball in a passing rush as cleverly as tho generality of tacks, and yet Yet what? Why, simply, that his execution in defouco leads the_ writer to believe that his in this direction is greater than his intellectual idea that attack is tho gamo. AVlien Harding's British team wero hero in 1908, to see him tossing "Polity" Jones, and "Reg." Gibbes, and "Johnny" Williams was a thing to bo romembored.

"Tho Arcadians" has boon revived in Sydney by the Now Comic Opera Company, with Mr. Robert YThj'to as Peter Doody, Mr. W. S. Percy as Simplicitas Smith, Miss Cecilia Ghiloni as Mrs. Smith, Miss Sybil Arundale as Eileen Cavanagh, and Miss Dorothy Brunton rs Chrysea.