IF CAUGHEY PLAYS

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 2, 3 January 1936, Page 7

IF CAUGHEY PLAYS

N.Z. SHOULD WIN TEST

MUCH DEPENDS ON TINDILL

TWICKENHAM PROSPECTS

United Tress Association—By Electric Tele-

CraDli —Couyrlehi.

(Received January 3, 10 a.m.)

LONDON, January 2,

I Though the majority of the New Zealand Rugby football touring team are confident as to the result of Saturday's international match against England at Twickenham, some of the team are apprehensive, believing that the changes in the back division are in the nature of a gamble.

A great deal depends on Tindill. Should he play as well as against London Counties the New Zealanders should win. The Wellingtonian, however, has not yet fully learned positional play and still has a tendency on occasions to watch the ball instead of the man. He may find the tall and careful Gadney a handful. Gadney is most skilled in breaking away from the scrum and is a determined runner who needs a lot of stopping. He penetrated the tourists' defence on a number of occasions in earlier games. On the other hand the Tindill experiment is justified as he has a thrust which has been sadly missed when Griffiths has played. Tindill's amazing skill at dropping goals makes him a potential match-winner. CORNER EARNS SELECTION. Corner earned his selection. Sadler, the star of the team a few- weeks ago, is over-inclined to try to make openings himself instead of feeding the 'backs, which Corner did successfully against London Counties... On present form Mitchell and Ball must be preferred to Hart. Both have ability to make openings and are experts at taking advantage of an opponent's mistake. Ball's defence has improved out of sight, but he will have to be at his best to hold Prince Obolensky. Obolensky is said to be the fastest international player Britain has ever had and is a strong runner. The general opinion is that the English inside backs, Cranmer, Gerrard, and Candler, are not in the same class as Wboller, Davey, and Cliff Jones. They play rather mechanical football and are mostly content to send out the ball ,to the wings, being typical of the present English style. There is still doubt regarding Caughey's leg. It has troubled him on several occasions during the training operations and, remembering what happened at Swansea, where Caughey played, though not keen to do so, some consider it would be a bad thing to let him take the field if he is not fully confident that his leg will stand up to a hard game. Critics believe that the tourists will have little chance without the Aucklander. • The visitors' forwards can be reuea upon to do their part, though King, Reid and Mahoney did not show their usual dash and liveliness in recent games due to staleness. SAFETY-FIRST TACTICS. The English selectors adopted safetyfirst tactics so far as the forwards were concerned. They picked experienced scrummagers, banking on beating ths New Zealand pack with weight and strength. That is why veterans like Webb and Dunkley were preferred. There has been much comment concerning the selection of the Russian Prince Obolensky and the South African Owen-Smith. The selectors have departed from the "rule of choosing only En£ hSnagS ayof rSihe New Zealand team (Mr. V. R. Meredith) has left Porthcawl for London. En route he will visit Tarr, the Welsh hooker who is still in hospital at Cardiff with a that leading New Zealanders in London may pay the expenses of the team for a visit to the Continent next week. •