NOTES AND COMMENT

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 133, 7 June 1937, Page 15

NOTES AND COMMENT

THE PLAYERS REVIEWED

Both Crisp and Kissell gave good full-back displays in the EastbourneUniversity match. Crisp made more ground with his kicks, but Kissell's fielding of the greasy ball was splendid. The University forwards packed well against the Eastbourne forwards, and Burke. Eade, and Hansen played good football. Berridge played good football at centre-three-quarter for Eastbourne. Ha 'is much more at home in this position 1 than at second five-eighths. Fleming played his usual dependable game at Eastbourne. He holds his team together well.

Berry (hooker), Guiniven, and Evans were prominent Eastbourne forwards against University. All played well in the open, but were prone to break too quickly from the scrums. The University fifteen, beaten but not disgraced at Eastbourne, tried to open up the game in the old University style but mistakes due to the greasy ball gave Eastbourne's more :; experienced players many opportunities from which they did not fail to profit. Larkin and Wild were the more prominent of the University backs. Although the backs found great difficulty in keeping their feet, there were several bright incidents in the Old Boys-Marist match, especially the movement by the Wellington College 0.8. backs when the ball was transferred right out to Hurdley on the wing for that player to score. A. Wright made the opening and it was a really smart piece of work. Wellington College 0.8. were without the services on Saturday of Watt, who is suffering from a cold. His place on the wing was taken by Hurdley, who proved an able substitute. One particularly good feature of the Wellington College Old Boys-Marist Bros. 0.8. match was the fine defensive work of the, full-backs, R. Wright and Cunningham. Both handled the greasy ball well, their tackling was solid, and their line-kicking most commendable. Brown, the Marist half, excelled himself against Old Boys, and, with a plentiful supply of the ball from the scrummages, he gave some splendid passes. His defensive play was also sound. Wellington College Old Boys' outstanding back last Saturday was Baldwin who, apart from his general play, scored one splendid try, kicked an excellent penalty goal, and converted a try with a kick that was by no means easy. The Marist forwards got through a lot of work in a creditable manner against Old Boys, and those who caught the eye on many occasions were Butler, Donoghue, Meadows, and Leahy. Meadows had several kicks at goal and, although he was successful with only one, all his kicks were good efforts under the circumstances. M. Wright and Bydder were toilers in the Oid Boys' pack and Gotlieb was prominent in the loose, but all worked hard throughout. Perhaps the most striking feature of play in the Petone-Wellington first division match was the accurate fielding by the Petone backs. Some of the younger .backs also showed ability to act in the heavy going The Wellington men were quite eclipsed on the day. The Petone pack worked hard and kept going right to the end against Wellington. Lambourn had a good day in hooking and he was greatly helped by a compact scrum. Knqwles and Carter were very prominent throughout. O'Halloran was the star back of the first division match, Petone y. Wellington, and must be warmly commended for a very fine display. His handling was splendid and he varied his play very astutely. Trapp was the best of the Wellington backs against Petone, and one of his runs nearly brought a score. Not much was seen of Veitch, but Thompson got through a lot of defensive work at half-back. Such was the manner of JohnsonIville's challenge to Athletic at Athletic Park that not only did their performance give promise of the team being able to give a good account of themselves in the top grade of the competition, but among those who saw them in action they probably also created the desire to see them at headquarters again. There is no doubt that the conditions aided Johnsonville's plan of action, but they deserved some compensation for the loss of the wind in the second spell. Johnsonville won' the toss, but elected to give Athletic,, the advantage of the wind in the;! first spell, teeling probably that i| might be of greater benefit to them" in the second spell. When the game started there was a keen southerly blowing, and Athletic naturally set out to make the best use of it, although, as events turned out, they got nowhere. The wind gradually fell away, and instead of Johnsonville having assistance from this source in the second spell conditions were j almost dead calm. Mollier in the set scrums gave Athletic a big share of the ball, and had not the ground and weather conditions become worse it is possible that ths Athletic backs may have been rather too strong a force for Johnsonville to keep at bay all afternoon. There can be no certainty about that, however, H. Kenny, the full-back, the other backs of the side, and the Johnsonville forwards also showed that they know how to defend their goal-line. Thurston, the Athletic second five-eighth, particularly in the early stages of th»game, was very active, but he was unable to find the loopholes he had on the previous Saturday against Poneke. Whenever Athletic started anything, in fact, Johnsonville seemed always to be right up on their men. The team is very last and every man in it is a trier. The worrying, forceful tactics employed by the Johnsonville pack were a source of great worry to Wells and his men. Johnsonville probably gave Athletic the hardest and most desperate game they have had this season. t Hard though every man in the Johnsonville pack worked, Janes established himself, as one of the perI sonalities of the side. Where the going i was toughest Janes was. He lacked nothing in vigour. At the present time Ihe has it developed about 100 per cent, plus, and there were times when, v seemed that a little more restraint would have been more in order. Nevertheless, he stood out as one of the best workers of a good pack. t H. Kenny, the Johnsonville fullback, by no means suffered in comparison with Mclntyre. He got Johnsonville out of some tight corners. The penalty goal by M. Kenny which gave Johnsonville their three points was obtained at the second attempt, the referee (Mr. B. Matthews) presumably ordering the second kick because of movement among the Atnletic players on the mark. The handling on both sides in the Orienlal-Poneke match at the Prince of Wales Park was quite good considering the greasy state of the ball. Both halves were feeding their backs well, but the forwards would probably have done better if they had made more solid attacks. Players in the Oriental-Poneke match at the Prince of Wales Park gave exhibitions of skating that would put Sonja Henie to shame. They were two extremely muddy teams that left the field on the call of time. Pringle, Ongley, and Calcinai were the outstanding Poneke forwards against Hutt. O'Brien led two good dribbling rushes. The loss of Crichton's hooking was seen in the second half, when Hutt got a more than adequate share of the ball from the set scrums. Sargisson, the Hutt five-eighth, played well against Poneke, but was ! too much inclined to hang on to the ball, and was several times caught in possession. Gillespie. the Kutt wing, when he did get started against Poneke was very hard to stop. On one occasion in the first half he best four Poneke men and scored. Hansen and Posseli made two good runs, and were unlucky not to score. Devin'e, Kofoed, and Cassidy, the Hutt forwards, were prominent in many of the dribbling rushes.

Andrews, the Hutt loose forward, played a particularly good game against Poneke, feeding the backs whenever opportunity offered and frequently taking part with them m attacking movements. With harder training Andrews would be in a class on his own. n The full-back, Vartan, was a tower of strength to Poneke against Hutt. His collaring was very sure, his handling of the ball reliable, and his | kicking accurate. On one occasion he turned defence into attack, sending Cook over to score in the corner. Good co-ordination marked the play of Griffiths and Hosken, the Poneke backs, against Hutt. Le Quesne also got the ball out promptly.. Cook wa> very aggressive on the wing. Both full-backs in the St. Pat'si Old Boys-Wellington second division game got through a hard afternoon s work in good style. Morgan, for Wellington, kicked a great length, but some of his work looked decidedly risky. Stevenson, for St. Pat's, was very safe, and went down gamely to the slogging rushes of the Wellington pack. The enterprise he showed when star of the defunct United Club is still evident, one run towards the end going, close to winning the game lor his side. The St. Pat.'s Old Boys' backs have plenty of pace and enterprise, and their handling at times was surprisingly good under the conditions prevailing. Gill was probably the best of the St. Pat's Old Boys' forwards, though all played well against powerful opposition C O'Connor, not much more than a pocket edition, held his own surprisingly well. . Some of the members, of the Wellington pack would do credit to any first division team. Bell was the best) of a fine lot, following very fast and tackling finely, and Dalton, Clay, and Bracken also showed form much above the average. The Petone forwards, Smith and White, were prominent in several good dribbling rushes in the match with Miramar. # Miramar's senior A second division team have a useful forward combination in Clarke and Grint. Cooke, MiramaTs promising back, was rather disappointing after his exhibition of the previous week. The outstanding player in the Pirates-Athletic senior A second division game was the 18-year-old Maori five-eighth. Love. His display could hardly have been improved on, his two tries being real . gems. A great feature of his play is his ability to get to the ball on the full after, he has kicked through. Dobson and Hickling, Pirates' halfback and first five-eighth, got through an immense amount of work and did it well. t Wyness, Pirates' full-back against Athletic, played an excellent game, his kicking and handling being first class. He overshadowed his vis-a-vis. Boddy. who was unable to control his kicking. . . . The Athletic, half-back against Pirates, Littler, played very creditably. His backing-up on defence was very good and his line-kicking gained many valuable yards for his_ side. Badland. the Athletic wing-three-quarter, went quite well with the tew chances he had and was unlucky not to score. . w Pirates played well in the first spell but eased up a little towards the end of the game. Kofoed and Miller were prominent throughout. Burkett excelled in the tight. Watson, back-row forward, was the outstanding Athletic1 packman against Pirates He was the leader of most of theiV forward rushes and was well supported by Smith and Johnson. Kerrigan did not seem to relish the heavy going.