The Evening Star MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 1936. THE NATIONAL GAME.

Evening Star, Issue 22443, 14 September 1936, Page 8

The Evening Star MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 1936. THE NATIONAL GAME.

Thebe was a period in the history of Now Zealand Rugby football when ardent followers of the national game believed in the invincibility of the All Blacks. Evidence of a lean period in club and interprovincial play, upon which the standard of international form must necessarily be based, bad little effect on the outlook of the optimists. A team of fifteen men chosen from the provincial side;! had but to wear the sombre uniform of the dominion players to receive, as if by some form of “ black ” magic, a new strength that made them irresistible. Indeed, we have seen some members of All Black teams—particularly among the forwards—who seemed content to Jet the silver fern do practically everything. Fortunately this feeling is passing hence —as needs it must when we ruminate on the doughty deeds of the Springboks of South Africa and allow memory to slip back a few months and pay tribute to the might of England and Wales and other sides in the Old Country which did not show a respect for the All Black jersey commensurate with the anticipations of a section of the New Zealand public. Nor has it been possible in recent years to underestimate the strength of the Australians, until Saturday holders of the Bledisloe Cup. Such is the “ never say die ” spirit of the Australians that in the game at Carisbrook it was not possible until a fairly substantial lead had been established in the second spell to arrive at the conclusion that the trophy denoting supremacy for the year was going to change hands. As time wore on, however, it became clear that superior staying powers and the maintenance of accuracy in handling were telling their inevitable tale. New Zealand won handsomely, and in doing so showed that her players welcomed the dry conditions of the ground just as much as the visitors, who had been looking to atmospheric geniality to assist them back to true form.

Th© New Zealand rearguard, for the most part, played an inspired giame. The work of the forwards in the first spell may haye caused their supporters a few unruly heart-beate, but in the second it provided a clear-cut demonstration of the value of vanguard tactics generally known as “ hunting as a pack.” This is the only type of forward play which will prevail against the formidable Springboks, and it cannot be too strongly emphasised that it will have to be kept up from kick-off till final whistle in the big engagements next season. It is to be hoped that the lesson will not be forgotten, and that next year’s New Zealand selectors will carry out their duties with an eye to the demands of the task in hand. Some weeks ago we criticised in our leading columns the loose play of the Auckland forwards. By a few local admirers of the Aucklanders we, in turn, were criticised. No unpleasantness should be felt over that. Direct expressions of viewpoints on almost -any subject are generally healthy and always interesting. It was satisfactory to read in Auckland papers that in the match of that province with the Australians the local forwards “played as a pack.” The result was to Auckland’s advantage. It may not be too much to say that our erstwhile visitors profited from the lesson they learned from the Otago forwards, and, if that is so, they must be commended for their good sense and their spirit of sportsmanship in furnishing in a manner so practical an admission that the methods they employed in Dunedin were wrong. New Zealand’s next international engagements will be against South Africa. The result of Saturday’s big game at Carisbrook will have served to revive hopes which were inclined to dwindle that our men will prove equal to, the occasions to come. Nevertheless, keen students of the game will not he optimistic unless there is some guarantee that each of the eight forwards to be chosen will prove an honest scrummager throughout the whole of the period of play. New Zealand unions should also try to arrive at a definite understanding of the rules applying to the placing of the ball in the scrums and to hooking. The variety of interpretations that appears to exist is not conducive to complete harmony.