THE ALL BLACKS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20025, 25 August 1939, Page 10

THE ALL BLACKS

TOUR OF SOUTH AFRICA SPRINGBOKS AIR VIEWS STRONG CENTRE ATTACK INFLUENCE OF LEAGUE * The 'New Zealand Rugby team of 1940 will be a very much more difficult, proposition than the test teams we met in New Zealand in 1937, writes F. Turner, Springbok full-back and wing-threequarter, in The Outspan. Most of the 1937 Springboks will be out of the game and we shall see nearly all of the New Zealand players who represented their country in 1937. They will have the experience of having played tests against South Africa and also the advantage of all touring sides of playing together and settling down into a combination. The South African side will probably consist mostly of new players to international Rug'by. 1 am sure the games will be hard, with a fifty-fifty chance of either side winning.

Weighing up the tactics of the New Zealand test teams of 1937. they appeared to he destructive from the point of view of winning at all costs. The players did not back up to the same extent as they did in South Africa in 1928. Their main attack was in their forwards. The ball rarely got further than the outside centre, who thought it was his job to cut in and link up with the forwards. who immediately started loose dribbling .rushes down the field. New Zealand forwards are famed for these loo'se rushes, which are difficult to stop, but we soon realised that by keeping them scrummaging our backs waited for the inside break if their backs' got the ball,, and quickly ended the movement. It appeared to us that the New Zealand wings were purely opportunists, and therefore we concentrated mainly on attack.

Strong Centre Attack

I do not think that in 1940 the New

Zealand three-quarters will adopt the tactics that we proved to them were correct in 1937. that is, solid scrimmaging by the forwards and playing to the wing-three-quarters for scoring. The only New Zealander who varied his attack against us was Sullivan, who was the fastest man on the field, and even he did not have very much idea about the swing pass. Mitchell, who was a dismal failure the one test against the Springboks and who captained New Zealand last year against Australia, is undoubtedly, when fit, a great player, and he and Sullivan in the centre shpuld prove a great combination. Mitchell will probably captain' New Zealand in South Africa.

In my humble opinion the New Zealand selectors in 1937 did not picK New Zealand’s (best three-quarters. Trevathan was much too slow for Harris, and when Craven gave his dive pass Harris had a lew yards start on Trevathan, which gave our three-quarters every opportunity. Our whole game was based on speed, and it is my one regret that the public of South Africa did not see the 1937 side in action.

There is no doubt that the two packs of forwards who meet in South Africa will be terrifically strong. And the ball will be given plenty of air: in fact, the three-quarters of both sides will be run to a standstill. We are fortunate in having players like Tony Harris, Lochner, Williams and Bestor all available.

A scrum half must be found to take the place of Craven, ' and although Lochner is one of the outstanding three-quarters in South Africa. I feel that he is also the best scrum-half 'in the country. Lochner is in the fortunate position of being so versatile that he can play in more than one position with success. There is also Dennis Oates, of the Hamiltons Club, Capetown. He is probably today the fastest centre in the country.

You can take it from me that tire 1940 All Blacks will play hard football. and those who are fortunate

enough to play against them wih realise What -it is to be in the thick of it against a Rugby-mad country for 80 minutes. It will be a tremendous blow to New Zealand pride if the 1940 All Blacks return beaten in all the tests.

I confess 1 really do not see how New Zealand will be able to send over in 1940 a heavy pack capable of matching the Springboks’ eight, comments iM. Van den Berg in another article in The Outspan. Van den Berk was a lock forward on the Springboks’ 1937 tour of New Zealand.

Of course, New Zealand forwards may have changed their game after our visit in 1937; possibly they have, since one and all told us that the power of the Springboks’ scrummage had deeply impressed them, and they were detemined to get their own scrummage right in order that they could turn the tables in 1940. From what I saw I think they are going to find it difficult to get heavy and .vet speedy men for the job. The average New Zealand forward is no longer heavy, and this is due to the fact that they have been playing the winging forward and have relied upon speed and breaking up for their success.

Their past policy has definitely been to play loose and to open up the game as much as possible, and they have got right away from solid scrummaging. But they will undoubtedly send over a good pack of forwards m 1940 if they take heed of any lessons we gave them. Liue-out Work Unimpressive We showed that our formation of 4—3—l was the best possible, and toward the end of the tour we found that our methods were gradually being adopted and there was an improvement in their forward play to the extent that the forwards opposing us stayed in the scrum and did some good and solid shoving,! You can be sure New Zealand will hunt the land to get a pack together of the Springbolts’ weight arid physique. We were beaten in the first test because certain key men in our pack were unable to play and because some of those who did play were inexperienced in really big Rugby. I was unduly impressed by the lineout work of the New Zealand forwards. They were not up to our standard and I think you will find in the 1940 tests that we will beat them in this department. New Zealand Rugby as I saw it seems to have suffered from the professional code, since in order to combat that game and keep their crowds the amateurs resorted to a loose type of game which could be quite successful against Australian and (British teams, tout utterly useless against South Africa’s clearly-defined methods, and when we started shoving them they woke up with a vengeance. They could see that toy our solid scrummaging the game could be opened up with considerable satisfaction tooth to the players and to the spectators. and I feel sure they will revert to their old type of game.