NEW ZEALAND FOOTBALLERS

Gisborne Times, Volume XIX, Issue 1597, 8 November 1905, Page 4

NEW ZEALAND FOOTBALLERS

THE WORLD’S GREAT TEAM.

By, telegraph', Eresa A'as'n, Copyright ' Bydnoy, Nov. 7.

Tho London Daily Chronicle Bays, rospooling tho MiddlcßOX match : Evon the magnitude of tho ocoro doos not adequately express tho superiority shown by Now Zealand over tho Middloocx fifteen, who were to expose tho limitations of the Now Zealand gamo. Tho Middlesex paok, sup*, ported by an equally oeml lntorndtional division of books, was to roaisfc wboro other oountioß had subsided. Tho hopeful oxpeotation of'a sensationally oven 'game drew an attendance whioh In number and spirit was more appropriate to an Association Oup lie than to the hitherto moribund Rugby. Tboro wero times ' when the I spectators wero ablo to exclaim, " Now Middlesex are doing well." This meant a temporary suspension of try-making on two cooasione.. The faot that .they, readily remembered is'in itself' an expression of the general trend of play. Middlesex might have sooredonoe. Their failure to pursue the attack to d successful issud was duo to their own weakness rathor than to superlative opposition, but in truth the New Zealanders were not in the least danger when the other side bad the ball. The certainly with which they built' order out of ohoos, the consummate ability displayed in reversing the attack, the supreme subtlety ati fointing, tho' inexhaustible stamina and perfect application 'ot strength, ob well as the ooonomy of it, the automatic regularity of baoking up—all tbis, and many other qualities were loft kindly impressed on' the minds of tho spectators. These Now Zealanders dp not slip short at stifling a rush ; they turn de'enoo into attaok with suoh bewildering rajidity as tojprove that sorummage itself is i mero detail whioh is of the ‘ slightest coisequonco. The fact that they suaceed in ho scrum as out of it indicates the geroral strength. There is nothing in the gone in whioh they do not excel. Yesterdays kioking into touoh was not quite, so botsistent bb usual, but on the other bend the feinting and passing was perhaps claner than had previously been the ease; Onthe oooasion of tho third try Hunter, the five-eighths,; writhed and slithered though the Middlesex books to the otter disomfiture of Maddooks and .Godfrey. Thefourth try, the first unconverted, was theleqnel to one of the most consummate bitsjf deception possible to see, Wallace gettag the ball close to the touoh-line, and by haping to acknowledge a difficulty aotaily getting over, though both Hosken and Haddocks were waiting for him. Those Middesex oraoks, who ore oertainly not ■withut honor 1 in their own oountry or oounles, failed away into abject nothingness, All the cleverness possessed in the attach was stifled at birth. They were neither so quiok nor so oiever as the New Zealoiders, who converted thbir game as muohio an exposure of impotenoy as of their iwn brilliance, Even when they

were bid they were still aotivei as for instanoeln the ease of Stead, who managed a fineouoh with a brilliant; long sorew kick nbilo he was being pulled round for a secondtime. If there was any outstanding geiius, however, it was Smith.