RUGBY FOOTBALL.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 14 June 1924, Page 9

RUGBY FOOTBALL.

HAWERA v. INGLEWOOD. The above match, played at Hawera, provided quite a keen contest, and the Inglewood team deserve great praise for the manner in which the lighter forwards stood up to the local heavies. The Hawera side displayed better football than for some time* past. The forwards worked with better effect, and the backs made good use of their opportunities. The scrum work of the Hawera. side is not yet good, and the weight does not seem to be used to the best advantage. Considering the supposed talent possessed by the forwards, the ball should be made to come out more frequently and better to the half. There seems to be too great a tendency for men to stop pushing and to break away quicker than need be. This is noticeable when close to the opponents’ line. When the ball is wanted by the backs to finish off the job by getting tries, there is no surety that the forwards will complete their portion of the work. Something is wanting, and it surely means that practice is not being indulged in by the team as a whole. Taking the province right through, the scrumming is poor and the men are never properly placed. Piano players are all right in their place, but the Rugby football field is not where they are wanted. Jarvie at full back did not field the ball too surely,, and let himself get bustled once or twice. He must also remember that a full back should take the ball on the full whenever possible, and not wait for the bound. Brown was the best of the three-

quarters, and stood out as the star of the field. His runs were good and gained heaps of ground. The wings did not support him too well. Whittington and Thomas did not gather in the passes very well, otherwise about four more tries would certainly have teen scored. Their defensive work was fair. McGregor and Lay played well together at five-eighths. " The latter gathered in his passes remarkably well, and showed more than ordinary promise on the day. McGregor runs well, and is on the lookout for openings. Ilis defence is first class. Patterson at half did well, except that he did not seem to be able to always give decent passes to Lay. No doubt practice will remedy the defect. The forwards played well in the open and on the line-out. Chadwick, Robinson, West, and Patterson were the best The first-named executed some good dribbles, one of which resulted in a try. Osborne has found his position at wing forward and put in good work. The charge of unnecessary keenness levelled at him by a contemporary was quite without foundation. The Inglewood forwards were grafters and kept going at a solid pace, but lacked weight. They were not equal to the home side oh the line-out nor in the tight work. When the ball got loose they took a lot of stopping. Gernhoeffer and Lawrence were most prominent, but all did well. The hacks did not display much ability, and only Ross at wing threequarters was at all dangerous. This player is fast and goes for the line with determination, which is quite refreshing. Coutts at centre could not bold

Brown in check and his place-kicking was awful. The Inglewood side badly want a couple of good, inside backs to help on the good work of the forwards. KAPONGA v. OLD BOYS. In the Kaponga—Old Boys game the superior weight of the Kaponga pack, who dominated play during the second spell, proved too strong for the lighter Old Boys. The latter’s rearguard, how. ever, are to be congratulated upon their sterling defence when, during the second half of the game, their line was constantly threatened. Though Kaponga’s assaults resulted in tries on four occasions, it is to the credit of the sound tackling and rapid interception by the Old Boys’ backs that the score of the ■winners was not considerably augmented. Rain fell continuously, and conditions could hardly have been less favourable to speedy play and sure handling, and except for a short period during the early stages, when Old Boys showed in some promising movements, very little hack play was witnessed. Kaponga’s victory was unquestionably due to the vim displayed by their forwards, all of whom sustained the hard game in the hind right to the finish. Discrimination proved difficult, though Dawson must be credited with a useful performance in the tight work. Also, as lock, he held the scrum well and gave his hookers the support which enabled them to secure the majority of the balls. Thoumine effected a great deal of solo dribbling and, with C. Evans, Guthrie, and Martin, was constantly notable in the loose. Kissiek proved a fine leader, and as wing forward he gave the Old Boys’ half and his supports a lot of trouble. Lynskey, behind the scrum, handled with sureness. and lost no time in getitng the ball away. Considering its greasy condition, lie cleared with exceptional swiftness and his passes were well directed. Guy, at first five-eighth, never missed a ball or a tackle, and was conspicuous both in attack and defence. Briggs, fill lirnim »-»1 .1 * L 1 . _

on the right wing, played with customary determination and proved difficult to stop. Though not so aggressive, C. Paterson, on the other wing, showed good judgment in kicking to open places. One of these —a cross kick — allowed 'Scott to open Kaponga’s score. Mault, who in the absence of Whalen w'as moved hack to the last line, lidded well under the difficult conditions, and showed dash on several occasions in coming up to initiate passing movements. The Old Boys’ pack could not show to advantage against their heavier opponents, but played with commendable pluck and determination and combined well. On the day’s play Brewster and Rawlinson could be given credit for much useful work. Atkinson, the wing forward, played well in the loose rushes, but was a bit slow in getting round the scrum. Morey, the plucky little half, used head, hands and feet. Tte effected many openings until startling rapidity, and when on the defensive he went down fearlessly to check the opposing van. His display during the last' fifteen minutes was outstanding. Of the other backs. Nasmith and Bullard were the most noticeable. The former was sound at centre, and the latter, on the right wing, was dangerous whenever hi s side got within striking distance. representative teams. It has been said that because Taranaki got three men into the New Zealand team our football is fully up to standard. That may be the view held by some, but there is no blinking the fact that the recent defeat by Wangn-

nui was a severe and unpalatable one, and one cannot deny that last season Auckland and Hawke’s Bay both gave Taranaki the father of a hiding. This season does not show any material improvement in play, and unless the authorities take it into their heads that progress is wanted, not stagnation, the record in provincial matches at the end of the season is not going to he a glorious one. It has been stated that a very prominent official of the Union said that Taranaki were not hankering for the JRanfurly Shield. Of course he might not have been speaking seriously, but if he was serious, then he must be either a wit of the first water, or one who has no sense of proportion. If the Taranaki Union officials were • to set themselves seriously to the job of making every effort towards getting the shield over here, they would be surprised at the way things would buzz in the football world. Their would be something for the public to focus their thoughts on, and the Union’s finances would soon show a great improvement. Gne shudders at the thought of shekels in connection with ft-ugby. At the same time money is necessary, and the state of the finances is a sure barometer as to the public interest. Some years ago this province was one of the best, but it has slipped . somewhat, and it is not too much to ask that the most strenuous endeavours should be made to get it hack again ! into the place of honour. Wc have i the men, the grounds, and a public; : their let the Union come to light with a high aim and steadfast purpose and they have a big chance to achieve that i aim. , It may he added that, speaking in a i, general way, representative football is > a reflex of club form, and therefore club committees should do their utmost to. improve the standard of plav of . their teams, first by seeing to it "that

: Payers train, and thus are in first-class . condition, and second that the utmost ; endeavour be made to get some coaching iu team work. Jt a player is used ; to playing with his team in eombina- . fcion, and knows t how and when to pass . he will be able to link up quickly in . any other combination of players almost from the first time they come together. . Some backs naturally have ■ arities of their own, but generally speaking the principles of combined i play are the same, and therefore a player who plays ordinarily goo f ] foot- ; hall should Jink up easily with most other players. This will serve to em~ ; phasise the necessity of clubs striving , hard to improve the standard of chib , football. l A GREAT FULL-BACK. , “He i s another Billy Warbrick,” was the verdict “Tabby” Wvnyard who , went home, with the 1888-89 New Zealand- native- team, had to- pass upon i e pia. in a chat with “Five-Eighths,” of The Dominion, the other day. “Nep’ia ,- is Just as full of life as Billy Warbrick was in his best days. Warbrick was never at rest. He was always on the move, and what a great full-back he , was! He never waited for the fast, , heavy English three-quarter backs to come, to him. He used to charge , straight for them and lift their feet from under them. Frequently he would come up instead of kicking, and join in with the backs , in passing rushes. Nepia reminds me very much of Billy’ and the Dannevirke man is the best I have seen in the position since Warbrick’s day,” \ COMMENTS ON ALL BLACKS, 1924.

(The Dominion.) “Is there a Seeling or a Fred Roberts in the All Blacks team?” The question has been argued throughout the past W€ ek, since the team was chosen. Strangely enough, the highest’ commendation of the team that one has heard comes from old internationals—the men who carried the Silver Fern to victory in the memorable tour of 1905. “The 1924 forward combination is a finer combination than ours,” said one of the 1900 forwards, who was regarded as the greatest of living forwards in his day. The backs have in Cooke the finest live-eighths I have ever seen,” said one of the *1905 backs, who was held to he among the first flight of backs in his day. We join with the press of New Zealand in commending" the work of the seven selectors. When they were appointed we believed that three would have done the work better. One cannot, however, conceive a. more exhaustive test than the group selection trials and the subsequent tests that culminated in the final trial between the Possibles and Probables. The fact that the selectors did not spend more than two hours in choosing the final batch of thirteen players suggests that there was not much disagreement between them. Summarising the criticism of the newspapers in the twelve largest centres of New Zealand, it denotes: 1.-—The choice of 29 players with but one recognised full-back, is fraught with danger, especially when it is difficult to locate among the remaining 28 players one who “could he entrusted with the job of full-back in a big international fixture, such as the matches against England and Scotland. -• W bile there is a chorus of approval of the forwards chosen, critics ato not all satisfied with the choice oi hacks; this applies especial I v to the men selected for the half-back position. We do not affirm the criticism that suggests that Dailey and (or) Mill should not be in the team. Wo realise the

uitll(!Uji-ics tlie- .selectors i.ii inakiir*' their choice. and are quite preoared to ■ believe that their deliberations ‘centred i lor a lan" time on this jiJim;-: of I heir 1 jd lsk - H appear.; !(.)!• ic;,l l]ei 1 (ICI i(j11 tliilt the .dimuni of (•> ilmmm levelled ngai nst Lho ehoieo of Dallev and Mill 1 "onld he of equal vohune had one or both of them been dropped. ! GOOD .ADVICE, Jimmy Duncan, of Dunedin, wbnyas • coach to the 1905 All Blocks. has tlm - folio" - mg to say: “It is far easier to - instruct players by means oi diagrams and blackboards and then carry out the I movements at practice afterwards than to shout instructions across a field. ’ The selectors intend to see, too, that : tke chosen (All Black) placers attend 1 the lectures and the practices.”