THE SPRINGBOKS' TOUR

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 12, 29 January 1937, Page 12

THE SPRINGBOKS' TOUR

"Magpie")

Australian's Opinion on Last Year's All Blacks MUCH DEPENDS ON HALF-BACK

(By

Althong'h it is yet summer, a momentous season for Rugby is not far from commeneement, and I am reminded that the passing of a mere eight weeks will find Rugby players partaking in various Easter tournaments, and those not so engaged will be limbering up in readiness for what promises to be one of the longest playing- seasons on record, so far as this Dominion is concerned. Particularly is this so for Hawke's Bay, who have a representative programme of no fewer than 18 matches, including one with the Springboks in mid-September. It is the comlng of the doughty South Africans that has kept Rugby, during the off-season, much closer to us than is usually the case.

1' feel somewhaib guilty of trespassing on. the territory of summer sport at such a time, but so much has been pu'blished concerning the Springboks during the last few weeks that I too feel constrained to enter* the lists with a f-ontribution bec&use of the public interest apparent already in thq pending invasion of tbe Springboks. lieaders will remember the visit hei'e last spring of the Australian Rugby side and also of the complimentary advance publicity anent their prowess as Rugby expdnents . Some people described the preliminary advertising of the greatness of the Australians as ."ballyhoo" ; certain it is that the visitors never once approached the high opinions that preceded them, and as vve are being treated now to similar opinions concerning the Springboks it is well parhaps .to take such estimates of the visitors' greatness with the proverbial "grain of salt". Included in last year's Australian side was BilJ Cerutti, a much travelled player, and a very likeable gentleman off field, as he was mostly during the New Zealand tour because of a fractured cheekbone sustained in the opening match against Auckland. Bill has since written to the "Outspan", a Bloemfontein weekly, his impressions of New Zealand Rugby and this pulxlished opinion is in most instances the reverss of complimentary to New Zealand. In arriving at bis opinion Bill has been called upon to do some artistic sidestepping, and never once in his article does he refer to the fact that his side won only three of the ten matches played. However, read an extract from the article; "Nevertheless, jn the Test engagements the WaJlabies more tnan held the All Blacks in the first game — which was a moral though not actual victory for AuBtralia — and in the second outplayed New Zealand for the first sixty minutes of the eighty playing moments, then to be overwlieimed. fiiven then this defeat was not acfually attributable to superior play by New Zealand, but rather to the capitalisation by New Zealand of errors made by tbe Australian backs who became demoralised when disasters overtook their adventurous sorties in the All Blacks' territories." Further on he says, "Two thirds of the New Zealand team had toured Great Britain, and, though perhaps a

bit jaded after three football seasons on end, it was expected that combination, tactics, etc., would be of a high order. Not so. As a matter of cold fact, the Wallabies actualiy called the tune in th© Tests and the All Blacks danced accordingly. Austi'alia dominated the forward play and won set scrums, rucks and hne-outs, and had the back play been of corresponding excellence in execution, the AU Blacks would have lost the Tests," Bill then goes on to propkesy a victory for th© Springboks in the Tests with New Zealand, and further on mentions that the best forward met on their tour of New Zealand was Tori Reid, of Hawke's Bay. The article, despite inany inaccuracies, is very readable, and coming from the pen of a wiaely-travelled player would undoubtedfy attract great at.tention in South Africa. While it is well that we should have no delusiong. concerning our own strength, the article will probably assist us by causiug a fals© impression iu South Africa of our real ability. The South Africah touring side has not yet been selected, but the critics over there appear to be fairly sur© of the players who will be chosen and they have fastenqd on the forwards as the real strength of the party. This is perhaps not very aprprising, but in thedr descriptive writings they have used the superlative almost wholly on the forwards and left very little for the backs. From this I think we can safely assume that back play in South Africa, as it is in this country, is uilSer a, cloud. Just how much it has falleu off over there we can only guess, but to me th© Jack of inside backs in South Afrioa is fairlly acute ancf its awareness tends to even greater reliance on half-back Danie Craven. Time alone will tell if this is correct, but if Craven fails to- produce his form of a few years back then South Africa will be in a bad way, and it must be remembered that Graven last winter did not play as he had done in previous seasons. So much for th© future, but in order to permit readers to judge for themselves I propose jn subsequent articles briefly to review tbe past in respect to New Zealand and South African football, commencing with the tour of the latter country by the New- Zealand soldier team in 1919.