SPRINGBOKS LOOK BACK

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 73, 18 December 1937, Page 17

SPRINGBOKS LOOK BACK

1937 TOUR IN RETROSPECT "BOY" LOUW SAYS THAT FORM OF BACKS WAS FLATTERING POOR N.Z. TACKLING AND BACKING UP Arriving home in South Africa the victorious Spring-, bok Rugby team had some interesting things to say of New Zealand Rugby and of the standard set by their own team by ippinparison. One of the most interesting observations came frbm M. M. (-' - Boy") I^ouw, long recognised as one of the greatest masters of Bugby tactics in the world, He said jbhat South Africa will be disappointed in its backs because ■ thg NpW Zealand standard in the rearguard. was not a good measunng rule. He also had some interesting comments to make on scrummaging in the following interview with him, described by H. du P. Steytjer in the Cape Times. Louw, contrary tp the trend of opjnion in the Dominion, tfrought Npw Zealand would definitely scrap the old 2-3-2 scrum and . concentrate all its enprgies on perfeeting the 3-4,1 packing, which served the Springbbks so well.

A large and cnthu§is?tic crowd welComed the Western'Province mpmbers bf the Springfiok Rugby team wheji they anived In Cape Town, writes Mr Bteytler. All thf players lopkpd remarkably flt and well, yery pleased tq be bacfc home agalft— bpt probably very tired of answering the question: "Did you hav# a good time?" During the next few weeks I suppose they will often haye to reply to that question, and many otherg on the matches and inci-

denta during the tour, They all agreed that the tour had been a thorough juccesg from atart to fliwsh, and that the Springbok backs showed up particularly well, , The "Maatcr." I fastened on to the "Master" of the team, as he was. called, Boy Louw. I thlnk Boy is one of the best student? of the game we haye had for years, and he is always ready to digcuag the-play and players. He mad* the rather otartling ftatement to me that we roay, to a cextain extent, be disappointed In eur Springbok backs wlien we see . tbem en the field next year, "for the opposition rather fiattered oqr attacking and breaking powers," he declared. "Fortunately for us perhaps," he continued, "we apparently struck New Zealend ac rather a lean period, and their back play on the whole didn't come up to the international standard we know, and the standard they themselves set on their 1923 tour of our country. This was particularly the case in their defence. Our . centres sometimes went through gaps that should never have been there; and often it .was bad tackling that let our men in. _ "They failed to back up too, and in their own attack there seldom was a really constructive movement to the wing. Their style of play is for the liist centre to cut in and bring the play back to the scrum, a method that cannot be successful against a weli-trained pack that breaks quickly ani intelligently. The Test Defeat. "This was especially noticeable in Ihe first Test in New Zealand when they beat us, The All Black forwards played wonderfully well on that day, and if their backs had used their op-

' portunities to better advantage, they must have scored at least anqther eight points." "In that game we were defeated by a better team, and even if the Springboks had altered the ipakeup of their side, I don't tbink we could have beaten the All Blacks ou the forra they showed that day." Boy Ikjuw expreseed great admiration for the way in which the All Blacks played at forward. "They shoved a 3-4-1 scrum against us," he told me, "and in most cases all

eight meu played a tight game and made us work very hara. They tried a kind of a rover in one Test, but he was diopped fqr the next, "And yet, gqmehow 1 don't think the New Zealanders have their whole heart and squl ip the 3-4,1 formation. Many of ^the eqthusiasts there will hanker after their famous diamond formgtion, jhe 2-3-2 with ope man looge. "We had many arguments about the merits of the rival formations, but 1 think that New Zealand will now, after pqr tour, definitely decide that the 3*4*1 is the best fprmation taking everything into cpnsideration; and, as their forwards gain experience in playing it, they should be every whit as good aa a Springbok pack!" Boy Louw expressed great admiraition for the way in whieh the whole South African sldp played and pullpd jtogether, and always gave of their Jbest. "But do not be . disappointed if you flnd next season that our baeks do not quite reach the heights thiey did in New Zealand and Australia," he concluded. I also had a chat with Louis Babrow who was the star centre of the party, One oi! the first questions Mr. A. F, Markotter, the S,A, selector put to hina when h^ tnet hihi, was: VWhat has happened to your hands?" It was a rather remarkable part of Babro\y's play pverseas that his "bad hands" disappeared as spon as he set foot in Australia. Louis told me that although he would not in ahy way caU the AU Black defence weak, they left gaps

that one should hardly get in international matches, and their backing up, too, was not intensiye enough, "Often a back of the home team found himself isolated after a break with no support in the offing and forced to go on his own," he said. "Against such play our defence usually prevailed. . "That was the one big diilerence in our s'ylos of play: a Springbok seldom was left with no one to pass to; the New Zealamders, especially iu the provincial games, often found themselves alone." "But it wasn't pnly the baqks who made the many fine movements we had, possible," Babrow continued. "Behind a pack sucli as we had in Australia and New Zealand one had to be bad indeed not to play well. How that ball did come from the sqrufiis. A lcng and swift pass from Craven or Pierre de Villiers, Harris or Van de Vyver away like a fiash— and the most we centres had to do, was to run, run liard, and run straight." "It was a real pleasure playing behind such a pack. I have heard arguments that the pack of the 1931 Springbok British tour was better than our pack. It is hard to believe, I, for one, don't want any better forwards to play behind." , That Kick. Gerry Brand, who with Boy Louw was on the touring selection committee, had nothing but praise for the way in which the forwards and backs combined to makq the tour the sucqess it wds. He told me that he doesh't want anotiier kick like the one he had in the second All Black Test when the score was 6—5 in the home team's favour and the penalty kick he took charge of had to decide the winning or losing of the match — as it seemed at that time. "No, I wasn't excited in the least," he said with a laugh.