RUGBY NOTES

Hutt News, Volume 1, Issue 4, 20 May 1927, Page 3

RUGBY NOTES

(By "Onlooker")

HUTT v. 'VARSITY AND PONEKE

Any follower of Rugby reading the results of these two games—l 6-3 and 26-3 in favour of the visiting teams, would form the conclusion that the games were one-sided—such was not the case in either instance. Territorially, Hutt had a slight advantage in both games, but lack of finish, bad backing up and the slowness of the wings being responsible for several tries being thrown away. The members of the local vanguard can hold their own with anything in the competition in most phases of the play, with the exception of dribbling, the tendency of one or two players to kick too hard when near the line probably resulted in the loss of two tries in the Poneke game. Lack of weight in the scrum at the critical moment resulted in their opponents pushing them off the ball after they had hooked it. In last Saturday's match, a tall, raking forward (Peck) made his first appearance and immediately caught the eye on line-out work, feeding his backs in great style, but bad tactics spoilt this player's work, as Poneke quickly sized up the situation and had him well marked—despite this, the ball was thrown to him, when other players were practically unmarked. McGill, another new forward, is a decided acquisition, he seems to have a thorough knowledge of the game, and was the fastest forward on the paddock. In conversation with several players and supporters, I gained the information that the members of the Hutt team do not get together enough and talk things over, so that any stunts that could be worked are not made known to the majority of the players—a twenty minutes talk together after training, would do quite a lot of good. lam assured that the attendance at gymnasium on training nights, is all that it should be, so lack of training cannot be the cause of the recent reverses suffered. As stated before, the weakness in the local team is behind the scrum. In the University game, two fast wings would probably have pulled the game out of the fire. It was unfortunate that Gibson had to leave the field, just when Hutt started to open the game up, he being undoubtedly a good attacking back, quite capable of making the openings required to make scoring a try a possibility. In this game McDougall and Munro showed very good form, with Fisher shining on defence—his attacking work was not up to standard. Hume and Forsyth were too slow for three-quarters, although both did their share of defensive work. Baiks, although suffering with an injured rib, showed that he is too old for the game. No doubt, some other full back has got to be found to take his place, and the sooner an effort is made to find one, the better it will.be for the team as a whole. Balks is to be commended for the way he has assisted the club, but he will no doubt admit, that he should give way to a younger man. In the Poneke match, Balks, Gibson and Fisher were absentees (the latter being on holidays). Borntsen (a fqrward) took the full back position, and made, quite a fair job of it—it was pleasing to see him take the ball on the full, when possible, in direct contrast to Balks, wjio

invariably waits for the bounce. Brown filled Gibson's place, and was not a success, he passed too soon, instead of drawing his man, and on several occasions passed to a man, who was in a worse position than himself. On several occasions two men were waiting to tackle Munro when he received the ball. A short punt on these occasions was the correct thing to do. Bennette, at half, played a rattling good game, going down to all the hard stuff and getting the ball away well to his backs. The writer hopes that both Fisher and Bonetti will find places in the next team picked. The three-quarter line was a distinct improvement on the 'Varsity match, but one would have liked to have seen McCarthy get more of the ball. Unfortunately the play did not seem to come hie way. Hume had a hard man to mark in Edgar, but kept him in hand well. It is a pity that he could not develop into a better attacking player. McDougall did not play quite as well as usual, and on a couple of occasions gave blind passes, thus upsetting promising back movements. Of the forwards, Shanahan, Sundgren, Dailey and Turei have maintained the good form they showed against Petone; but Smith is not improving as much as expected. W. George ij unquestionably the best rover seen in action during the last three matches, and Jessup (of the Poneke team) he was up against the best wing forward he will have to meet during the season. Against such clever exponents of forward play as Poneke, the local forwards came out with credit, and when one or two little points of the game are made known to them, will be as good, if not better than any in the competition. It is rather unfortunate that the "3rds and Intermediate teams were drawn against such strong teams early in the competitions, as a lot of new players have joined up, with the result that it will take three or, four matches to sort out the best players and develop combination. The Junior team this year consists of the following new players: Wilson, Jeffcott, Coleman, Mitchell, Ottoway, Jarman, Fetzer, while Sundgreen, Langford, Rae and Slater have been promoted from the third grade, so that it will take a few matches to get any sort of cohesion so necessary to a successful team. Fortunately^ they have succeeded in winning their first two matches by narrow margins. The Fifth-grade team scored a welleaerned victory over Pefcone, the first time for many years, that the local boys have been, able to beat the boys from "the village" in this grade. They showed 100 per cent improvement on the match against Oriental, which they lost 8-0. Outstanding players were Killeen and Feeney in the backs, and Deans and Lambertson the forwards. Deans will develop into a great goal kicker if he will only take more time and care in placing the ball. Fourth Grade. On paper, they appear to have a very strong^ team, and under the able coaching of Mr. McGill, should get in the first three teams by the end of the season. Further notes on lower grade teams will be published when space permits. The club would appreciate the services of three or four gentlemen on Tuesday and Thursday nights to assist with the rubbing down of players. Anyone willing to help in this direction is required to attend at the gymnasium on the above nights.