FOOTBALL.

Hokitika Guardian, 31 August 1928, Page 1

FOOTBALL.

TO-MORROW’S GAMES. On Cass Square to-morrow, commencing at 1.30 p.m. a. visiting team from Burnett’s Face, Westport, will play Excelsior third-grade. At 3 p.m. the senior game Kiwi v. Stars (Grey) is set down, while the filial for the Breeze Shield will be played between the two junior teams, Ross and lliniu. 'The Excelsior seniors travel to Greymouth to play United. Star seniors to play Kiwis at Ho kitika to-morrow are as (follows: King, Gibbons, Fong, Brown, Pascoe Brown, Reynolds, Stevens, Meredith, Steel, Robinson, Caulton, Cochrane, Fell, Birss, Nelson, Clarke and Saund ers. Kiwi seniors v. Stars on Cass Square to-morrow : —Moynilian, Pfahlert, Leslie, Mclntosh, White, Milne, Dawson. Hall, Hagai', McCleary, Perham, Stevens, Tainui, Pfahlert, Keller, MoFarlane, Muirlioad, Wilson. THE FOURTH TEST. The All Blacks play the last match of their South African tour at Capetown to-morrow, when the fourth test will he decided, and the outcome, in view of the last few matches, and the injuries received by a number of the players during the'tour, is not at al hopeful. The 1928 All Blacks have found the champion South African provincial team a hard nut to crack. The Cape Town clubs defeated the All Blacks m the (second match of the tour by 7—3, and on Saturday last the full strength of Western Province routed the pride of New Zealand on the famous NcwLuuh ground by 10—3. It is clearly evident that the South Africans are our masters on the Rugby field at the present time. It is a. significant fact that each time the A! Blacks have met the strongest Font I African teams they have had to fighl for their very lives, and not alway successfully. Western Province ha beaten our fellows twice, and 14:< Transvaal beat tbe AH Blacks in the first game by (i to nil, the New Zealanders winning tbe return match by s—o. Five defeats have already been recorded against the New Zealanders on the present tour, with every indication that a sixth will go down on tbe record on Saturday when the fourth Test match and final game of the tour will be played. This is the largest numlier of defeats which a touring New Zealand team has ever suffered, and is a .striking proof of the undoubted superiority of the South Africans. The Management Committee of the New Zealand Rugby Union did not take too kindly to South Africa’s request that four Test matches should be included iu the itinerary. Tt is just as well that New Zealand agreed to the proposal, otherwise the Rugby supremacy of the world would by tbi<time 'have passed from, our keeping. Il Now Zealand can succeed in winning on Saturday, honours in the test matches will bo easy, and the two great Rugby countries will stand where they did in 1921, when they finished all square in the Tests. South Africa, however, has proved so superior in the majority of the Tests on the present tour that there seems little hope of the All Blacks winning on Saturday. That they will fight to the last gasp on Saturday for the honour of New Zealand we know, hut unless they can produce hotter form than they have yet done it seems c-er-tuln that the South Africans will prove their Undoubted right to bo classed as tbe champion Rugby nation of the world.