Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1905. OUR RUGBY TEAM.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 3600, 21 November 1905, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1905. OUR RUGBY TEAM.

Whatever we may have thought our boys capable of doing with the oval leather, since we read the' cabled report of their international , fixture with Scotland we are forced to admit they were severely tested. Certainly We Won, blit it was not without an effort. Scotland evidently put a very strong team in the field, and no doubt the experience gained by their captain (Bedell-Sivwright) when touring ■ Australasia last season > was judiciously used to stop a big score by the colonials, Sivwright did the correct thing when he elected to play three halves ( for if anything is to stop OUf atta&te it is the three half system, always provided the exponents know their business. It must have come as a shock to the colonials, after their long list of successes, to be in the rear at half time; but the necessary vigour and stamina was left in them, and this was plainly asserted by the rapidity with which they snatched the match out of the Scottish hands at the last moment. Still the struggle was too close and severe to be pleasant, and we may reasonably expect very close games with Ireland, England, and Wales. Both Ireland and Wales defeated Scotland last season, and it now remains for New Zealand to defeat all three remaining international fifteens to be donned the indisputable champion rugbyites of the world. We have every confidence in them doing so, but we look forward to very little difference in the scores against Ireland and Wales.