RUGBY FOOTBALL

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 182, 3 July 1937, Page 6

RUGBY FOOTBALL

MASSEY COLLEGE TEAM. THREE ’VARSITY WINS. (Ry “Front Row.”) Massey College scored their third win this season in an inter-varsity mutch when they beat a strong Auckland University College team by 9 points to 8 at Auckland. Massey College had earlier beaten Victoria College 24—8, and Lincoln Agricultural College, 38—0. They were without the services of Francis and Sutton, two of their best players, in the match at Auckland, where they met a power-, ful team which included R. G. Bush, All Black lull-back in 1931, Auckland, North Island, Otago, South Island, New Zealand University representative; D. Martin, centre three-quarter, one of the most promising backs in Auckland;; D. Reid, half-back, improving with every game, and fully up to representative standard; E. C. Cooney, fiyeeighth. fast and tricky; D. Myjvilull, five-eighth, playing fine football this season; H. M. Foreman, member of last year’s Otago Ranfurly Shield team in all its victories except against Auckland (he broke a rib early in the season, but is now fully recovered, and playing fine football); R. J. Thomas, one of the best forwards for his weight in Auckland (toured Japan, 1935); L. S. Drake, Auckland representative 1932-33-34-36-37, New Zealand University 1933-35-36, Southern tour with Auckland representatives 1932 and 1936. toured Japan 1935; W. Lange, amongst the forwards selected for training for Springboks match; R. A. Armitage, Auckland B representative and New Zealand University blue. 1936.

Brilliant Five-Eighth. Have the All Black selectors at last found the first five-eighth for whom they have been looking, and has their quest ended with a discovery from one of the most remote back districts of New Zealand? Twice now All Black selectors have paid special visits to Tnumarunui to see in action C. A. Crossman, the King Country’s hope for the first five-eighth position in the New Zealand team to beat the Springboks. After Crossman’s sensational game for King Country against Auckland last season, when he scored four tries from the first five-eighth position, Mr E. McKenzie, chairman of the New Zealand selection committee, and Mr M. F. Nicholls, one of its members, watched Crossman at Taumarunui. They were impressed with his speed and his incisive dash and they went away with the belief that Crossman might be the answer to New Zealand’s five-eighth problem. Again last Saturday Mr Nicholls and a co-opted North Island selector, Mr H. Masters, of Taranaki, watched Crossman in the King CountryWaikato game at Taumarunui. Crossman played a brilliant game when King Country, who have no less than four players in the running for All Black honours, overwhelmed Waikato. Educated at , Stratford District High School, Crossman learned his early football there. After leaving school he took his place behind the Inglewood senior pack, but the following season he went to Auckland and played wingforward for Training College. When the wing-forward was abolished, Crossman returned to his old position of half-back, but when lie returned to Waitara a couple of years later he started off with the Clifton Club as a first five-eighth. In 1933 Crossman broke a leg and he was out of the game for the greater part of that season. He now plays for Ohura. Crossman is 24 years of age, list 121 b, and oft B^in.

Phillips Makes The Grade. Though ho came on as a reserve, replacing an injured man, W. J. Phillips was the outstanding Maori back who appeared against the Australians at Palmerston North last year. Aged 23, 6ft in height and weighing 13st 101 b, Phillips is another King Country hope who has every chance of playing himself into the All Black side now that he has been selected as a North Island wing three-quarter. He is a flyer of the type of C. Smith, the magnificent Hawke’s Bay Maori three-quarter now in England, and runs with grit and determination. D. Barton, of Wanganui, has been selected as a reserve threequarter for the North Island team. He is very fast off the mark, has a deceptive swerve, and was riddljng the Manawatu defence with his swift runs in the match played on the King’s Birthdav holiday. With Watt, Sullivan anil Phillips in the three-quarter line, the North Island team will have a trio of speed merchants.

Killeen As Centre. R. A. Killeen, Grafton, Auckland, and All Black five-eighth and centre three-quarter, was the only additional Auckland nominee for the North Island team and the trial matches for selection of the All Blacks, and has found a place in the latter as centre threequarter. Two forwards who were expected to be nominated, H. F. McLean (Grafton) and T. M. Lockington (Grammar), were not available through injury. They are suffering from broken bones in the thumb and wrist respectively. Injured in the AucklandWaikato game, Killeen was ready to turn out for his team. Grafton, last Week. A medical certificate indicated that his ankle was fit to play on. The Auckland sole selector sent Killeen’s nomination, together with the medical certificate, to tlie New Zealand Rugby Union

Former All Black. As New Zealand prepares to meet another Springbok invasion, the man who captained the All Black side which met South Africa in the first and second Tests in 1921 lies seriously ill at Hanmer. He is G. G. Aitken, New Zealand Rhodes Scholar of 1920, Wellington and New Zealand centre threequarter, and a member of the famous “flying four” of Scotland, when G. P. S. MacPherson, lan Smith, A. C. Wallace and G. G. Aitken made up the Scottish three-quarter line. Aiken was selected as Rhodes Scholar in 1922, the vacancy which he was awarded having become available because the 1920 nominee had given up his scholarship. He left New Zealand for Oxford in that year after captaining the Victoria University College first fifteen, playing in the Wellington representative team, captaining New Zealand University against Sydney University in 1920 and 1921, and leading the All Blacks against the Springboks at Dunedin and at Auckland. He did not play in the third Test at Wellington, fie was also 440yds hurdling champion of the New Zealand University in 1919, and second that year in the New Zealand championship. At Oxford, where he gained his blue, Aitken took a B.A. degree. He came hack to New Zealand in 1925. However, he returned to England in 1926 and married. During a walking tour in Germany his wife became ill and died, and last year he returned to this country with his small son. Aitken was in poor health, and the man who had been capped twice for New Zealand and eight times for Scotland was forced to enter Hanmer sanatorium because of a lung affection. Otago Union’s Nominees. Little fault may be found with the nominations of Otago players to take part in the South Island-North Island match and in the All Black trials, states an Otago paper. All of the nine, with

the exception of T. Trevatlian, were members of the Otago team which last year successfully defended the Ranfurly Shield. T. Trevatlian, who is a brother of D. Trevatlian, was last year a member of the New Zealand League team, and on his reinstatement rejoined Southern, for which he played at the beginning of last year. He is now playing great football and both lie and his brother should have a fine chance of All Black honours. None of the nine players nominated has ever worn an All Black jersey, though all except ’l’. Trevatlian and Taylor have played for. the South Island; but all are experienced and well-balanced footballers capable of making a good showing in any company in New Zealand. Four have found a place in the South Island team, for which another two are reserves, D. Trevatlian being chosen as first five-eighth for the side. Two other Otago players have been selected for the first All Black trial match, eight of the nine nominees by the union having received recognition. Wynyard Not Included. J. W. Wynyard, the 1935 All Black, has been suffering from a knee injury

this season and has been playing at To Awamutu as wing three-quarter, hut hopes to resume his position in the forwards in the near future. He is a notable absentee from the teams selected for the North Island and for the All Black trials, for the latter of which, another 1935 All Black, J. Best, also playing now for Waikato, figures in the role of a reserve. Heaviest In Team. Scaling lost lib, the Manawatu All Black, R. M. McKenzie, /is the heaviest player in the inter-island teams, and Pollock, the full-back, who weights lOst 6lli, is the lightest, also the oldest, being 27. The average age of the players in the intcr-Island teams is 23 years. S. Reid (Hawke’s Bay), 6ft. 3in. in height, is tho tallest player. Turned To League. When Hawea Mataira, the former Hawke’s Bay Rugy representative, stepped on to Cnrlaw Park, Auckland, to play his first League game recently, he was the ninth member of the Maori team that toured Australia in 1935 to be converted to the thirteea-Angide game.