Rugby Football.

Free Lance, Volume VI, Issue 272, 16 September 1905, Page 19

Rugby Football.

HOW have the mighty fallen ! The Wellington representative/ team returned from their Southern tour on Monday with nary a. win to their credit. There were several who hoped) that history would repeat itself. In 1897, the Wellington players were defeated on the Athletic Park by the Auoklandexis, and the team that year left for the South with no flourish of trumpets, yet they defeated Canterbury, Southland, and Otago before they returned. And what a great recaption they got 1 when they tlanded on the Queen's Wharf. History did repeat itself in so far that Auckland defeated us, andl the team had a very quiet send-off, and there the coincidence ceases. On this occasion, the team were defeated by Canterbury, and the games with Southland and Otago were both drawn. The total points scored in the three matches were 9 for and 12 against. * * * Yarning with Mr. Jordan, the manager of the team, he tells me that the team met with bad luck all the way through. In Christchurch it radned persistently from the time they arrived there til after the match, and they •hiad no opportunity of a run together before the* game. And 1 Lancaster Park was in'<a terrible mess, mud and slush predominating. Tell it not in Gath! The player whom the Christchurch spectators wanted put off the field by the referee was "Cocky" Dawson, who, they asserted, deliberately tripped an opponent. As was to be expected, the players had a great job to keep their feet under control, and the tripping in question, was an accident pure and simple. Later in the game Dawson himself was similarly treated by a Canterbury player, but on this occasion the spectators were silent. They were enthusiasts, though, and can. be excused — £15 was taken at the gates. In Southland, the weather was much kinder to the tourists, and! the ground was in excellent order. Very early in the second spell Watkins got a kick on the ankle which rendered 1 him a passenger for the rest of the game. This was bad enough in itself, but th© players complain that the refereeing was not of the best. In this connection, the managier of the team has a tale to tell. The names of four Dunedin referees weTe submitted to him from which to make a selection. At a meeting of the team, it was decided to ask for Downes, the old representative player. But Downes was not even asked to take the match, and another Dunedin gentleman was appointed whom the Wellington, team had not agreed to. It seems in this connection that an explanation should be asked for from the Southland Union by the local Union. * «• * In Dunedin, the weather was of the very worst, a thick misty rain, falling all the thfie the game was in progress. The Wellington players had the better of the deal, and were unfortunate in not coming out on top. Cross, through an accident in the New Zealand-Austra-lia match, and. Watkins, through the knock he got in the Southland match, were not playing. * * * The team were hospitably entertained by tibie three unions they visited, and had a very pleasant trip indeed. Mr. Jordan says his duties as manager were very light, every member of tihe team seeminig dletermined to dio his best for the umiom tihat sent them, forth. * • • "Well played, 'Mother 5 !" Year in and year out Tom Hales is to be found guarding the uprights for the Athletic Bemior team, and 'his form does not show much retrogression. The opening words of this paragraph were applied 1 to his play frequently last Saturday, which would seem to indicate he was doing himself justice. While watching his play my thoughts carried me back to the Auckland!-Wel-lington match in Auckland in 1900. "Tom 1 " played 1 the full-back game of his life that day, and, when I judge his capabilities, I always judge him by has display on that day. Everything that came 'his way— tackling, kicking, etc.— ■ ■wiere well done, and he capped at all by

potting a goal from the field. A redletter day in his career, which has been a long and honourable one. * <• • The total amount raised in Wellrngr ton towards the Ellison memorial stone did not quite reach £10. Manawatu and Wellington meet in Wellington on Saturday next, the 23rd instant. This will be the last match of the season. A forward that will be heaid from ere long is Wilson, the Athletic player of that name. He is particularly good on the Line-out. "Bernifi" Gallagher acted as referee in the Mamawatu-Taranaki match, at Palmerston North, on Wednesday. Congratulations to him. The takings at the New ZealandAustralia maj/ch at Dunedin amounted to £85. This means a (heavy loss to the New Zealand Union. The Thames people aire still in a ffood humour wath themselves. Last Saturday — the second time this season , too — Thames defeated Auckland!. Dawson played five-eighth for Wellington against Otago, and did well. There would be no harm in playing him there against Taranaki on Saturday. Kiernan, the half -back of the Auckland team, definitely stated when in Wellimcrton, that he would retire from aotlive serv.ee at the end of the present season. At the time of writing there is just a possibility that a match will be played next Saturday between the representative 0 nf the public schools of Wellington and Taranaki . The meeting of delegates of the Wellington Rugby Union to discuss thei report of the sub-committee appointed in re the district scheme will be held in about a month's time. The match between the junior representatives and the Athletics, on the Athletic Park last Saturday, did not cause any undue excitement, the final result — a draw — being a fair indication of the play. A typical error in my last notes caused a friend to write me all thei way from Masterton. I thank him. The MastertoTi senior team has scored 165 points this season — not 105 as mentioned in my notes. The referee in the Oriental-Johnson-ville fourth-class match gave a free-kick ©very time the player who was tackled with the ball passed it. This was a wrong decision, and one\ to which hie attention should be drawn by the Referees' Association. Wales has arranged' the following international matches for the coming season : — December 16, New Zealand ; January 13, England, at London; Februairy 3, Scotland, at Cardiff; March 10, Ireland, in Ireland. The first match of the New Zealand team's tour of th© Old Country will be played to-morrow (Saturday), against Devon County. The- news of the result of the match should reach Wellington between 10 and 11 o'clock on Sunday. The Australians play the final match of their tour against Auckland to-mor-row (Saturday). Though it has not been as successful as the pllayers from the other side of the Tasman Sea expected, they did well in. defeating such a good combination as Taranaki and Wanganui put against them last Saturday. I have to acknowledge from Mr. George Bradley, the well-known hairdresser of Lambton Quay, a pocket programme of the matches to be played l by the New Zealand toam in the Old Country. Space is allowed for the filling-in of the results, and, if kept systematically, should prove a valuable reference for the tour. A member of the Australian team, writing to a Sydney friend, says • — "In the Wellington match, the referee (Mr. MacMe) performed his duties grandly. Throughout impartial, he allowed the game to be as fast as possible, andi yet missed nothing. At Nelson, we had a local man (Mr. Chisholm), who was unsatisfactory to us." Somebody ought to tell Dennehy, the Kia Ora forward, who played in* the junior representative team last Saturday, that he wastes a tremendous lot of enerery to no purpose, and that if he isn't careful he will do an opponent an injury some day — for which he will himself be sorry — and that unintentionally, too. My advice to him. is to give the game up before that time comes. The manager of -the Auckland l team, after the Wellington match, wired to Auckland for an extra 1 back for the Wanganui match. Selector Murray sent Peter Gerrard to fill the gap, but, apparently, the tourists didn't want him, for they played with alleged cripples, and let the North Shoredte watch the play from thei line-out. It seems funny whichever way you think it out. A "Full-back" paragraph : —"To be known as one of the selectors of New Zealand football teams does not carry

with it any great honours, more especially; this season, when the gamin show their veneration, «s I overheard one each the other day relieve himself wi this fashion: "Yah! Yous can't pick a football team. Why [this with even greater derision], yous couldn't pick a hockey team!" The annual match between the representatives of the Taranaki and Wellington Unions will be played "on the Athletic Park to-morrow (Saturday). These two teams always put up a good game when tihey meet, and! Saturday's should prove no exception to thie general rule. As there has been a dearth of good football here far the last fortnight, a good muster of the general public should assemble to witness the game. The Sydney "Referee" writer says that the referee should! order the ball back if it is put right through the scrummage without being played. I think he is wrong;. The rule only provides for the ball being put past the first man of the scrumxnaeoe with the shorter front. If this is don© the law is carried out — tlie -onus is on the player® to see that it does not go through thei scrummage after it has touched the ground. The New Zealand Rugby Union do some strange things. They sent a member of the Committee — Mr. Weir, to wit — across- to Nelson with the Australian team, and they also sent tihe same gentleman to Manawatu, Tairanaki, and Auckland with the visitors. It was not considered necessary by that body to send a representative to the New Zealand match at Dunedin. Which, to a superficial observer, would have seemed the more preferable course to pursue. Bert Wills writes me fiom the Wellington Hospital: — "I am pleased to state I have not had my foot off as yet, but am having it cut about a bit. The only danger I have, so they tell me, is the big toe coming off. A rumour went round Palmerston North, that I would have to lose my foot, through an accident I met with playing for tihe Athletics on Easter Saturday. lam at present lying in Wellington Hospital, and am to be operated on early next week. I would 1 be pleased to see some of my old pails during my stay here." Harold Judd, of the Australian team, who stood dbwn from the matches against Nelson and Canterbury owinig to having caught a chill in Wellington, turned out for Australia in the big match against New Zealand on Saturday. He played a solid! game from end to end, infusing quite as much "devil" into bis play as afny New Zealandter. It was quite amusing to watch the big New South Wales forward and Cross — Tom of that ilk — on the- lineout. They watched each other like tiger cats, and, like them, ready to spring at the slightest provocation. If tthe New South Welshman secured ihe ball on the line, the New Zealamdier flung his arms acround his neck and hup-qred him like a long-lost brother, and if, by chance, the New Zealander secured the ball, the Welshman embraced him in tihe same loving manner . — An Otago comment. (Continued on page 20.)

A correspondent wants to know the first time Fred Roberts, now with the New Zealand team at Home, played in am interpirovinicial team? The answer to the question is— ln 1901, for Wellington against Marlborough. When I glanoed through the letter it set me thinking. I did not imagine my friend confounded Fredl with Harry of that ilk, the half-baok of the 1884 New Zealand team, the "daddy" of them all nn his own day, or any other day before or since in the Rugby football world in this colony. By the way, the word "daddy" reminds me of the fact that Harry has a couple of lads of his own now, who have just left school, who promise to make names for themselves on the Rugby field. I next wondered if my correspondent thought friend "Cocky" of that ilk was still dhasing the leather round. But, the cheerful one kept going tkll he became a veteran almost in the sere and yellow leaf— in fact, until his appearances on the football field in Wellington's behalf had numbered the halfdentury. The strangest thuig about the three Roberts mentioned in this note is that none of them is any sort of a relation to the others, although the whole three of them were brougt up in Wellington, and practically played all their football here. * * * I hear good reports of Gordon Smith, the youngest son of "Kitty" of that ilk, the well-known Highland dancer and piper, and one of the best athletes in his day in the colony. Another of his eons was in the Wairarapa Thursday team, which played in Wellington on Wednesday. Gordon — the primary subject of this note — is but nineteen years of age, and scales well over 13st. He was nominated by the Bush Union for a place in the forward ranks of the combined team to play against the Australians at Paimersfcon North, but he wasn't givein a chance of showing his powers. From my own personal knowledge there have been miany fine forwardls in the Forty-mile Bush who, from lack of opportunities, have, not been heard of in big football in New Zealand. Smith may be one of these, and, as there is more than a [remote possibility that he may come to Wellington before next season, he may have a better chance of reaching the top of the ladder than many other good 1 forwards I have come across in my time in the Bush.