STILL THEIRS

NZ Truth, Issue 1186, 23 August 1928, Page 14

STILL THEIRS

Wairarapa HangTo . The Shield (From "N.Z. Truth's" Masterton- Rep;) While they retained the Ran* furly Shield on Saturday by beating the touring Marlborough team by 26 points to 8, " Wairarapa really t did so on mediocre Rugby. MANY were the fearful hearts before f u hand that jthe- Shield holders would lose the trophy to Marlborough, but it must be said that Wairarapa .are not as bad as that. The pessimists argued .that A. F.j Cooke was missing, similarly .Roach; the >two Willoughbys and Reid, all of whom 'Were playing an 1 the North. v.South match. . ; . Too prevalent was the idea that tKe Shield went with Cook&, arid the fact was overlooked that Wairarapa beat Bush the other week 57 r ll ■ when Marlborough could best them toy .only 6-3. .. - . •■•■ .: However, the match was: certainly not of the usual '.order, if not for the reason of the absentees. The whole field of players cheerfully followed their own devices like a lot of schoolboys on a holiday, and. this was particularly noticeable on the part of Wairarapa. Le Quesne arid Reside were the two best forwards m the team. The former made some dashing runs m addition to his solid work, while Reside used his weight to effect. . , - ' • ; Fairbrother was a good third, and added a try to Wairarapa' s score. TEAM WORK A BIT OFF .Marlborough as a team were poor. Their forwards mixed it at first, as they did with Bush, but Wairarapa played too open a game for them. , A good man m satherly went off early with an injury, and that weakf ened the scrum, although Bdtham played up well. Indeed, the three rer placements that were necessary m Maryborough's ranks during the course of the game did not aid cohesion! Despite the casualties., the game was clean and not over hard. ; ..-','. Woolley was quiet until instrumental In bringing off a try. .-• ' , - . Washington had plenty of weight, but little, else. His boot was very weak, and after his making a feeble attempt to kick a penalty goal without any force, and another unsucceßpfu' effort to convert from a position m front of the posts, the kicking honor was handed on. to Isherwob'd, the emergency full-back, who attendr ed to the conversion of the next.try. • Dobspn, at wing -forward, wa? 'at times prominent; but the.. only real »• back of the Marlborough side was Roberts, at half. • This player received; a nasty .knock m a collision with Cormack early- m the game, but m the second spell he brightened up and played m fine style. A v side-line sprint, of his saw Wairarapa m danger, and while he was robbed, Glennie took up the leather and was almost over,, only bad luck averting a score. - x :. '. :' While playing better m the second spell, ' Wairarapa deserved' to have ' tlie score of 3- 0 reversed j against tijeiri- at :: .. '. \ > \,' ; -' : -v . ■"■ ;.••■•.■■■■ ;. ,