LET'EM DOWN

NZ Truth, Issue 1188, 6 September 1928, Page 14

LET'EM DOWN

Otago Forwards With The Blues (From "N.Z. Truth's" Dunedin Rep.) "It'll be a walk-over," exclaimed the man-in-the-street when the South Canterbury touring team arrived m Dunedin last week to test toes with Otago. Maybe, Otagonians. were flushed with their victory over Canterbury the .previous Saturday and . dwelt on the fact that Canterbury had downed their southern brethren. DUT the quidnunc T fans who .settled v the laurels on the home side prior, to the match had not reckoned with men like „S cott, the solid skipper for the visitors. He was here, there and everywhere, yet always m his place on the wing when required.. With him m the three-quarter line were two tricky and fast men m Me-: Intosh and . Trotter; the latter is certainly some trotter when It comes to side -stepping 1 . Having m front of them a pack keeping well together, some of whom handled the ball better than many of the backs on the field, the visiting backs might have worked m much more open combination play, but something seemed to be lacking behind the scrum, though the little half-back, Roper, was getting down well to the heavy local vanguard. Bradanovitch is a tricky fiveeighths, and it is a toss-up whether he or Trotter is the more eellike m side-stepping. The game was certainly fast; so was the scoring.*. But this invariably .comes of too much solo work dexterously used against bad tackling — and the latter was simply atrocious. . When will players realize that a good tackle is the defensive, equivalent to a score? HE WHO HESITATES Another noticeable on the part of two Otago men — one of them a winger, whose name we shall not mention on this occasion — was that of "tackling himself," which means, of course, hesitation when running hard for the line and thus allowing a wouldbe tackier to complete his object. Had jt not been that the ball was full of porcupine quills — it seemed so, at all events— perhaps we should have seen better Rugby. Stewart was the nucleus of the home forwards, with several others shining into dashing individualism. But the crowd of home supporters seemed disappointed m the whole of the blue forwards, upon ' whom, it seemed, they had pinned their faith. The most unusual feature of the match was the fluctuation of the scoreboard, which, practically throughout the match, had speculators tearing their- programmes. Finishing up m South Canterbury's favor with 27 — 20, . there might have been a slightly different tale if the Otago^kicker.s had been m form.