NOTES BY FULL BACK

Otago Witness, Issue 2817, 4 March 1908, Page 62

NOTES BY FULL BACK

! Th 3 Port Chalmers Club thus early in the fieid held its annual meeting 1 on Friday night and the enthusiasm displayed augurs well for the prospects of the season. There were 70 members present at the meeting. From a London cable it is noted that the New Zealand professional team has left England on its return to New Zealand. There will be some interesting stories to relate on the team's arrival. In glancing over the itinerary of the British team's tour, mapped out by the New Zealand Rugby Union, one cannot help noting- that little consideration has been shown the visiting British footballers i for their match against Combined New Zealand. According 't/o the present arrangements the Britishers play the test match immediately after a tour of the West Coast. Granted that these matches will probably be the least arduous of the tour, there is the travelling and, unusual experience associated with the "West Coast tour to be considered, and the fact tha-fc only two days are allowed to intervene between the last match oa the West Coast and the match against combined New Zealand at Wellington. Why not give the visiting footballers a. chance, and allow them a week's rest before the most important engagement of the tour? Playing for London Hospital against London Scottish a few days before the mail , left, our old friend A. C Palmer, the ex- | Otago University three-quarter back, figured prominently, scoring 1 a try and converting another. One critic writes this appreciation : " Palmer is the most improved wing three-quarter playing in London, and one of the hardest backs to tackie at present playing English Rugby." E. J. Jackett, the Leicester and Cornwall full back, is to be one of the Rugby Union team to participate in the New Zealand tour at the close of the English season. His past international honours had, of course, paved the way to this further but in addition to his ability on the playing field he has a bright and genial personality that should, contribute in no slight degree to the success of the tour from the social standpoint. In an address to technical students at Halifax, Mr C. P. Trevleyan, M.P., said: "I still play football at the mature age of 37, and I play every year harder games than football. I intend to keep in good training all my life, and die at the agpe of 80. The death I should ask for is the death from heart failure, climbing one of our English mountains." The fact of H. Messenger having upheld in English professional football, the reputation he made here (6ay6 Sydney Referee), in the amateur game, and of G. V. Portus, having been elevated to a position in the English International Fifteen, is reliable evidence that the standard of individual play in this country is good. The talent necessary for a high-class team for the tour of the United Kingdom is available, for there are a number of " colts " of promiee. Some little difficulty is being- found in allotting the dates of the Sydney TJiMTersity v. New Zealand Universities matches •to be played in Sydney in July. The New South Wales Union has given its sanction to the matches. The Welfeh Rugby Union has written to the New South Wales Rugby Union offering a hearty welcome to the team to Wales, and asking that the number of matches on the programme in Wales be extended to the number played by New Zealand and South Africa. A Verge, the one-time New South Wales full back, is now playing for Edinburgh University. Another Sydney University Ruigbyite. G. V. Portus. is a member of the Blaekheath team. One critic says he is the outside half of whom everyone who has f^een him playing for Blaekheath is talking. He possesses all the attributes for the position, and is not afraid to travel a journey or so on his own now and then. He belongs, moreover, to the rare type which docs well in a losing as well as in a winning game. A letter has been received by the N.S.W. Rugby Union from France, suggesting that the N.S.W. Ru#bv footballers be allowed to play four matches there. One game to be against all France. Mr A. R. Henderson, vice-president of the New South Wales Rugby Union, at the annual meeting of the South Sydney District Football Club, said he regretted the introduction of the professional element into the game. Persons who assumed the role of stage managers and financiers came along and promised all sorts of t.hinge if dissatisfied players seceded from the Rugby Union and threw in their lot with the professionals. There was no room for the two zarrics, the professional and the amateur. -Those who had joined the league — who were cajoled by the specious promises of the other side — had made their own funeral. All profeesional sport that had been tried was but short-lived. Rowing. pede«trianism, and [ even cricket had tried it, but with illsuccess. Mr Henderson found fa\ilt with those players who, dissatisfied, did not approach the Rugby Union and make their grievances known. If th^y had done so they would have got a fair hearing, and any reasonable request would have received due attention. The union was worked on proper lines, and any promises it had made to the public and players had been kept. 'Where football was played for pay the srame was more than ordinarily rough. That was unddsirable, as under the ordinary conditions play was rough enough. The present situation. Mr Henderson said, was that the gloves were off, and it would be a fight to a finish. The decision of the Wel«h Union to drop +-li e rovina h"alf back, and to constitute the

team on orthodox lines, ie rather interesting. The Welshmen were inclined la&t year to adopt what, was as near the New Zealand formation as possible, and they even flattered themselves that on the Edinbur.gh form there was a great future for the btyle. That day. it is just possible. Wales uould have done better with an eighth forward, and with the team practising a method they knew something about. As it was, the "rover" and the half backs got mixed up at timee. The policy has not been pursued in club or trial games, and the probabilities arc we shall hear no more of the colonial formation until 6uch time -as the An^lo-Welsh combination go to New Zealand in tho summer. Then it will once more be Inudod to the skies; we shall be told we are oiu v » of date in the Old Country, and there will be another rush to practise the eig-ht-backs game. But are we making the mo6t of the seven-back game? That is the point. We do not teem to get so much further ahead in it after 22 years' experience of it in international matches. — Athletic News.