MANAWATU-HOROWHENUAWELLINGTON.

Shannon News, 25 August 1925, Page 4

MANAWATU-HOROWHENUA-WELLINGTON.

(Green-and-White). Full-back: N. Walters (Wellington). Three-quarters: P. H. Hickey (Wellington), 11. Wilson (Horowhetnua), M. Bailey (Manawatu). Five-eighths: (1) L. M. Johnston (Wellington); (2), K. D. Brophy (Manawatu). Half: R. Akuira (Manawatu). Winger: C. G. Porter (Wellington), capt. Back-row of scrum: R. Moynihan and 11. McLean (Horowhenua). Supports: H. Jacob (Horowhenua), 11. Sly (Wellington). Lock: R. Tuna (Horowhenua). Hookers: 8.. Wilson (Wellington), K. Reid (Manawatu). [Owing to an injury Brophy did not resume after the interval and was replaced by A. D. Law (Manawatu)]. Referee. Mr.' Frank Julian (Inglewood). • ' Greens Start Well. Practically the only sensation until Manaawtu scored after twenty minutes’ play was Akuira’s charging down of a kick. The local half ran past and picked up eleaniy. He shortpunted over Toby s head and a try was in sight wheh Reid came fast from the rear to make a timely save. Akuira failed to see Hickey unmarked on the outer before he kicked. On the blues’ first invasion to combined territory Walters, turned them nicely and Jacob had an ineffective shot from near half-way. A fine bit of work by Sly on the line-out was spoilt by Akuira being unable to field a grubber. E. J. Reid got it instead, and cutting diagonally across his centre gave a taste of th* quality of the N. bonny three quarter line. Walters tackled like a champion. Brophy went close with a kick from a mark. Thorn had two shots from one penalty handy to goal but missed both,. Crossman and Jacob missed the goal with subsequent penalties. Everything was poolr, the kicking evien worse than the general play. The crowd was going to sleep when Rangi, in taking a mark put Woods, an acrobatic young forward, high an the air over his snouiders. From the kick, greens followed to the bank touchline. Here Jacobs picked up in the ruck and handed the bali on to Brophy. Thfi Manawatu crack scored with a jinky ruu in which he clean beat Norman Smith on New South Wales’ left wing. Jacobs’s kick was a wonderful one: Combined 5 N.S.W. 0

After Crossman had dropped a breast-high pass following 1 a passing bout Morrisey-Reid-Lawton (the lastnamed cut straight through), Morrisey picked up close in- and raced across; but the defenders bumped him into the corner flag before he e-m <1 ground the ball. Lawton not -ju]y stopped a' promising movement by combined backs, but dribbled ,v-;!i through when Walters took the bail off his toes. Lav/ton was now n. J:'.eable for repeated efforts to open up. Morrisey had another bit of bad luck for after' Snell had given him a pass the big three-quarter badly fooled the defence by running straight through. Thorn over-ran the pass and a penalty for off-side saved a try. Moynihan picked up and threw to Brophy. Wilson, Hickey, Porter and Johnson all handled in turn and one of thie best passing rushes of the match ended by Crossman dumping Johnson into touch near the corner flag. The greens kept up the pressure and K. Reid (the best forward of the day) was prominent a couple of times. Then Walters, instead of kicking, cut in past a couple of blue defenders. He passed to Hickey, who used his feet to good purpose and side-stepping prettily was well on towards the line when Porter came up. The home skipper made a great effort to score but Toby took him to his heart. A centre by Jacob produced a result anticipated at the press table, Brophy getting a bad bump in a head-on' collision with Crossman. Thte accident eventually led to Brophy's retirement. Ho had been the life and soul of the combineds, and some excellent kicking got them out of several tight cornors. All Square.

Thorn appeared to ci'obh the line whither Woods had lod the blues from the home twenty-llvo. But a fiveyards' scrum was ordered. Snell opened up quickly when N.S.W. heeled and Lawton, cutting out Morrisey, gave to Reid who slipped past Porter (who had run across—Walters had been left) for a pretty try. Lawton goaled: N.S.W. 5 Combined 5 Snell was paralysing the Combineds by lightning - passes and had there been a better understanding between Morrisey and Reid, N.S.W. would have rung on a few tries. Apparently however, Reid did not want the ball as he signalled more than once for his confrere to reverse pass to Lawton, a method of attack very effectively worked in the second spell. Sliake Hands Boys* No Combined forward got a hand on either Snell or Lawton and the little fcalf wai too quick for Porter.

No effort appeared to have been made to coach i lie breakaways to get smartly round. If so the instructions were not being carried out and Porter was getting annoyed at failure to stop th,e ball reaching the N.S.W. three-quarters. Anyway, he started a rough house with T. S. Smith, a blue forward. Barkas being willing, there were visions of an ordering-off, but the crowd was left to cheer as the referee made the combatants shake hands.

N.S.W. Forges Ahead. Immediately the blues carried another scrum Laycock picked up in the loose and Norman Smith cut through for a neat try, Lawton again goaling: N.S.W 10 Combined 5 Half-time was called at once. The straight running of the Welshmen and weak tackling of their opponents left no doubt in the minds of the spectators as to what would happen after the interval. SECOND SPELL. When the teams came back, Law took Brophy's place. N. Smith was penalised, not for intercepting a pass, but waiting off-side to do it, and Jacob narrowly missed goaling. Lawton finding touch with the biggest of the match. After Porter had made a long dribble, Bailey was cornered and his pass-back to Walters was intercepted by Thorn. Away went the Welshmen, and had not N. Smith over-run Rigney, a score must have resulted; a free kick for off-side relieving the situation for the Combineds. New South Wales had now settled down. Their kicking was magnificent, and the forwards were being nursed to the best advantage. Porter was hard put to it to get Ins undisciplined crew into the breaches. A centre by Walters miscarried. Morrisey got it, and Reid-Smith-Reid was the order of the passing. The exNew Zealander cut in deep aud Telford supporting him nicely, a try looked likely, when a free kick saved the greens. A fine bit of work by Akuira and Hickey on the blind side earned applause, but cut no. ice, though the movement heralded a period of sorties by the home backs. Akuira-Law and Wilson-Bailey made successive efforts to burst through, but the Welshmen's defence was sound. After Jacob had another unavailing shot, Crossman caught the Combineds napping, and. was on the route to halfway when the referee recalled him for a drop-out. The sprinter had not forced down, and was quite in his rights in running out. Mr. Julian could not have seen what happened. Spectacular Tries.

Following some even play, Lawton secured at half-way, and made a fine opening.' Morrisey ran across and cut part of the defence out. On passing to Reid, the big chap flew round again, and while Porter and Bailey went 'after Smith, the centre (Reid) reverse-passed to Morrisey and a grand try resulted. Lawton goaled: New South Wales 15 Combined 5 Wilson (Wellington) led the greens en one of their brief excursions to l blue territory, but New South Wales was soon back. About 40 yards out Toby (full-back) got the ball near the bank. He raced across to the open. The übiquitous Lawton ran back into position and a lovely try followed after transfers to Reid and Morrisey, the last-named crossing the line for the second time in the spell. Lawton's shooting at short range was deadly: New South Wales 20 Combined 5

' Greens raised hopes by a good piece of passing) started by Johnson well cut. Everything was going along nicely when Wilson's pass to Bailey was intercepted by Smith, and again th e New South Wales winger was ruled off-side. Then the blues got away with a rush in which more than one man was in front of his pass, Porter getting well buried in finally stopping it. Snell and Lawton were opening up again, when for about the first time in the' game, a green forward (Tuna) asked Lawton a question, and took the ball off him. Porter followed in quickly and things were looking promising when Reid stopped the All Blacks' skipper. He had now accepted the inevitable and had taken up a roving commission in the combined backs, ieaving Akuira to put the ball in the scrum. This was evidently a defensive measure, although the greens were going a bit better, as the weight and pace were beginning to tell on the N.S.W. forwards. Akuira-Porter-K. Reid-Moy-nihan were in some passing that ended at Bailey's wing, where N. Smith brought the Feildingite down. Bailey Makes Pine Hun.

Porter at mid-field sent Law away and the 1925 N.Z. rep. went straight, shaking off a couple of defenders before passing to Wilson. The centre had nearly drawn the winger when he handed on to Bailey who ran home a couple of yards ahead of his vis-a-vis (N. Smith). A great kick by Jacobs just missed: Combined 8 New South Wales 20 Alter the visitors had compelled Porter to go into touch, Reid sending him flying while he was waiting for a force-out, which he got- the Wellingtonian called "put a bit of sting into it, greens!" They did, and after the succeeding rush,, the oval looked like a battle-field, with N. Smith, Riguey and Reid all down and out together Next, the combineds had the worst luck of the game. An exciting hand-to-hand bout by Law and Wilson went downfield lik e clockwork. Bailey finally ran up and was unmarked when K. Reid flew up. The latter is a very fast forward, and he took Law's pass like a back. The stand rose to its feet as the ex-Wairarapa man went for the line, but Grossman came up at a great pace and.got both man and ball. Had the latter rolled free Bailey must still have turned the movement to scoring account. The final incident was Walters' only mistake. He misfielded a dropping kick and the blue forwards dashed past him. Just when a dribble of a few yards would have brought success, somebody tried to improve the shining hour, and it ended in the usual way, with a knock-on. The game ended immediately: New South Wales 20 Combined 8 Mr. F. Julian (Taranaki) ruled with a rod of iron, ringing on penalties on a lavish scale. C UNIOR REPS. j MANAWATU (20), v. HOROWHENUA (14). i In the junior rep. match, played .- as a curtain.-raiser to the N.S.W. I

same, Manawatu maintained its unbeaten record. The score was six all in th e first spell. Hartley got over for the visitors and Parata kicked a penalty goal. Stevens and McSweoney got tries for Manawatu. The greon-and-whiles rang on four more tries (Linklater, McDonald, McSweeney. Stevens) of which Gallichan converted one. For Horowhenua, Hewitt and Simpson crossed the line, converting on e try into a goal. Manawatu thus won by 20 points to 14. Mr. F. C. Campbell, was referee. NEW SOUTH WALES IN NEW ZEALAND. The New South Wales team has the following engagements in New Zealand:— August 26.—V. West Coast and Buller, at Greymouth. August 29.—V. Otago and Southland, at Dunedin. September 2. —V. Canterbury and South Canterbury, at Christchurch. September 9. —V. Wairaapa and Bush Districts, at Masterton. September 12.—V. Poverty Bay and ikist Coast, at Gisborne. September 16.—V. King Country and Waikato, in the King Country. September' 19.—v. New Zealand (Tost), at Auckland. September 23.—V. North Auckland, a i Whangarei. COMBINED TEAM TO PLAY TARANAKI. The following team has been chosen to. represent the Combined Unions against Taranaki on Wednesday next: Fuli-ba>.-k: Hunt (H.) Three-quarters: Bailey (M), Wilson (H), Law (M). Five-eighths: Williams (H), Winiata (H), Half: Akuira (M). Wing forward: Jacob (H), captain. Hookers: Anderson (M), Reid (M). Lock: Tuna (M). Supports: McLean (H), Thompson (H). • Back row: Moynihan (H), Peebles (M). Emergencies: Back, Mullins (M), L'eedcr (M); forwards, Tana (H), Jackson The names of Messrs E. Bevan and L. Randall, both of Horowhenua, have been submitted to Taranaki for choice of a referee. Country members of the combined team are requested to assemble at the Clarendon Hotel sharp at noon on Wednesday and town members at the same hotel at one o'clock sharp.