TEAM DID NOT STRIKE FORM.

Shannon News, 20 July 1928, Page 3

TEAM DID NOT STRIKE FORM.

TOO MUCH WHISTLE, DECLARES ALL BLACK. When the whistle isn't blowing some African is finding the line as far down as he can, writes J. T. Burrows, one of the Canterbury All Blacks, in describing experiences of the tour. While not making excuses for their losses, Burrows states positively that the All Blacks have not struck proper form.

(Written for the Christchurch Star by j. T. Burrows.)

JOHANNESBURG, June 10. ' We seem to have been kept so bus} lately that it has been difficult to And time to write much. I can imagine how you people are feeling about our two defeats. Let me say you can t possibly be feeling half so badly about them as we do here. It is difficult to say much about them really, because there is no doubt but that on both occasions we were beaten by better teams on the day's play. But, * 0 Lord, our team here is capable of Maying twice—three times—as well. It is absolutely heart-breaking to read in the papers that the All Blacks are below 1 expectations, and so on. Frequently the first thing a beaten team does is to find excuses, so I feel somewhat diffident about discussing those two games. I do say this, though, that the only time comparisons between New Zealand and South African Rugby can be made will be at the test matches Honestly, it is not fair to judge now. For instance, Johannesburg is 6000 feet above sea level, and you can form no idea of the way in which this affected us. We were panting and gasping for breath as if we had never done a day's training in our Hves, and we, are getting fit. Strange Conditions.

The game against Transvaal was like . nothing on earth for that reason. Whenever the Western Province team comes here to play, it has a full week in Jo- . hannesburg to get acclimatised. I wonder if it is generally known that the Western Province team has only been beaten three times in forty years, and we had to play them as our second • match. Still, even though their aide does contain at least nine international players, I know that our team, playing with its New Zealand fire and dash, would win by twenty -points.

; I suppose people ask why can't the 'team reproduce its form, but one has to be in Africa to understand.

• Naturally we feel very wretehed that "Bun" Finlayson should have been - ordered Off. The play that day was hard and "Bunny" himself is/the first ' one to say that the referee did the ... right thing. In the dressing-room afterwards we were saying that he should > J have been warned as no one up till : then had been cautioned for rough play. "Bunny" interrupted us though: "Look, you chaps, you can't blame the .referee; he had absolutely no option.. "vl simply couldn't help what I did, but I knew immediately what would happen.*? I read an account of an interview a reporter had with him, and he just takes all the blame on himself. Seeing that I was about a foot and ahalf away when the whole rhing happened, I would certainly disagree/with that. I suppose "Bunny" had the ball in the first place, but when I saw him, an opponent had a hard head-lock on him on the ground, while the ball was yards away. I knew what was coming and the next instant there was a smack from a hard fist and an infuriated Finlayson disengaged himself from a somewhat limp African. The crowd, of course, saw only a fist flying, and % probably the referee saw nothing else either, but those people who know Finlayson and his style of play knoAV how ridiculous it is to call him a dirty footballer. Frankly, there are not many good footballers with a bit of red blood in their veins, who could have taken the treatment he received, without doing something* I am not atempting to excuse unfair tactics, but I am saying that Finlayson should not be judged too harshly for what he did. A Hard Ground.

Strangely enough, the team showed a "little bit of form under conditions even more foreign than those in Capo Town. I refer to the game at Kimberley. Imagine a football ground of concrete, with, perhaps, a quarter of an inch of red brick dust on it, and you get some idea of the ground we played on. That, honestly, is no exaggeration. There is not a blade of grass anywhere, and th,e atmosphere is filled with a funny red glare reflected from the ground. Also, the dust 'is full of small pebbles. At training I picked up a rusty naill This incident, will perhaps, give some idea of the state of things. After New Zealand had scored its first try, Strang was told to take the kick," and began in the usual way to try to make a hole with his heel. He realised immediately how impossible it was, and remembered the thing to do in Kimberley was to scoop a mound of dust and rest the ball against that. So he earelessly placed the football flat on the ground and/ with his back to the posts, began scooping up the dust, while one 'of the other backs was waiting to lie down and,hold the ball. One of the Africans immediately charged, and be-

fore the football had even been placed, kicked it well down the field. After all, it was down, and the referee had no option but to order a kick-off at half-way. Actually, the ground had been watered the day of the match, but a curtain-raiser was played first, and,' with a burning sun overhead, by the time of the big game it was as bad as ever, The Referees. I suppose we had it worst of all in the front row of the scrums. There were about sixty serums altogether, I think, but each one lasts about three &4' .'(-'"""■;'•" ' ' , ' '

times as long as they do in New Zealand. Our referees would penalise a side immediately if the outside hooker didn't allow the ball to get past him, but here there are as many as five scrums on end until the ball gets fairly into the centre. You can imagine the elouds of dust all the time, and several of the team were off-colour next day. We find the referees worst of all in their interpretation of a knock-on. A player has only to fumble ever so slightly, and for a thing that would hardly even be noticed in New Zealand the whistle blows. It is whistle, whistle, whistle all day long, and when the whistle isn't blowing some African is finding the line as far down as he can. Fun on Tour.

It's a God-forsaken eountry this Africa. Still, we have plenty of fun. I think our chief humourist is Pat Ward. Pat has an expression, "Whoa," which he used just in the sense it is used to a horse. "Oh, whoa, that's not a mountain; in our country we'd eall that an ant-hi?!." One day we were taken for a motor drive in Cape Tbwn, and it was a hard job keeping a straight face while Pat was talking about New Zealand. I heard him say onee: "Oh, whoa, that's .not a river; in our country a man would drink that dry if he was thirsty." Later a lady asked us about, big-game hunting in New Zealand, and it was too'much to hear Pat straight away launch into a description of, moa-hunting. Not Football As We Know It.

Mr Graham Beamish, writing front Johannesburg on June 10th, said: — Nearly 10,000 Eugby enthusiasts from all parts of South Africa after the meeting of the All Blacks and Transvaal were plainly depressed. Hard and aimless just about sums up the match. In all the eighty minutes of play there was no real football, as New Zealand know 8 the*, game. From start to finish it was dull, drab, and monotonous. ] '-■••"• '•': A remarkable feature of . the match was the fact that, although the jAU Blacks got possession from the lineouts, they were even then beaten for the ball, for the Transvaalers heeled and the half-back was quick to l|iek for touch. Nearly Two Hundred Stoppages. No better idea of the type of game it was could be gathered from the fact than in eighty minutes' play! there were 94 scrums, 75 lines-out, and- 22 penalties*. In scrum work Transvaal had us easily beaten. New Zealand got the ball sixteen times against our opponents ' forty. Twenty-six lines-out were won by the All Blacks and sixteen by Transvaal, but,' although we actually got possession, when the ball Was put on the ground the South Africans far too often beat. us. With Transvaal 'winning such a. big percentage of the scrums it is obvious that New Zealand was hard on the defence for the best part of the and that is the fact.