THE LAST LINE

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 43, 13 May 1927, Page 6

THE LAST LINE

Great Full-Backs in New Zealand Football POST-WAR PERIOD ANALYSED Memories of great names in Rugby football come, crowding back as the pencil is put to paper to record an estimate of New Zealand’s last line of defence in many a hard-fought game on the playing fields of Maoriland. Were such a thing possible, it would go back to the days of Harry (now Sir Henry) Braddon, New Zealand’s first international full-back, and many another great name on the scroll of Rugby fame.

The scope of such a reference as this covers a wide field, and the task is not an easy one. To save time and space, it is proposed to confine the period under review to the post-war years, during which it has been the writer’s good fortune to be in fairly close touch with Rugby football up and down the Dominion. SIX GREAT NAMES There are six names of international reputation which come readily to mind In forming an estimate of the really great full backs who have appeared on the playing fields of the Dominion in the past decade. Four are New Zealanders, C. N. Kingston (Auckland), Dr. It. V. L. Sinclair (Otago Univer-

sity), George Nepia (Hawke’s Bay), and Jack Harris (Canterbury). Two others, not New Zealanders, are included, first by virtue of their ability, and secondly to serve as a basis of comparison, on the ground that so far from being odious, comparisons are always interesting, and only odious when they become too personal. The two additional names are Gerhard Morkel (South Africa) and Otto Nothling (New South Wales). Of these, the palm is unhesitatingly awarded to Sinclair as the greatest of the sextette, with Nepia and Morkel close seconds. In 1921. Kingston and Morkel were opposed to one another in tho Test matches between South Africa and New Zealand. Both lived up to the highest standards of international football. Morkel was then past his best, but still a great player. His famous dropped goal at Eden Park which won the second Test for the Springboks is now Rugby history, and his tremendous punting throughout the tour will live long in the'memory. He taught us a new style of full back play in respect to touch-findirfg. Morkel did not run much with the ball. On the contrary, he preferred to reserve his great strength of limb for the kick. Coming almost to a standstill, he used to send his tremendous kicks hurtling away down the side-line with an accuracy that at first sight seemed almost uncanny. SECRET OF MORKEL’S SUCCESS It was not long, however, before experienced followers of the game saw that the secret of his success lay in the standing kick, which permitted greater power and accuracy than a running effort. T. W. Lynch, of South- , land, great son of a great Otago footballer of the eighties, was the first to

put the Morkel idea Into practice, with a devastating effect on forwards following up which is still talked of in the South Island. Following Kingston’s unfortunate accident in Taranaki which spelt finis to a great Rugby career. Sinclair came next, on the stage of big football. His short stay on the field of international

Rugby was all too brief to permit his abilities becoming as widely known as most of his rivals. Originally a fiveeighth in Dunedin, he shot into the Rugby firmament in the winter of 1923 like a meteor. Standing 6ft 2in in height, he combined all the attributes of a great full back —powerful kicking, fearless tackling and rush stopping, and the dash and agility of an inside back (which he had been) with the ball in his hands. In kicking and tackling, he definitely surpassed any of the other five whose names are mentioned here. A GREAT GAME Sinclair’s wonderful game for Maoriland against New South Wales at Christchurch in 1923 will not easily be forgotten, peerless goal kicking (two from round about half way) and a superb all round display. Nothling was his vis-a-vis on that memorable day. Gallantly as did the fair-haired Sydney University man face the sweeping rushes of the All Black forwards led by “Moke” Beilis, “Alfie” West, Dave McMeehing, and others; and the whirlwind dashes of Steel, Peina and Co., there was no room for doubt on the form shown by the pair in this and other games that Sinclair was definitely the better man of the two. RISE OF NEPIA Sinclair’s inability to make the trip to England in the following year paved the way for the equally meteoric rise of George Nepia, the brilliant Maori player. Nepia, too, was originally a five-eighth, and it was sound advice which led him to specialise on the full back position as the likeliest means of getting a trip to England. The Te Mori Rose Bowl match at Auckland in the 1924 season made it apparent that a new star had risen in New Zealand Rugby football, but it was not till the inter-island match at Wellington a few weeks later that the writer first saw the 19-year-old Hawke’s Bay player in action. Fresh from his Auckland triumph, he played a game of such rare brilliance at Athletic Park the day A. E. Cooke and Co. overwhelmed the Southern rearguard with their machine-like passing from the scrum and electrical mid-field play that the Maori player’s inclusion in the touring team became a certainty. In Australia, Nepia was ranked by Sydney critics as a comparative failure, and there was an uneasy feelingin the minds of many people when the team left New Zealand that the full back position might occasion the All Blacks serious cause for anxiety. All doubts, however, were removed in England. Nepia went from triumph to triumph and at the end of the tour with a record of 30 consecutive games behind him, he had left a reputation on the playing fields of Britain which will never be forgotten. PLAYERS WHO MISSED Harris, the last of the six, actually figured in the final All Black trials at Wellington. Along with C. Badeley, he was an eleventh-hour choice for the last match on the Monday or Tuesday (if memory serves aright) after the inter-island game on King’s Birthday. The game was a mud scramble from start to finish, and like L. Knight, of Auckland, another fine player, Harris was passed over, the “Big Seven” deciding to take only one full back. Harris had to wait two years before he achieved AII Black honours. In 1926, in company with L. Knight, L.

Righton and L. Johnson (a trinity of “L’s”), all of whom are at present in Auckland, he went to Australia as a member of the side which was so ably managed by “Ted” McKenzie, of Masterton, and proved more than equal to the best New Zealand standard.

D. E. Stex'enson (“Stevie” to the Dunedin fans) was his successor last year. Stevenson was a better player than his form in Sydney last year indicated, and he may yet take his place with the players that are mentioned here. Stevenson was the originator of an effective system of play to counter the full back being limited in his kicking by the new kicking-into-touch rule, but there is not time to deal with it here. The Sydney trip last year was notable from the fact that it was New South Wales’s turn to supply a star of the first magnitude in the full back position. Ross, the Sydney Univeristy player, was ranked by a Sydney journal as worth 20 points to New South Wales in their terrific tussles with the side which Cliff Porter led across the Tasman; hence it can be understood that his appearance in New Zealand will be eagerly looked forward to. It is hardly likely, however, that we will see him this year. New South Wale, has a trip to England in hand, anl a preliminary canter in Maoriland does not figure in their present arrangements for the tour. —J. M. McK.