INVINCIBLE PONSONBY

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 51, 23 May 1927, Page 10

INVINCIBLE PONSONBY

NORTH SHORE OVERWHELMED BRILLIANT DISPLAY ON SATURDAY TT'DEN PARK was a picture on Saturday. Banked round the classic turf—green, sunlit and pleasant to the eye—were thousands of onlookers. Animation and colour were contributed by the players, moving rapidly in spectacular evolutions. Thus was the stage set for a great day’s Rugby, Ponsonby outclassing the North Shore side, while Grafton and Grammar Old Boys also got home.

THE POINTS TABLE

PONSONBY’S CLEAR LEAD GRAFTON IN SECOND PLACE In the championship points table Ponsonby, with a high scoring tally in their favour, are now two moves ahead of Grafton. u* Si ■g £ £ * £ £ o w § «5 W S j Q Cu AO Ponsonby . . 4 3 1 65 20 7 Grafton .... 4 2 1 1 42 38 5 Marists .... 4 1 1 2 20 25 4 North Shore . 4 22 Grammar 0.8. 4 22 University . . 3 1 1 1 22 24 3 College Rifles 4 1 3 Training Coll. 3 —2 1 15 35 1

DAZZLING RUGBY

PONIES’ SUPERB BACKS CAMMICK’S GREAT DAY With dazzling Rugby Ponsonby delighted Saturday’s great crowd. Such football revealed the game in its highest phases. Backs, on tip-toe with eager expectation, were given plenty of chances by busy forwards, whose close work was effective, and they ran with such speed and resolution, tossed the ball about with such buoyant zest, that the bewildered North Shore rearguard often offered them only faint resistance. Saturday was Ponsonby’s day on, and it would be charitable to assume, on behalf of some of the Shore backs, that it was their particular day off. Brilliantly elusive though the Rony fliers were, they were often fla.ttered by defence that lacked the first elements of stiffness. Half-hearted tackling by Berghan and Mouatt soon showed the Ponsonby insides the way to a fatal weakness. Fleet, eager and safe with their hands, they exploited to the limit the flaws disclosed by the opposition. An exception among the Shore backs was Johnston, at full-back, who tackled with grim determination throughout a trying day. But all the others were guilty of lapses at one stage or another. FLYING THREEQUARTERS Ponsonby opened with an attacking frenzy. Swift assaults moved from flank to flank, and behind the penetrating spearhead of forwards McManus fed his backs, whose long and crisp passes brought flying threequarters into action. Woods, held up on the line by Johnston, was almost across. Again the ball went his way. Dropping it, he gave D. Reid a chance to smother and save, but the Shore man hesitated, and in a second Woods had retrieved the ball to outpace Reid and dive across. The Ponies were on their mettle. Cammick burst through, ball at too; kicked haphazard, and the ball sailed crosswise over Johnstone's head. Following fast, the pacy Cammick got there first, to touch down for a rather lucky try. Short’s kicking was an asset. The first, thumping from prop to cross-bar, and then over, had been a fine effort. This one was oven better, fairly between the sticks, from a preposterous angle. Shore’s dispirited supporters revived a little when the battling seaside forwards revealed glimpses of their best form. Following them, Stokes ran nicely, to be tackled when nearly there. A Ponsonby man infringed, and M. Reid had his chance. —Ponsonby 10, North Shore 3. MOSTLY NORTH SHORE

The third stanza, for a change, was mostly North Shore. The backs allowed Ponsonby less liberty, so Berridge, to drive them back, stab-kicked repeatedly. When he varied the manoeuvre the Shore backs were caught napping. Employing every trick of his stock-in-trade, Berridge beat Mouatt, Berghan and Johnston in hollow fashion, and ran 30 yards for a brilliant try. Short again converted. The Shore forwards were gradually finding their feet. Solomah, at wingforward, was always in the van. Grace was spasmodic, and Page and Jackson showed up repeatedly. A great chance went begging when Reid failed to hold a lofty pass from Soloman. Obstruction by Lucas, who is sufficiently blessed with legitimate talents to make the illegal quite superfluous, gave M. Reid a shot, but distance beat him. Johnston fielded a rolling ball in artistic fashion, to stop a Ponsonby rush. Then Hook had a gallop, Berghan’s effort to stop him being a half-hearted affair. But again the Shore forwards took charge; Soloman, Grace and Jackson thrust the opposition aside iri a raking canter, ball at toe. Grace bowled Pelham, who was otherwise infallible, over like a ninepin, and Soloman picked the ball and galloped over. KEEPING UP THE PACE

In the final spasm, with the score at 15-6, and lengthening shadows cast across the field, the pace was as hot as ever, and Shore continued to have a fair share of the game. A series of great tackles by Johnston, who stopped Lucas, Woods and Hook in quick succession, called for the crowd’s admiration. Then Ponsonby uncoiled a final burst of fireworks. Backs, racing at top speed, moved with the pace of greyhounds, and the precision of champions. Passing between McManus, Berridge, Cammick, Lucas, Woods and Cammick again, saw CamUiick over at the corner. Again, trailing with speed and enterprise, Cammick cleverly supported Hook, who sent him a pass in-field, Cammick scoring under the bar. These efforts, bringing the final score to 23-6, rung down the curtain on an exhilarating exhibition.

GRAMMAR ON TOP

MARIST FORWARDS SHADED FLUCTUATING FORTUNES The curtain-raiser in which Grammar downed Marists wax a game of fluctuating fortunes, with the winners showing no marked superiority, except in loose forward rushes.

The Marist team must be one of the lightest first-grade combinations in the country. Backs as slender as

schoolboys line out behind forwards not over-blessed w r ith poundage. Nevertheless they are fast and clever, and the team as a whole possesses tenacity w*hereby it should always be a factor in the competion. Playing Ponsonby at their own game, Marists are more likely, perhaps, than any other team, to dethrone the leaders.

On Saturday it was the weighty Grammar forwards who turned the scale. Goodacre, Batty, Knight and Potter were great hunters in the loose, and they swarmed all over the Marist backs. Goodacre is developing into a fine' forward. He and S. Hadley, the Marist skipper, were as good as any on the ground. Hadley always commanded admiration. Where the fray was, there was he. BADELEY USEFUL

The game opened attractively with McCarthy feeding the Grammar backs. C. Badeley was in the picture and made one dash reminiscent of his best form. Towards the end of the game he rather faded away, but not until he had demonstrated that he is not a spent force. A rearrangement of the Grammar backs set Singleton as fullback, with Turei, who was in and out, on the left wing. Marists were without Letton, for whom Coburn was substituted. Later he changed places with Loft, the winger, who was very dashy throughout.

Grammar’s opening try, after Marists' forwards, bea.ten by a rolling ball, had. been unlucky not to score, came when Monteith forsook the sideline route to veer infield. Eluding tacklers he passed to Hook, who had the whole string of Grammar backs outside him, but did not need them, for he went through on his own. Stewart bounced across the Grammar line, but failed to get his hands on the rolling ball. There had been a series of knock-ons, so a try would hardly have been earned. GOOD AND BAD

Much uncertainty marked the work of the Marists’ backs. Wright was feeding them smartly, but someone always did the wrong thing. Stoupe, eager and speedy, was a curious mixture of the good and the indifferent. His capacity for work is enormous, and so is his faculty for making rather elementary tactical blunders. Courthwaite, guardian of the Marist line, opened in good style, using his pace to advantage, but made errors towards the finish. From a mark he made a wretched attempt to goal. Meanwhile, the reliable Stewart had hoisted a goal from a penalty. Potter, Batty and Co. led a Grammar attack which culminated in a try. Wilson, joining in, bustled Couthwaite, whose kick was charged down, Goodacre going over for a try. Turei was kicking well, and converted both the Grammar tries Grammar I 10 Marists .. 3 being the final reckoning.

GRAFTON’S VICTORY

BEST PACK WINS As tipped in THE SUN Rugby columns Grafton got home against College Rifles by a narrow margin after a close and exciting game. Five points’ difference in favour of Grafton was a very fair indication of their superiority in the forward division. Although College scored three tries to Grafton’s two, it was their territory that was mostly occupied, and the fact that Grafton’s penalties were secured within handy kicking distance is to be placed to the credit of their pack. Had the College forwards been permitted to remain for any length in the vicinity of the Grafton line, their three i s nside backs, Johnstone, Sheen and Barclay, would have done the trick.

In the early stages the College pack more than held its own in the scrums, giving prompt possession to the All Black trio. Once properly in their stride, however, the heavier Grafton pack proved the more aggressive, and headed by Compton, Finlayson and Keary, slashed their way promptly out of many a tight corner. Compton led the van throughout the day. He is a big, useful type of packman, continually up with the play, and always on hand to participate in any passing movement. Noakes played a sterling game and was always in the thick of the tight work.

It was Ruru, however, who won the game. Apart from the fact of his brilliant try in the closing stages when a drawn game was on the cards, his play throughout was of a very high standard. It would be interesting to see him with Barclay for a centre. Behind the pack Lockie proved a very useful member and he was ably supported by Stevenson, whose kicking was responsible for eight of the 14 points registered. A GREAT CENTRE

A close study of Barclay in action should prove of great value to many local players, who apparently are of the opinion that a centre is merely a link in the transmission chain. Coming up and into his pass he takes the ball in top and full out. The Maori skipper is into his stride in a flash, and this, together with the free use of his hips, makes him a hard man to pull down. Unlike most presentday centres who immediately make a bee-line to the corner flag, Barclay runs straight, sometimes bearin ; , in to counteract the swinging out of the inside men, and leaving the open field to the man most entitled to it, his wing-threequarter. From Saturday’s play it would seem that Johnston and Sheen could be used to better advantage if the latter was brought closer in. At second fiveeighths Sheen was not particularly outstanding, and in the opening stages hung on too long on one or two occasions. Toward the end of the game, however, he was responsible for several good movements from solo efforts in an attempt to even up the score. With Barclay both Sheen and Johnson received considerable attention from the opposition, the brunt of both attack and defence falling on the shoulders of this trio. Although closely watched, Barclay provided a pretty exhibition of centre play. WHERE FORWARDS COUNT

At half-back Du Chateau played quite a good game, but unless the forwards get into the heavy work and stay ,there, three or four good backs cannot win matches.

Cummings, Gallagher and Pilling were the most outstanding of the forwards, while the veteran Fogarty toiled hard in the tight. Although packing and heeling well at the start, the pack did not hang to-

gether so well later, or fight with the same aggressiveness as their opponents. Had they done so the final result of a close and exciting game would probably have been altered.

Senior B Grade

Waitemata v. Ellerslie The meeting of Waitemata and Ellerslie, in the senior B section on No. 2 ground at Eden Park, if not productive of first-class Rugby, at least provided an interesting game. Early in the game Waitemata evinced an inclination to open up and a series of fast rushes, although of a rather ragged nature, resulted in 11 points being credited them before halftime was whistled, tries being scored by Fletcher, Frost and Waugh. Two penalty kicks taken by Cowen gained six points for Ellerslie in the second spell, while Waugh increased the Waitemata total with an unconverted try. Waugh and Frost were the pick of the Waitemata back division, the latter, a strong, powerful runner, being always dangerous. Fletcher was about the pick of a very even pack. Of the Ellerslie rearguard Cowen and Bevan were about the two most useful members, while in the van Shirtcliffe, Short and Nathan were always conspicuous. Manukau v. Marist Manukau recorded another victory by defeating Marist B by 17 to 3 at Onehunga on Saturday. A few minutes after the kick-off McClusky scored from a scrum near Marist*s line. Wakefield and Taylor also got over for Manukau. Lipscombe converted Taylor’s try. Half-time score:—Manukau 11, Marist 0. Lipscombe opened the second half by scoring for Manukau. Marist rallied and McGill scored in the corner. Final scores:—Manukau 17, Marist B 3. Mr. R. P. Bennett refereed. Newton v. Technical Old Boys Technical Old Boys, 25, beat Newton, 0. The ground was in good condition for football when the teams lined out. Newton kicked off against the sun and Technical 0.8. soon pressed play round the Newton goal. Keane scored the first try for Technical, but failefi to convert. Tilley next scored from a penalty kick, making the score 6 to 0. After the change over Technical continued to force the play into Newton’s end. Newnham scored for Technical, Tilley failing to convert. The score remained unchanged until half-time. Keane again scored for Technical, Tilley failing to convert, then Keane scored again and converted. The score was unaltered at the end of the third quarter. In the last quarter Keane scored, but failed to convert. Newnham next scored for Technical, Keane converting. Although a good Keane was inclined to be selfish with the ball, and did not pass quickly enough. Referee, Mr. Wakefield. Tramways v. Otahuhu Tramways in their game against Otahuhu on Saturday, at Victoria Park, again demonstrated the art of team combination. Time and again they turned an Otahuhu attack into a strenuous defence. The score indicates fairly accurately the merits of the two teams. Tramways were superior in three-quarter work, the passing bouts being the result of constant practice. In the forward play Otahuhu were best, and many a loose rush by the forwards would have resulted in a score if it had been backed up by the three-quarters. For the Tramways, Eglinton and J. Keenan scored two good tries. McKoy did good work with his kicking, converting every try. Hardgraves also kicked a penalty goal for his team. Otahuhu, who were plkying one man short, were not a beaten side until the whistle blew. L. Muir, the old Auckland rep., was the most prominent member of the team, and many a dangerous position was relieved by his splendid kicking. Not once did he fail to find touch. If the Otahuhu team can improve their three-quarter line, they will be a formidable team to meet.