Island Rugby Men to Tour

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 74, 18 June 1927, Page 11

Island Rugby Men to Tour

FIJI FOOTBALLERS FORMULATION OF PROGRAMME VI7HEN the Rugby Union was ** discussing the projected tour of the football team frorrt Fiji, it took some time to convince them that the visitors woula not be fuzzy-haired natives, playing football with barbaric abandon. Actually, the tourists will be all Whites. In Fijian Rugby the colour-line is fairly sharply drawn. Mr. L. E. Booker, who submitted the Auckland University Club’s tentative programme to the union, for its ap-

proval, was a member of the Varsity team that toured the Islands some time ago, and the hospitality then extended t o the Aucklanders wa3 so cordial and enjoyable that they, in return, want to do all they can for the men from the Pacific. From his ./\4Knll (n TTHI AT r*

recollections of football in Fiji Mr. Brooker considers that the visitors should be up to average senior club strength. AN INTERESTING STEP The tentative programme drawn up to cover the tour, which marks an interesting step in Rugby, and further denotes the world-encircling popularity of the Rugby game, provides for games at Auckland, Matamata, Rotorua and Taupo, In detail, the programme of the ! tourists is thus: Monday, August 8: Arrive by Tofua. Wednesday, August 10: Match against Auckland University, at Eden Park. Saturday, August 13: v. Auckland University, at Eden Park. Wednesday, August 17: v. Matamata. at Matamata. Saturday, August 20: v. Rotorua, at Rotorua. m Wednesday, August 24: v. Taupo, at Taupo. , . . Saturday, August 27: v. Auckland University, at Eden Park. The last match on the schedule will be a curtain-raiser to the Auckland - Hawke’s Bay representative match, and should complete a great day’s football. It is not unlikely that the first match may be made a game against one of the local secondary schools, while the second match may be played at Pukekohe if the Rugby Union’s arrangements cannot be made to fit in. By travelling to Rotorua and Taupo the tourists will see a lot of interesting country, and at those places, no doubt, they will be royally entertained On Tuesday. August 30. the visitors will leave by the Aorangi. SCHOOL FOOTBALLERS Among the members of the team will be players formerly well-known in New

Zealand secondary school football. Riemenschneider, one of the star backs, was captain of King’s College in 1916. O’Carroll, another player, represented New Plymouth Boys’ High School, and West, a forward, who is on the Bank of New Zealand staff at Suva, represented the Bay of Plenty in the match when a successful kick at goal would have won the Ranfurly Shield from Hawke’s Bay. Several other prominent players in Fiji are old boys of Sydney public schools, where they learned to play good football. Generally speaking, the backs will be stronger than the forwards. In Fiji there are about ha.lf-a-dozen teams of whites, and dozens of others composed of natives, who have developed an almost fanatical zeal for the game. The only obstacle preventing matches between a Maori team and the islanders is that the Fijian brother declines to play in boots. Leathersit od feet, in the scrums against them, would make the odds rather steep.