Ponsonby Takes Lead Again

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 75, 20 June 1927, Page 10

Ponsonby Takes Lead Again

League Rugby Competitions Saturday’s Games Reviewed HARD and fast followers of the League Rugby code who could not be persuaded to break their sequence of attendance at Carlaw Park on Saturday for counter-attractions elsewhere were rewarded by witnessing one of the most spectacular and exciting games that has been played at League headquarters this season. The Ponsonby-Richmond match was in doube right up to the final whistle, a penalty goal in the last few- minutes of play turning the game in favour of last year’s champions by 15 points to 13. On the adjoining area, the improved Athletic thirteen made a good fight for it against City, but went down by 21 points to .11. The biggest surprise of the day was over at the Shore, where Devonport was certainly expected to win, but not by the overwhelming margin of 32 points to 8.

“THE LUCK OF THE GAME” PONSONBY EVENS UP Last Saturday week Ponsonby liad none the better of the luck against Devonport, with a ground unsuited to its style of play, one of its star backs practically a passenger in the scond half, and its captain, Delgrosso, ordered off at a critical juncture in the game. There was, therefore, a sort of poetic justice in the fact that on Saturday the scales were tilted slightly in the champions’ favour, with Delgrosso as the shining light in a thrilling eleventhhour victory over Richmond. AM the same Richmond was unlucky to lose. The outer suburb made the bulk of the play, showed better all-round team work, with the exception of the last quarter of the game, and registered a greater number of scoring opportunities for which full marks could be given. Ponsonby was practically presented with five points at the start of the game through a somewhat lucky rebound, and Delgrosso’s deciding goalkick was one of those things which cannot be valued on the basis of the reward for good play. It was “the luck of the game. Football would be a pretty poor sort of a game if the elements of luck and the unexpected were removed from it, and when all is said and done, Ponsonby can be unreservedly commended on taking full advantage of any chances that were going, and displaying a degree of opportunism, added to solid all-round play, against which the highclass team-work of its younger opponents had to take second place. THE GAME IN DETAIL The game itself moved in spasms from start to finish. First, Ponsonby kicked off with a try by Fagap, which in itself was a fine tribute to that player’s ability to scent an opening, and to be on the spot to take advantage of it. It occurred within a couple of minutes of the start when a blind side attack by Usher drove the maroons back on their own 25, and an infringement gave Delgrosso a reasonably easy shot at goal, which the New Zealand representative promptly missed. Hanlon, the defenders’ fullback, gathered the ball in, and with a little too much deliberation set about transferring it per medium of his kicking foot into the safety of the touch-line. Fagan, streaking up with a turn of speed that constantly brought him into the limelight throughout the game, charged down the ball, which rebounded into a gap behind Richmond’s goal-line. Fagan’s pace, with the defenders facing the other way, carried him on for a try which was scored before many of the “fans” had awakened to the fact that the game had really started. This time Delgrosso made no mistake. The flags went up in unison, the small boy on the scaffolding at the lower end of the ground hastily grabbed up a 5 sign, and the board read: Ponsonby 5. Richmond 0.

The second score followed almost as rapidly as the first. Sweeping down on the Ponies’ 25, Richmond had the champions defending grimly when the ball came out to Jenkinson, on the wing, in a clear space in the field, and the latter dropped one of the prettiest goals that have been seen at the Park this year. There the score stayed until many of the “fans” on the grandstand side were pulling out their watches and calculating how long it would take to reach a given point outside the ground where an excellent remedy for “barracker’s throat” can be procured at the half-time interval. Watches, however, were hurriedly returned to their pockets and the outward migration to the gates was stayed when Richmond crowned a series of admirably executed attacking movements, in which Parkes was generally sighted, with a slashing try by Jenkinson, who shared the honours with Prentice. Scored in the corner as it was, the preliminary three points lacked the foot power of a Dufty or a Gardiner to realise on it to the extent of another brace. At the interval the score was 5 all, and Richmond undoubtedly the better all-round combination up to that stage. HIGH-CLASS FOOTBALL The second stanza opened as breezily as the first. Langley put the crowd on its toes with a quick pot at goal, which narrowly missed the Richmond citadel, and then Usher started a. crossfield passing rush, which cut diagonally through the Richmond defences to the far corner, where the bulky Gardiner mulled his pass, and the ball slithered to the ground. Grey, on the wing, cleverly sorted the ball out of a jumble of flying feet, drove a high kick right into the Richmond goal-mouth, and had the pleasure of watching Hutt top off a brainily-conceived change of direction movement with a classy try under the shadow of the posts. For Delgrosso, the kick was as easy as shelling peanuts. Ponsonby 10, Richmond 5. Then followed a purple patch. Stung by the reverse, Richmond crashed back upfield in a series of fiery forward assaults which ended in Hyland saying “Yes” to Parkes, and diving over in the corner. No goal. To add further emphasis to its uncompromising refusal to recognise Ponsobny as supreme in well-thought-out attacking manoeuvres, Richmond flew into the fray fresh from the drop-out, and punched a hole in the Ponsonby defences for Prentice to make the opening, Steward to score, and Taylor to add the extras. Richmond three up. This snappy little bit of by-play left the veterans with a new outlook on life. Delgrosso might have shouted, “Now we’re going to show you how it’s done,” so marked was the change in the Ponies’ system of play. Hard, determined defence had been tried and found wanting as far as the all important question of points scoring was concerned. It was time to let loose , the attacking division.

It was now Richmond’s turn to do the stopping. Man for man the outer suburbanites dropped Peckham, Riley, Delgrosso and Gardiner in a series of sultry clashes in midfield, with Sam Lowry and Co. doing their share to making the game fast and furious by whipping the ball out to their backs from every conceivable positibn and angle of play. PONSONBY DRAWS LEVEL Gallantly the Maroons held their lines intact against attack after attack —from scrum and ruck. The spell was well on, and Richmond was clinging grimly to its 13-10 lead, when Usher, on the grandstand side, wheeled into an open field sortie, Langley and Peckham working the centre, and shooting the ball right through to Grey who laid his ears back in a whirlwind dash, broke a flying tackle, and raced over in the corner. Delgrosso’s kick failed by the narrowest of margins, and it was again level pegging—13 all. With the second half wearing to a close, Ponsonby made its great effort. Labouring under its incessant pounding of a brick wall defence in the first half Richmond lacked the sustained fire and dash of its earlier efforts, and the defences sagged perilously at times on one occasion being cut to ribbons by a brilliant burst of concerted work between Gardiner, Grey, Riley and Fagan, the latter racing over, only to be recalled for a forward pass 40 yards away. Then in a fierce sortie right under Richmond’s citadel, the Maroons were penalised, and with the result of the match hanging in the balance, Delgrosso set the seal on a great day’s work by driving the ball straight and true between the posts. Ponsonby 15, Richmond 13. With the minutes flying, Richmond made a last, desperate effort to pull the game out of thfe fire. Backs and forwards combined frantically in a furious onslaught on the Ponsonby 25. But the defenders were not only equal to the occasion—with .a two-point lead in hand the Ponies repulsed attack after attack, and then swept downfield themselves. Timekepeer Gibbons was closely watching his stop-watch ticking off the flying seconds, while the crowd moving to the gates stopped and speculated on Richmond’s final flurry. “Taylor’s over,” cried a man craning his neck over the railing. But Taylor was not over, and the bell rang for the death-knock, with Ponsonby emerging triumphant from a game that represented full value for the crowd’s money. SORTING THEM OUT For consistent all-round merit, Langly’s performance at fullback for Ponsonby would be hard to beat. He fielded unerringly and kicked accurately and well, even if a little lacking in foot-power. He shaded Hanlon on the day, but the latter was only a little behind in the fine points of a custodian’s duties. Both were splendid. Peckham and Delgrosso were tireless for the winners, displaying no great brilliance, but piling up an impressive record of speedy workmanlike effort, both being quick to seize openings and heady and clever in defence. Usher and Grey on the wings were first-class on attack, and played the “team game” in admirable style. Numbered among the genuine toilers in the pack must be Ward, Allen and Lowry, with Fagan, Hutt and Payne showing the way in the loose, the former repeatedly coming to light in fast dashes which made him a constant thorn in the side of the opposition. THANK YOU, RICHMOND The beaten team is to be congratulated on its efforts to make the game fast and open from whistle to whistle. In boxing points are given to the man who carries the fight to his opponent. Richmond earned a whole heap of them on Saturday, and the metaphoric “glad hand” from the barrackers, who are always willing to give credit to the team that makes the play, even when beaten in so doing. Parkes stood out as the “brains” of the team, being

always in position for setting his supports alight, and ever on hand to back up the initial movement. Prentice held the fort behind the pack with credit to himself and his side, and Jenkinson, Taylor and Hyland were constantly in the limelight. Hard-sloggers in the pack were Campbell (who kept Lowry very busy) Telford and Stewart. Bass, a brother of the retired City champion, displayed pace, dash and initiative of a high order in the loose, and a fine understanding with his backs. M. Taylor used his whistle judiciously, was prompt in his decisions and controlled the game generally with satisfaction to both players and onlookers.