Now the Wallabies

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 80, 25 June 1927, Page 11

Now the Wallabies

Cornstalks on Rugby Warpath

New South Wales Team

NOW the Wallabies, the second New South Wales side to tour Britain, are setting- out to conquer in Rugby fields abroad.

Though strong, the N.S.W. team can hardly be expected to do as well as the unbeaten All Blacks, but it should equal the record of its 1908-09 predecessors, who in 31 matches lost five, drew one and came out on top in the remaining 25.

SOME of the team selected —there are 29 of them —are well known in New* Zealand, and nearly all are known to New Zealand representatives and university players who have been to Sydney lately. Actually New Zealand has direct representation in the side, as the Tancred brothers, forwards, are natives of Petone, and formerly played for the village side. One of them, J. Tancred, for a time played League, but returned to his old love. He is an exceptionally fine forward. A. M. Thorn and C. L. Fox were in New Zealand in 1921, with the famous team which won nine out of ten matches in New Zealand, and beat the New Zealand test match team —a second-rate side—in the test in Christchurch. WALLACE THE SKIPPER Thorn has captained New South Wales sides, and was expected to lead this latest. A. C. Wallace, Rhodes scholar and Scottish international threequarter, gets that honour, however, and C. L. Fox, a forward, will be his deputy. Thorn was not even put on the selection committee, another omission that occasioned surprise. There had already been much discussion regarding the appointment of a manager. T. H. Bosward, one of the selectors, and well known in New Zealand, had been considered certain of the responsibility, but he was discarded in favour of E. G. Shaw, a retired bank manager. That fine footballer, the flaxenhaired Otto Nothling, was another unexpectedly passed over. Of course, New South Wales so idolises its fullback, A. W. Ross, that it considers a deputy superfluous. Ross occupies a unique position in the estimation of the Rugby public across the water. Yet a youth, and only a stripling in build, he blazed a meteoric path to fame when the All Blacks met New South Wales in Sydney last ye'&r. More recently he played against the New Zealand varsity team —he is a medical student at Sydney University—but the Auckland members of that side considered, sound though he was, that he hardly warranted the extravagant adulation heaped on him by the New South Wales critics. YOUTHFUL THREE-QUARTER The same Maorilanders saw a good deal of the youthful Ben Egan, one of the chosen three-quarters, who has not been long enough away from The Kings School, Sydney, to have forgotten the atmosphere of the classroom. Gordon (Y.M.C.A.) had not been tipped to secure a place, but the others in the three-quarter line are all seasoned performers, Bowers (Randwick) having been here in 1923, when his fortitude in playing through a match with a broken rib earned him an appellation the equivalent of “ironsides,” but a good deal more pungent.

In T. S. Lawton, W. B. J. Sheehan and A. C. Wallace, the Wallabies will possess a trio of shining lights. Wallace, when at Oxford, won a place in the famous Scottish three-quarter line which comprised the four Oxonians, I. S. Smith, G. P. S. MacPherson. A. C. Wallace (Australia) and G. G. Aitken (New Zealand). Lawton, meanwhile, had been doing great things in England, and was tried in trial matches, but did not have the luck to be capped. For a time he was disqualified because some busy-body on the English Rugby Union discovered that he had played League in Queensland, where Rugby was not played, before going to Oxford as a Rhodes scholar, and though the suspension was quickly lifted, it undoubtedly prejudiced his chances of international honours. Later, after leaving Oxford, Lawton came to New Zealand, for a time playing for the Albion Club in Christchprch, but he did not stop long, and has since been playing in Sydney. SHEEHAN THE ELUSIVE Sheehan is even better known in New Zealand. He captained the New South Wales side in 1923, and the Sydney University touring side in 1925. He has been over twice with State teams, and has created a very favourable impression. Playing recently against the New Zealand varsity side in Sydney, he overshadowed the New Zealand inside backs, and with Wallace should be responsible for brilliant performances in the Old Country. Of the forwards with the Wallabies, one or two, Blackwood and Thorn, are considered to be past their prime. Finlay, tall and powerful, is a fine varsity forward, and Storey was in New Zealand with the Sydney Varsity side two years ago. The following is the team selected: Full-back: A. W. Ross (University). Three-quarters: B. Palmer (GlebeBalmain), A. C. Wallace (Glebe-Bal-main), B. Egan (Eastern Suburbs), E. Ford (Glebe-Balmain), C. Towers (Randwick), S. C. King (Western Suburbs), A. J. A. Bowers (Randwick), G. C. Gordon (Y.M.C.A.).

Five-eighths: T. S. Lawton (Western Suburbs), W. B. J. Sheehan (University).

Half-backs: W. Meagher (Randwick)), J. L. Duncan (Randwick), Syd. Malcolm (Newcastle).

Forwards: K. Tarleton (Y.M.C.A.), J. G. Blackwood (Eastern Suburbs), M. Blair (Western Suburbs), J. Tancred (Glebe-Balmain), H. Woods (Y.M.C.A.), C. L. Fox (North Sydney), A. N. Finlay (University), B. Judd (Randwick), G. P. Storey (Western Suburbs), J. Ford (Glebe-Balmain), E. J. Thorn (Manly), J. W. Breckenridge (Glebe-Balmain), A. Tancred (GlebeBalmain), E. N. Greatorex (Y.M.C.A.), and G. Bland (Manly). The players leave Sydney on July