Entertaining Rugby

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 83, 29 June 1927, Page 7

Entertaining Rugby

Club and School Games

Around the Football Fields

r[E excellent gates that the Rugby Union is getting at Eden Park this season testify to the interest the closely fought senior competition is arousing. Last Saturday there was a big crowd at Middlemore for the King’s—Grammar match, and another large attendance at Eden Park, where the senior A grade matches bristled with interest.

The name, Nepia, means something in Rugby since H. George M., of that ilk—what the odd initials stand for is an abiding mystery—exposed his sturdy frame to the rigours of 30 games in Great Britain and France, and it is therefore interesting to observe that a relative of the illustrious fullback is playing in Auckland. Like Wanoa, Ruru: • and Kaa, the latter a hooker for University B, this other Nepia is a student at St. John’s College, Tamaki, and may therefore swell the ranks of New Zealand’s sporting clerics, of whom that fine Maori forward, the Rev. Matene, is a recent example. George Nepia, it will be recalled, was chosen fullback for the All Blacks on the strength of a great performance in a trial game at Auckland. But it was not the first time he played in that position. When a student at the Maori Agricultural College, a Mormon school near Hastings, he was chosen to play fullback for the Hastings SubUnion. * * * CHANGE IN THE DRAW Changes in the draw for the Auckland senior competition caused a great deal of perplexity among players. The reason for the readjustments was the reduction of the number of playing Saturdays through the Maori match, and the cancellation of a Saturday’s matches on account of the Canadian Soccer test. So many players would much rather play than watch the Soccer that the wisdom of the union in cancelling all the A grade games on July 23 is greatly to be questioned. With so many representative games on the schedule, the season for the average club Rugby man is short enough as it is. University meets Ponsonby next Saturday, and should extend the Ponies, who always seem to find the students a hot proposition. Incidentally Varsity has yet to play a firstround match with Training College, but if Ponsobny wins on Saturday the fixture will probably be allowed to slide. * * # A POTENTIAL PARAGON If clean handling, sound tackling and exceptionally smooth and well-timed passes mean anything, then du Chateau, of College Rifles, may be a potential paragon among half-backs. On Saturday he definiely overshadowed McManus, even though the latter was playing behind a pack that, in the second spell at least, got the ball from most of the scrums. Du Chateau’s methods are neat and attractive. Fbr the halfback position he was schooled by that master craftsman, Teddy Roberts, who is an uncle, and who was himself a halfback of such calibre that he should be able to impart directions along the soundest lines. Built slimly, but by no means of frail physique, du Chateau -is taller than the average half. He has represented Wellington, and as he is only 20, should have good football ahead of him. * * * SCHOOL RUGBY From now on secondary school Rugby will hold a large share of the attention of the football public throughout the Dominion. In the early stages of the season little is heard of the schools, but as the winter advances their encounters assume importance. Things have alreday begun to move. Last Saturday King’s beat Grammar, at Auckland, and Palmerston North High School beat Wanganui Technical College. Palmerston evidently has a strong side, as it has beaten Te Aute, who had not been conquered fdv two or three years. Christchurch people are now beginning to speculate on the prospects for the annual Christs College - Boys’ High School match. Wanganui will this year be the scene of an important engagement, the triangular tournament in which Wanganui Collegiate School, Christ’s College and Wellington College participate. On Wednesday, July 27, Wanganui will play King’s at Middlemore, and August 13 will be College Day, when school teams will be seen in action at Eden Park. THE TANCRED TRIO The two Tancreds selected to tour with the New South South Wales team are members of a football trinity. The third brother, Harry Tancred, is not now playing, but has been long prominent as a referee. Arnold Tancred, the biggest forward in the New South Wales team, played centre-threequarter for St. Patrick’s College, 'Wellington, and on going to Sydney filled that position in the Glebe-Balmain team, in which he was associated with Dr. R. L. (‘‘Pup ) Raymond, the New South Wales Rhodes Scholar. Later he gravitated to the forwards, and when his brother Jimmie arrived in Sydney a place was found for him at once. His brother, in the meantime, had shown himself to be a first-class forward, and a great goalkick.

PARS ABOUT PLAYERS Dufty, the Thames rep. seen in action against Auckland, played last year for Athletic, Wellington. Lance Johnson, has evidently stiffened the Wellington Club side, which has proved a surprise packet in the Wellington competition. After drawing with Berhampore and Marists, it outed Oriental last Saturday. M. Beuth, of Hawke’s Bay, better known as a promising cricketer, is playing Rugby in Christchurch this season. The rumours that Jimmie Mill would reappear for Hawke’s Bay in the coming match against Wairarapa appear to be groundless. Mill, it is interesting to recollect, captained Nelson C/ollege against Auckland Grammar in 1918, when Ces Badeley and Don Wright were playing for Grammar. Chesley, former Te Aute five-eighth, is playing in New South Wales for the Hawkesbury Agricultural College. * * * KEENE'S PERFORMANCES Football followers are so busy discovering new candidates for next year’s All Black tour that they are prone to overlook the obvious. Thus Aucklanders pay surprisingly little attention to the claims of A. H. Keene, a consistent forward who will certainly catch the attention of the New Zealand selectors before many men who at present seem to be held in higher regard. Keene’s apparent clumsiness on the football field is a byword. His enormous strides—two varieties can be inferred—allow him to cover an amazing amount of ground. He waves his arms about, and seems to be the epitome of awkwardness—but he is rarely seen to drop a pass, and never delivers a bad one. The Varsity captain is unquestionably one of Auckland’s best forwards, and the better the company, the better his merits as a player will be realised. ODDS AND ENDS On their tour of Britain the New South Wales Rugby footballers will be allowed “Chits” to the value of three shillings a day. Referee W. J. Meredith strained a ligament in his knee during the Thames - Auckland representative match, and was unable to take a match last Saturday. Instead he was the man behind the “mike” in the members’ stand, broadcasting descriptions of the matches through the IYA transmitting station. Matches on its home ground apparently mean nothing to North Shore, which has played its last three matches across the water, and lost all of them. The secret may be that so many of the players are town residents that, on the North Shore ground they feel strangers. Matene, an Anglican minister, and Rika, both of the Maori team, and magnificent forwards, are playing for the Tangowahine Club, Northern Wairoa. Going strongly in Christchurch: W. C. Dailey (Old Boys); “Son” White, N. P. McGregor, R. O. Talbot and A. C. C. Robilliard (Christchurch): B. McCleary, J. Steel (Albion). Three men were ordered off in senior games last Saturday, and Steel retired hurt. • * ♦ THE CASHMORE TRADITION Football families become traditions at many schools, and no one was surprised when still another Cashmore turned out for Grammar in the match against King’s College last Saturday. There have been Cash mores at Grammar, in an unbroken line, for the past 14 years, and rare have been the years in which none of them was in the first fifteen. The family’s representative last Saturday was a younger brother of the University halfback. The Blake family at St. Pat’s had a good record —there was a Blake in the first fifteen for years, before and after the war. Only one of them, J. Blake, of Hawke’s Bay, has starred consistently in big football. Another great Hawke’s Bay football family were the Ormonds, of the Mahia Peninsula. J. Ormond, the Hawke’s Bay and All Black forward (he played for New Zealand in 1923), was the only one of 12 boys who did not play for Wanganui Collegiate School. He played for Christ’s College, instead. SATURDAY'S HIGH LIGHTS From Saturday last will be remembered: Bradanovich’s try for Varsity; Stone’s gallops for the Grafton line; Paewai’s remarkable ground-fielding; great defence, and resourceful back-ing-up, by R. Sheen, for College Rifles, and a fine display by Gallagher, thS College Rifles forward. Gallagher, now the sole survivor of the original post-war College Rifles pack, was one of several Rifles players who rose to the occasion. Others were Gillespie, Wilson, and du Chateau. Sheen showed glimpses of international class, but lapsed when he let Hook slip past him in the final quarter. Munro played finely for Grafton, and in the Ponsonby pack the flaxen-haired Palmer maintained the excellent form shown in the rep. game the week before. The meteoric dashes of Hook, which allowed Ponsonby to pull the match out of the fire, would not have been possible unless the Ponsonby forwards had gained the ascendancy in the scrums during the dying stages of the game.