A Rugby Notebook

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 101, 20 July 1927, Page 7

A Rugby Notebook

On and Off the Field Will Bay Tour With the Shield?

RUGBY followers can for tlie rest of the season devote most of their attention to representative fixtures, as from now on club engagements take a baok place. Ponsonby took no risks with its lead in the senior championship, and although there is a match to go, its position is now unassailable.

University at present occupies a lowly position in the points table, but the team has played one game less than those ahead of it, and a combination of circumstances may yet make Varsity the runners-up in the competition, so that the team would then be matched with. Ponsonby for the Charity Cup. For this to happen, Ponsonby has to beat Grammar, and Training College has to go under twice to Varsity; one game against Training College would be the match held over from the first round.

Varsity’s Claims On performances the University side has good claims to be considered the next best team to Ponsonby. Its poor performances were confined to the period when it was without several fine players, who were in Australia with the New Zealand Universities’ team, and in the recent game with Ponsonby the pack played all over the premiers’ forwards. On Saturday Varsity trounced North Shore, whose record on its home ground has not been enviable. The match was played in a fairly willing spirit, and if it had been a Ranfurly Shield game the parlour-football Press would doubtless have burst into lamentations about slaughterhouse football. In 99 cases out of 100, of course, the pleasantries exchanged on the football field are harmless. They are forgotten as soon as the match is over—till next time. * * *

Referee’s Difficulty The referee who controlled the North Shore-Varsity match was used to Southern rules, and perplexed the players by his eagerness to give the wing forwards the job of putting the ball into the scrums. With this in view it may be relevant to inquire why the rules as observed in Auckland differ, in so many minor points, from those of the South. Some of the differences are much in Auckland’s favour, and tend toward a more open game.

Others, such as the stay-at-home policy when kicks at goal from tries or marks are being taken, are only conducive to the same tactics, prejudicial to Auckland, when other unions are met under the rules followed elsewhere in New Zealand.

Great Club Rugby With experience, in the last five years, of club and representative Rugby in Taranaki, Wanganui, Wellington, Manawatu and Hawke’s Bay, this scribe does not hesitate to classify club Rugby in Auckland as the best he has yet seen. Whether representative standards can be handed the same distinction is another matter.

Enterprising back play is the chief reason for the high standard of the club football. There has .probably never been a club side with such a set of backs as Ponsonby possesses to-day. In recent history, their efforts run parallel with those of the Hawke’s Bay backs when that team was at its best. Forward play in Auckland suffers by comparison. The forwards here seem to have forgotten how to dribble. There are too many “shiners,” enough big men.

Bay’s Maori Backs It is interesting to observe that in the recent Shield game against Wairarapa Hawke’s Bay got right back to its oldtime tradition, when the inside backs— Mill, Paewai, Nepia, and Blake—were all Maoris, or of Maori descent.

On July 9 the chain ran thus: Edwardes, Te Ngaio, Barclay, and Blake. Edwardes and Te Ngaio—the latter’s full title is Uru Te Ngaio—are solidlybuilt natives, and got through a lot of Consequently the formation is unlikely to be changed for future engagements.

Auckland’s Chance The Auckland Rugby Union has not challenged for the Ranfurly Shield, and has not so far betrayed any intention of doing so. Hawke’s Bay plays here on August 27, and it is possible that the shieldholders could be induced to bring the trophy with them. They have Played for it. in recent years, at Wellington and Christchurch, so Auckland’s turn seems due, particularly as the Bay’s recent recovery of the shield should make it fairly liberal in outlook, and in a suitable frame of mind for making concessions that might not otherwise be considered. If the shield is not at stake on August 27, it is possible that many of the Bay leading lights will not come north, and for that reason alone a shield match is worth going for. * * * Brownlie's Position Maurice Brownlie said earlier in the season that he might not be able to come to Auckland when the team came north. His absence would be particularly regrettable, as Aucklanders undoubtedly want another view of the arch-butcher, about whose deeds the “Christchurch Star” was moved to write an hysterical editorial, while several other writers, usually the champions of the unhappy defeated, have prattled artlessly on the same lines.

Brownlie on acquaintance proves to be quite unlike the gory pictures painted of him. A man of prodigious strength, it is true, but a gentleman to boot. But the trouble with a lot of New Zealand football critics is that they do not know what a scrum is like from the inside. Consequently they would see purple patches in a ludo match.

Doubtful Starters Like F. W. Lucas. Maurice Brownlie is a doubtful starter for South Africa next year, and no forward would be more sadly missed. In just the same manner it may be a minor tragedy for New Zealand football if Lucas is unable to get away, as he has played better than ever this season. But the Ponsonby flier has business, as well as football interests, to study. He has not long taken over a new business engagement. That, coupled with the fact that he is now a married man. may put him out of the running for the South African trip.

Coming Fixtures Representative matches at Whangarei and at Hamilton are the chief Rugby fixtures for next Saturday, when there will be no matches at home, on account of the Soccer Test. Next Wednesday Wanganui Collegiate School will meet King’s College, on the King’s College ground, and the same afternoon Taranaki will play Hawke’s Bay at Hastings for the Ranfurly Shield. Taranaki has a very strong side, and may be expected to extend the shield holders. On the following Saturday will be played the Hawke’s Bay- Manawhenua match. The latter union has made no secret of its hopes of downing the champions. • • * Historic Colours In a month’s time (August 20) Manawhenua play Auckland, and the match should produce fine football, as the Manawhenua backs play bright and enterprising Rugby. Among them is D. Brophy, who at Palmerston North High School was a player of exceptional promise, which he has since fulfilled. Unfortunately he struck a succession of injuries which put him out of the running for the All Black honours that were looming ahead. Jacob, the famous Maori wingforward, who first came into prominence with the Maori Pioneers’ team after the war (Barclay was another member of the team) is still playing grand football for Manawhenua. In place of its former green and white livery, the combined team has adopted as its colours those worn by BedellSievwright’s British team in 1904. The jerseys are royal blue, with contrasting bands of red and white, each quarter of an inch across, placed together at intervals of four inches. The idea represents a welcome instance of originality. Football colours in New Zealand have hitherto been chosen with very little discrimination.

Akuira’s Kicking Rangi Akuira, another Manawhenua back, was a most promising schoolboy player when he was at Palmerston North High School, and later at Te Aute College. He fulfilled his promise to the extent of chosen in touring Maori sides. When at school he was a phenomenally accurate goalkick, and in a seven-aside tournament, in 1919, converted seven tries in 14 minutes. The teams engaged were Palmerston North High School and Wanganui Collegiate School, and Palmerston won by 35 points to nil—surely the record total for seven-aside matches.

“HI Go No More a-Roving’ Training College came home last Saturday to the tune of “I’ll Go No More a-Roving,” sung by enthusiastic fellow-students on the side line. The choral support perhaps had something to do with the resolute finish of the Training College team, which managed to keep ahead of College Rifles. Without du Chateau the latter’s backs were at sixes and sevens, and Blyth was finally brought in to half in an endeavour to improve matters. Meyer was quite distinctly the best back on the ground. If last Saturday’s form is maintained, Training College may quite easily provide a surprise packet for University when the first and second round matches are played. New South Wales Tour The New South Wales team to tour Great Britain and France will leave Sydney on Friday. A young university threequarter named W. Mann, who is remembered by the Aucklanders who went over with the New Zealand Universities’ team, has been chosen to complete the threequarter line. Only 18 years old, he is a former Sydney Grammar boy, and must be one of the youngest footballers to have won an international cap. Mann was filling the place of B. Palmer, who was unable to go, and yet another of the backs, J. L. Duncan, a halfback, was still doubtful recently, and there was a prospect that a Varsity youth, N. K Lamport, would be chosen in his place. In the light of the experience of the All Blacks, it is sheer folly to take away players as young as these striplings on a strenuous tour. Of the younger men among the 1924 All Blacks, Paewai, Brown and Nepia were under 20. Neither of the first two, for various reasons, was at all a success. Nepia, of course, was not to be measured by ordinary standards He was a strong man at 19. But right through the tour it was generally the seasoned men, in the mid-twenties, who carried the main share of the burden. Under the Posts. Like a good captain, Lucas leaves nothing to chance when Ponsonby is playing. Last Saturday Hook got away for a runaway try in the early stages of the match against Grafton, and Lucas, who followed until the winger was clear of danger, signalled him to circle round behind the posts. The difference between a win and a loss can often turn on whether the try-getters endeavour to run round behind the posts. Sometimes a man who has scored a try, particularly a forward, is so excited at getting across that he plunges frantically as soon as he is over the line. and does not bother about getting position for the goalkick. One of the secrets of the success of the 1924 All Blacks was that every scorer went behind the posts, if he could ftct there. The rest was easy for Nicholls or Nepia. Odds and Ends

Parts of Eden Park were iike a cowyard last Saturday, and from one high kick the ball fell dead, just as though it had been dropTped into a setting of dough.

Butler has gone into the reps, for next Saturday, on merit. The Varsity full back accomplished some phenomenal fielding last Saturday. In point of accuracv, Johnstone, North Shore, was not far behind him. Bradanovich and McLeod played finely for University, Bradanovich effectively answering recent ill-judged criticism.

Svenson and Porter, whose retirement had been mooted, are both out again for Athletic. Wellington, which beat the Wellington Varsity side last Saturday.

Officials of the Bugbv Union are considering a proposal that the leading club in Christchurch should be invited up to plav the leading Auckland club. It is hardlv likely that anything can be done this year, bnt for the future the proposition is worth consideration.