The Last Crusade

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 146, 10 September 1927, Page 7

The Last Crusade

All Blacks on Warpath The South African Tour By H. MAKARIKt NEXT year’s Rugby tour to South Africa may be regarded as the final crusade in Maoriland’s auest for world Rugby supremacy. New Zealand at present claims the distinction. Next year she will have to convince the world that she has earned it.

TF the Fernleaf beats the Springbok in three of next year’s four tests, that nimble emblem of South African Rugby-footballers agreed on an emblem, where politicians are wrangling about a flag—will have to concede, with the world, that Maoriland leads in Rugby. The four tests will please South Africa, and allow different centres to see important matches, but they enlarge the possibility of an even distribution of vital honours. A win each, and a draw, was the result of the three tests in New Zealand. On the same lines, two wins each could easily happen in South Africa. But New Zealand does not wish to contemplate that possibility. Failing all four, New Zealand must win three tests. More than that, her citizens will aspire to see their Rugby chosen emulate the 1924 team, and go through unbeaten. SPRINGBOK INVASION The impending issue, with interest quickened by the now imminent trial matches, recalls the visit of the 1921 Springboks, of whom most football followers still retain vivid impressions. Starting at Wanganui on July 13, 1921, the Springboks won by 11 to 6, the speedy Van Heerden scoring the first try of the tour. The hectic exchanges between “Moke” Beilis and the South African, Kruger, were one feature of the match. On one occasion the pair wrestled in the open field. In their next match the tourists failed to score j against Taranaki—a draw (no score) was the final result—which team had prepared for the invaders by a week in camp. After that the Springboks had a moderately comfortable time, though beaten by Canterbury, 6—4, and New Zealand in the first test, while they suffered very narrow escapes at the hands of Manawhenua, 3 —o, Waikato, 6—o, and in the much-discussed Maori match at Napier, when a sensational blind-side try by J. Mill was a feature of a desperate game*, which ended 9 —S in favour of the South Africans. After the match the views of South African newspaper correspondents who had cabled “stories” to their papers leaked out, and caused considerable unpleasantness. The source of the leakage was investigated by the New Zealand Post and Telegraph Department and resulted in the dismissal of certain officials. COLOUR PREJUDICE In the course of the match against the Maoris a certain amount of colourprejudice was evident. Entirely foreign to New Zealand, that sentiment is strong in South Africa, so the attitude of the Springboks was easy to understand. though they showed indiscretion in showing their feelings so plainly. That match, if nothing else, furnished the New Zealand Union with ample reason for complying with South Africa’s unwritten request that no native players be sent,, but the compliance, in itself, will prevent next year’s series from being a true test. If a Ncpia, for instance, were available, New Zealand could not feel that .its strongest side was in action unless the dusky progidy was guarding the All Black line. But there is no Nepia. The hero of yesteryear, who should be better than ever now (he is only 22) is farming at a place called Rangitukia, in the wilds of the East Coast, and is sole selector for the Waia.pu Sub-union. Last season he was put off—rather unjustly, it; seemed —in a match at his native Nuhaka, and the idol of Twickenham seems now to be content with obscurity. BUTLER ACCLAIMED And other fullbacks? Unless A. W. Ross is all that Sydney critics acclaim him, the Rugby world to-day lacks the great defensive men of the past. Treasuring memories of H. T. Gamelin, England cannot to-day find the equal of its giant of the nineties. Jack Brough, the Silloth fisher-boy, was produced for Twickenham when the All Blacks played there, but later he turned professional, and W. E. Crawford, the gallant Irishman, is advanced in years. Similarly, South Africa will have No Gerhard Morkel, the man who potted the goal at Auckland, winning the second test for the Springboks in 1921, and there may not even be a man as good as the massive de Viliiers, the wonderful second-string full- : back of the 1921 African team.

Talking of Ross—when the New Zealand Universities' team was in Sydney earlier this season, the Sydney Rugby critics warmly praised V. Butler, the Aucklander, who was fullback for the

Maorila.nders. Their generous concession was the best praise Butler has had, and recalls the proverb, “a prophet is without honour in his own country.” Save in Auckland, Butler has not been seriously regarded as an All Black possibility. But his games against Taranaki and Manawhenua showed that he is a strong claimant. His physique is immeasurably superior to that of J. Harris (Canterbury), another fine fullback. Roache. the Wairarapa man, gathers a ball with amazing certainty, but against Auckland last Saturday he was a mass of padding. The rigours of a tour would trespass on his frailty. There are also Lilburne (Canterbury), Malcolm (Wellington), Yates (Hawke’s Bay), and Petty’ (Taranaki). Malcolm’s shaky opening against Otago last Saturday was not impressive, and Petty is just not up to standard, while 15. R. L. Stevenson, the Otago man ■who got to the front rank last year, is not a good enough kick. FIRST TRIAL MATCH Butler, Harris, Lilburne and Yates d ok t- the stro ”Sest candidates. D Brophy, of Manawhenua, might have a chance. He is very safe on defence. Failing one of these, obscurity must hold some man who, as Nepia did in 1924, will rise with meteoric rapidity. Darby, of Wanganui (late of Wellington), is one full-back called to mind. An incurable optimist, Darby in 1924 migrated to Hawke’s Bay with the express intention of making the Bay team a stepping-stone to the tour of England. Results tell their own story. Darby is _ now back in his native Wanganui, and still playing more than average football. Next Wednesday, September 14, the first of the All Black trial matches will be staged, the opposing sides being the Hawke’s Bay and Wairarapa groups. Yates and Roache are certain to be the opposing full-backs, as Poverty Bay, which will claim representation in the Hawke’s Bay side, will concentrate more on forwards and inside men. while Bush, which will be bracketed with Wairarapa, was earlier in the season so short of full-backs that it dragged from retirement the ponderous and somewhat corpulent S. K. Siddells, who was wing threequarter for New Zealand in that never-to-b?-forgotten third test against the Springboks. On the eve of the trials it is interesting to glance at the roll of candidates, always with the reservation that “full many a gem of purest ray serene, the dark, unfathomed caves of ocean bear.” Also, it is to be recollected that there is hardly such a thing as a certainty. Beilis, who played wonderfully in the trials, was considered a certainty for the 1924 team. He did not go, and the side did not miss him. Here is a list of possibilities: Forwards: M. Brownlie, R. F. Stewart, I. Finlayson, A. Knight, W. Hazlett, I. Harvey, G. T. Alley, C. Brownlie, A. Lomas, S. Hadley, Palmer, A. H. Keene, G. Scrimshaw, C. Sontagg, C. Hore, J. T. Burrows, A. White, A. Kivell, P. Ward, J. Walter, J. Johnson, P. Leahy, R. Reed, A. Fairbrother, Jefferies, Clark, Pringle, Emerson, Claridge, C. G. Porter, McWilliams, Tremewan, Heatley, J. P. Swain, N. Conrad, R. Tankard, J. Donald, W. Heffernan, O. Stewart, C. Campbell. Backs: V. Butler, G. Yates, J. Harris, H. Lilburne, J. Malcolm, W. Petty, D. Fairbrother. E. Roache, M. Darby, F. W. Lucas, H. W. Brown, L. Hook. T. R. Sheen, A. Berridge, E. McManus, L. South, W. Elvy, J. Steel, K. S. Svenson, E. B. Stewart, R. Webb, B. Grenside, N. McDonald. A. C. C. Robilliard, S. R. Carleton, T. Corkill. M. Nicholls, L. Johnston, F. Kilby, W. Dailey, N. P. McGregor, Holden, D. Brophy, F. Bennett. There are over seventy names in the list, and some of them, to the average Rugby followers, mean nothing. Reed, the massive Wa.irarapa forward, deserves inclusion, if only on the strength of his great game at Auckland last Saturday. Many, including the pictorial editor of an Auckland daily, credited Harvey with much of Reed’s fine work. New Zealand, it is clear, has still fine forwards at her disposal, but the relative scarcity of inside backs may cause the selectors concern.