A Rugby Notebook

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 149, 14 September 1927, Page 12

A Rugby Notebook

Players in the Limelight

Wellington Sending Best Team

ON Saturday, when Auckland will meet Wellington, a great representative season will close. After that an All Black tria.l match will officially terminate the season. Both Wellington and Auckland are unbeaten so far this! season.

The extent of Otago University's influence on Otago football was shown ] by the strong leaven of University players in the team which played! Auckland las: Saturday. Peterson j and Hea; lewood were the only non- j varsity men among the backs, while among the forwards Hindenach nobly upheld tha university tradition. Peterson is an employee at the Hillside railway workshops, and Stewart, the galloping winger, is farming near Mosgiel, though formerly ho was a student at Otago Strong in Wingers The capital displays of Stewart and Webb served to emphasise New Zealand’s present, strength in wing threequarters of real class. Were the inside backs up to the same standard, Maorih-nd would have little cause for trepidation concerning the result of next year’s crusade in South Africa. Steel, Hot illia.rd, Elvy, Svenson. Stewart, Gronside, Hook, and Lucas are all tine wingers. With them must be classified N. McDonald, of Southland, who has been preferred to Stewart in the selection of the first Southern trial team. Stewart as Reserve McDonald is a strapping winger, who handles the ball well, but it has been asserted that ho lacks a football ‘head.” Formerly at Otago University, he represented the New Zealand universities in Australia, and in the Otago-Southland trial team was preferred to Stewart, who was placed among the reserves. McDonald has now suffered an injury, so Stewart may get a game. Hindenach, another varsity man, hooked with C. T. Keegan, of Auckk.nd, in New South Wales •artier this season. On Auckland and Wellington form he would walk into the All Blacks, but his impending medical finals will rule him out of consideration. Varsity S nort-handed For its match against Victoria Coll€*ge, Well ngton, next Saturday, Auckland University will be short-handed. Tho team suffered severe losses in its match against Technical Old Boys, when Keegan and F. W. Olsen, both of whom have been in excellent form, had to re ire through injuries. Olsen was in hospital for some days,, and Keegan broke a tendon of his ankle. At>art frem losing two such capable players, \ arsity lost its chance for the Pollard Cup through indifferent displays. To be beaten 20 —3 by Manukau. which happened on Saturday.-was a severe reverse for a team which not so long aSO was unlucky not to down Ponsonby. w » An All Black Referee New Zealand referees who handle internatic nal matches —a high honour —now receive an All Black blazer as a memen :o of the occasion. Mr. F. E. Sutherlard, the Auckland referee, controlled a match between New South Wales ard New Zealand in 1925, and last week received an All Black blazer, decked with the lettering ‘‘Referee, N.Z. v. N.S.W., 1925,” as an acknowledgment Mr.. Peter Mackie, who refereed in two matches between Bedell-Slevwright’s team and New Zealand in 1904, is another Aucklander entitled to the distinction. Tried to Get Elack A rulirg that seemed a trifle severe was app.ied to an Otago man last Saturday, when a penalty for off-side allowed Auckland to escape from pressure. The offender, an Otago forward. shot round the scrum very fast, but did not go near the Auckland halfback. and from the stand his immediate effort to get back on his side was very pla n. By that time, however, tho whistle had gone. Southern forwards, of course, always find the Auckland application of the off-side rule difficult to understand at first, but it is to the credit of referees that the:r ruling is i / tacitly accepted, throughout the Dominion, as the wisest interpretation. Keene in Fine Fettle Possibly the lack of Keene’s fine leadership has had something to do with Varsity's recent indifferent performances. The big rover is at pres nt in great fettle, and last Saturday his performance was outstanding, though lie seemed a little lucky to escape the referee’s eye on two or three occasions. Keene is an old boy of Wellington College, and went to the war at a very early age. In recent years his football has improved with <?very passing season, and his recent displays strengthen the conviction that he should have excellent chances of selection for the South African tour. Will o’ the Wisp Porter “He is not a good footballer —he is a great footballer.” remarked an Otago pressman, travelling with the touring side, afmr he had seen C. G. Porter play in the match at Welllington. Porter, obviously not too old at 27, has come right back to his best form, a feat that is the more noteworthy since he could not even train in the early part of the season. The Wellington skipper—another Wellington College old boy—captained last years New Zealand team in New South Wales, and returned with fluid on the knee. In view of the ever-present possibility oi a recurrence of that complaint. it is extremely doubtful if he will b e sound enough to go to feouth Africa. Crocks cannot be risked tor such an arduous tour. # Students of Divinity Like G. T. Alley. Canterbury College. Mitchell, the Otago five-eighth, i- a student of divinity. His display at Auckland on Saturday was distinctly impressive, and the suggestion that his defence was unsound is both unfair and incorrect. Peterson, who let Berridge through, was the man responsible for Auckland s first try. Dr. Boss Mitchell’s colleague in the Otago University team, was hurt in the match against Bush, and could not play against Auckland. Aliev, by the way. is said to have been unimpressive lately. Though a man of great size, he is not as big as J. Pickering, a huge member of the Canterbury pack.

Consistent Ward Pat Ward, the Taranaki forward, has been consistently the best of the Taranaki pack this season, and his admirable displays place him in line for higher honours than the South Island colours he lias already won. A barman by occupation Ward is massive of torso, and scanty of thatch, with the result that he looks more than his years. At Palmerston North a fortnight ago, when Taranaki went under to Manawhenua. he was the best forward on the ground—a distinction he wins with faithful regularity nearly every time he plays.

Greek Meets Greek It was an unwritten condition of ae lection in this year’s Wellington rep.

team that the players should travel to Auckland for the return of last year’s match, which Auckland won, so the team playing here on Saturday is likedy to be a. star combination in all departments. Elvy, Svenson, Nicholls. Johnston, Porter and Kilby are celebrities whom the Auckland crowd will be eager to see. A new light in Wellington Rugby is South, who won his first representative colours ast season, and will next year be returning to his native Hawke’s Bay. He hails from Nuhaka, immortalised by George Nepia. * * * ScHcolboy Stars South is a schoolteacher, now studying at the Wellington Training College, and before he left Hawke’s Bay was playing so well that N. A. McKenzie must have viewed his departure regretfully. At Napier Boys’ High School South was a star in a brilliant team, but his lustre was dimmed by that of Potaka, now a student at Otago, who has since failed to rise to anything like his colleague’s Rugby eminence. The subsequent obscurity into which many fine schoolboy stars fade is rather remarkable. Sheen, for instance, has outshone his former team-mate, R. O. Talbot, who at Christchurch seemed a worlcl-beater. School Nursery The secondary schools of New Zealand are immensely important as nurseries of Rugby. For instance— Alley, Burroughs, Carleton, M. L. Page, and Dailey were all in the same Christchurch Boys’ High School team. Lindsay, the Otago centre, played for Timaru, the school that produced R. F. Stewart. Ross, also Otago, was at Otago Boys’ High School, and when New Zealard met Wales in the avenging match in 1924, the first two tries were scored by Maurice Brownlie and Mark Nicholls, graduates, respectively, of St. Pat.’s and Wellington College, the two historic Wellington schools.