A Champion in the Making

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 169, 7 October 1927, Page 10

A Champion in the Making

SOUTHERN ALL BLACK A. STRANG’S SELECTION Quite the biggest surprise in the list of 2 9 players chosen to tour South Africa next season was the selection of Archie Strang, tins young Timaru - vian, as understudy t> the redoubtable Cooke-McGregor - N cholls - Johnson quartette. * For once the critics were caught napping. No one thougl t it worth while to tip the sturdy South Canterbury five-eighth for a place, and few realised he was in the running at all until his name started to crop up in the reports of the last two trials in Wellington. It is generally regretted that Arnold BerrLdge, the brilliant young Ponsonby player, was unable to show the form in the trials that ho displayed here in ti e rep. season. la a sense Strang got the place that most Aucklanders

hoped Berridge would get, but he got it on merit, and Berridge’s chance will come again. Strang cannot be any more than about 20 or 21. The writer’s recollection of him goes back to some eight or nine ago in Invercargill, when a sturdy little chap in short pants used to hover on the fringe of the afternoon “punt-abouts” at the Soys' High School and seemed never tired of fielding stray kicks or rescuing the ball from a stream which flowed oast the ground. A year or two later this lad laid the foundation of his Rugby career at the Southland Boys’ High School, whence also came Lance Johnson and Frank Kilby, two of his All Black comrades. Removing to Timaru, young Strang joined another well-known Southern Rugby nursery, the Timaru Boys’ High School, which is further represented in the All Blacks by Stewart and LindSince leaving high school a few years ago Strang lias climbed rapidly. South Canterbury rep. honours soon came his way, ar.d this year he has steadily won his way into recognition by consistent all-round play. An extra dash of brilliance :.n the trials finally made his place in the final selection secure. It is evident that the selectors must have been considerably impressed with the promise he showed, as the team is particularly well off for inside backs. Strang is a type of player who

should benefit, by next year's tour. He has youth, physique and temperament for big football in his favour, and it

is not beyond the realms of possibility that the “understudy” may secure a “star” part in Africa.