“England Effete”

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 177, 17 October 1927, Page 11

“England Effete”

TOURING RUGBY TEAM TELLS ANOTHER TALE Quaint Comments in Argentine A PPARENTLY there is a new message for British touring teams to broadcast. This, judging by the experiences of the Rugby team in the Argentine, is to show that Britain is not “effete”—played out.

The British Rugby tourists, having finished their missionary work in the Argentine, certainly have some quaint tales to tell. Tho players who participated in the tour were not selected wholly for their proved football ability, but the side included a number of internationals in the making, and they seem to have acquitted themselves admirably. Football grounds in the Argentine are extremely hard, and as a result the tourists were somewhat hampered in their exhibition. Prior to each match the pitch was watered liberally, and, consequently, the players had to contend with a greasy ball and slippery “BLACK-LISTING” INDIVIDUALISM Still, the Englishmen were able to teach the native footballers much of value. For instance, J. N. S. Wallens, who played some excellent games at fullback, often ran up to set his threequarters going instead of kicking to touch—a new thing to native footballers. The threequarters, who were frequently changed, excelled in passing, and to native footballers who were accustomed to stereotyped passing along the line, with movements ending when the wing man was stopped, the tactics of the British team in passing inwards, feinting, giving the dummy, and punting ahead and crosskicking were a revelation. Hamilton Smythe caught the popular fancy, both as a centre-threequar-ter and as an outside half, and the success of the tour was really due to the fact that the British team, no matter how they were changed, played as a combined force, “black-listing all individualism,” as one overseas writer put it. The forwards had weight and speed —a heavy pack, well balanced, which was in contrast to the native sides, who usually played a couple of heavy men in the second row and the rest light-weights. “EFFETE ENGLAND” One of the outstanding matches of the tour was against San Isidro, and for that game every point of vantage was commandeered, not alone in the grounds proper, but also every house balcony close by and tree-top contained their maximum supporting capacity. San Isidro had been the crack team of the Argentine for years, and the natives had come to believe that they were unbeatable. But the tourists won by 1 goal and 3 tries to 0, and the Buneos Aires "Herald," commenting upon it, said: “The gloom that has settled over the devoted village of Saint Isidore will not be dispelled. That much was evident when Ye Gifted Reporter, sent on an assignment, the purport of which was to discover extenuating circum-

stances in connection with the Downfall, found the shops tightly shuttered and the populace at Mass. . . . “Accustomed to use the - Haughty Mien and the Unfurrowed Brow when discussing football, the component parts of its team are now wandering why England, effete, going out, finished and entirely-done-with-England, sent out Fifteen that blotted out the valiant record of eleven seasons. . . . “The Saints didn’t even score an essay, much less a try. And they looked so nice, toe, all combed and slicked down, all ready to carry a British bone home. . . . But ’twas not to be.” HIS REIGN ENDED Apparently, scrum half-backs in the Argentine have methods all their own, for it is also recorded that “Mr. T. H. Vile (the touring referee from Wales) emphasises the fact that the ball is not put properly or fairly into the scrummage until it has touched the ground. “The British scrum-half was putting the ball in correctly, but his opposite number threw the ball in in such a way that it reached the hookers before touching the ground. Naturally, any attempt at hooking was illegal under the circumstances.” The same writer regretted to see that the San Isidro captain did not see eye to eye with Mr. Vile as regards refereeing. It is generally known that the gentleman in question had a long and meritorious actuation on Rugby fields in Argentina, and is also accustomed to tell his colleague referees what they should or should not do; but to set himself up publicly as competent to criticise the decision of Mr. T. H. Vile, whose prominence in the Rugby world is indisputable, indicates a complete lack of humour. “TERRORS FOR OFF-SIDE” In the first test match—won by the touring team by 37 points to nil —W. H. Sobey and R. S. Spong, both old Milhillians, were the British halfbacks, and won high praise, while E. D. G. Hammett, at threequarter back, is described as “a great salesman of the dummy.” Mr. T. H. Vile, the official referee, who was invited to take control of all the games of the tour in order that the native referees might see how British referees control games, says Ar-gentine-born players are much better at football than Englishman who have gone to the Argentine, and he places them in very much the same category as the French —they are fast, pass well, their forward play is good, but they are “terrors for off-side play.” He also pays a high tribute to Mr. J. Baxter, “an ideal manager of atouring side,” and adds a tribute to the play of G. S. Wilson, a young threequarter back from Lancashire, and R. S. Spong, an outside half-back, who is suggested by Mr. Vile as likely to be a big candidate for an English cap next winter.