“War Cries and Wingers”

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 181, 21 October 1927, Page 10

“War Cries and Wingers”

N.Z. Innovations Not Appreciated in England The “highly superiah’! English attitude in sport is rather well exemplified in some remarks made by the “Athletic News” on the arrival of the New South Wales Rugby team in England. Under the suggestive heading of “The Waratahs come without a winger or a war cry,” the English journal observes: .Admiral Royds’s predecessor in the presidential chair, Mr. J. Baxter, has described the winging forward as a “cheat.” The cleverer he is the nearer he comes to perfection as an obstructionist, so that there will be general applause at his absence from the New South Wales team. Another departure from recent examples to be made by the Waratahs is the absence of a war cry. Possibly they, feel the high-water mark was reached by the Maoris; possibly they feel that war cries are hardly in keeping with public schoolboys who have come over here fully alive to the value of the interests they represent. The “Athletic News” conveniently forgets that in late years the “winging forward” has been a feature of English Rugby teams. Tom Voyce, the Gloucestershire forward, made a reputation in this position, and gener-

ally English teams have played two “wingers.” In times past, the New Zealand wing-forward has been bitterly assailed by ignorant English critics, but the English teams conveniently get over the difficulty by playing two of their back row forwards as wingers. It is to be noted, too, that the New Zealand war cry evidently does not fit into the atmosphere of genteel snobbery which still exists in some quarters in English Rugby. How on earth a war cry fails to be “in keeping with public schoolboys and the interests they represent’’ will pass the comprehension of most people. In New Zealand the war cry has long been a popular feature at secondary school Rugby tournaments, but evidently in England “it simply isn’t done.” Those beastly colonials again, what, what! Tom Hecney fights Jack Riske at Detroit next Wednesday. Tin Scares! Till the New Zealand Cup is run the bookie will lead a double life.