WARATAHS BEAT IRELAND

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 201, 14 November 1927, Page 1

WARATAHS BEAT IRELAND

HARD RUGBY GAME N.S.W. FORWARDS SPLENDID DESERVED VICTORY By Cable.—Press Association. — Copyrigh' LONDON, Saturday. The New South Wales Rugbyteam to-day defeated Ireland at Blackpool by five points to three. Although the Australians won this, their first international match, by a narrow margin only, they unquestionably deserved the victory. It was a hard game, played in brilliant sunshine and on perfect turf. While the visitors’ backs brought off several rounds of passing, they found the Irish tackling most efficient. The secret of the Waratah’s success was the splendid efficiency of their forwards, who held their opponents in the tight scrums, and certainly tamed considerably the traditional terrors of the Irish rushes. Among the forwards J. Ford, Breckenridge, Thncred and Finlay were conspicuous. Blackwood surpassed his Irish vis-a-vis at hooking, and Meagher fed his backs readily. Lawton was too often tackled while he had the ball.

Ross, at fullback, might profitably have done more touch-finding. Bowers again made many blunders in taking his passes, but it was from a rapid combination between him and Towers that Wallace scored the Australians’ try, which Lawton converted. Fifteen minutes before the interval, when the visitors were leading by five points, Ireland scored a penalty goal through Ganly. Just after crossing over, they were certainly more dangerous, although their backs rarely made any combined moves. Browne, the Farrell brothers, McVickers and Buchanan were the best of the Irish pack, which was much below the Irish international standard. Probablv the strength of the Australian forwards was largely responsible for this.

The fly-half, Davy, played a great game. He defended finely, while once in the first half he had bad luck. He hit the cross-bar when he tried to dropkick a goal. There was much scrambling play, but on the balance the visitors deserved to win.—A. and X.Z.Sun.