All Blacks Have Preliminary Canter

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 327, 12 April 1928, Page 12

All Blacks Have Preliminary Canter

MATCH AT WELLINGTON

EASY-GOING FOOTBALL

(Special to THE SUN) WELLINGTON, Wednesday. Before an attendance of 5,000 spectators, the All Blacks played an exhibition match here to-day. M. Brownlie’s team won by 23 points to 21 from Nicholls’s fifteen. Tries for the winners were scored by Robilliard (4), Kilby and Alley. McGregor kicked a penalty goal and converted a try. For the losers, tries were scored by Finlayson (2), Nicholls, Rushbrook and Scrimshaw.

All Black teams on the eve of departure on overseas tours have not been noted for the excellence of their play, but if ever there was a picnic match staged in Wellington, the encounter to-day was that.

The forwards waited about to see where the ball would go, and the backs behaved in a most leisurely fashion when rush-stopping was demanded. The tries scored by Rushbrook from a fast follow-up in the first spell, and by Scrimshaw when he and Cyril Brownlie with the opposition outpaced, slowed down before the goalposts, passing the ball to one another for the fun of the thing, were tries which would never have been gained in serious football. The All Blacks, in fact, played with one eye on Friday’s boat. It was an exhibition match in the strictest sense, and no one can- blame them. At the same time, the game showed that the Rugby laurels of the country were in safe keeping. A forward who elected to work was as prominent as a white man at a negro dance, but when any man did take it into his head to make the pace, he showed sterling merit. UNDER OLD RULES Flayed under the old rules, and in 30-minute spells, with the fifteens remaining on the field during the interval in the English manner, the game served to show just how much ball sense players have lost through the operation of the amended kicking-into-touch ukase. Lilburne alone had a clear conception of gaining ground by judicious use of the touchline, and his sound kicking throughout proved that he will be of service in the ftillback position abroad. If the scrummagers meant anything, they proved that Swain and Burrows are somewhat cleverer with their feet than Hadley and Hore, for the former pair were getting the ball for most of the match, and showed greater swiftness in shooting it through the scrum. When the other side gained possession it usually hung in the back row and Kilby was smothered. FINE THREE-QUARTER PLAY

Another eminently satisfactory thing was the high quality of play by all the wing three-quarters, who look as good a quartette as has ever been sent from this country. All showed dash and enterprise, and if Lucas was most tricky, Robilliard’s “go-getting” tactics and Rushbrook’s extreme solidity in defence were outstanding. Closer in to the scrum base, however, things were not so satisfactory, though both halves proved their mettle. McGregor was the only fiveeighth to shine out, both in defence and attack, and with Dailey must be rated as the finest of the inside men, with Kilby a close third. Johnson was just solid, and Nicholls, while he made one good run, which should have led to a try, had not Swain hurled the ball at Grenside from an impossible angle, was slew and crab-like in his running, and poor in decision. His main contribution to the match was a series of attempts to hand “dummies” to his opponents, who promptly laid him flat. Strang, while showing good place-kicking ability, was erratic, and usually flashy. Carlton, though doing one or two brilliant things, was often poor. Sheen showed that he will mould into a first-class man, but that is not* to say that he was brilliant. Often he missed chances, but early-season handling was much in evidence, and after one fine effort from the base of the scrum out to the wing of the Whites, Sheen sailed round outside Grenside ready for a pass which never came, the spectators rocking with -mirth when seven men one after another tried to handle a tantalisingly elusive ball. Among the forwards, Scrimshaw was in a class of his own for being on hand when support was wanted, and gave colour to the belief that he may prove a worthy successor to Parker as wing-forward. Others who worked oftenest were Swain, Finlayson, Cyril Brownlie, Hazlett, Alley and McW illiam s. MADE THE GAME It is impossible to give too high praise to Dailey and McGregor for their decision to make a game of it. But for that, the match might have degenerated into a fiasco, with no honest battling in the lineouts, no scrummages worthy of the name and a total of loose rushes that might be reckoned on five fingers. The game may better be imagined than described. The lack of devil in the play is testified to by the fact that whereas six tries were scored in the opening 30 minutes, it took that time for the referee to discover reason enough to award one free-kick.

Lindsay, of Otago, the other fullback, must not be forgotten. Besides powerful, well-directed kicking, he joined in several sallies by the threequarter line, and one of these efforts led to Carleton being given an opportunity to fly through an opening and present Alley with a pretty try.