Rugby Prospects

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 343, 2 May 1928, Page 11

Rugby Prospects

SEASON STARTS WELL Alterations in Club Strength PROSPECTS for another good season in Auckland Rugby are again bright, if last Saturday’s opening matches can be taken as a criterion. The displays at Eden Park were convincing. Ponsonby came to light in familiar style. But perhaps the outstanding performance was that of Grafton, which will upset heaps of high hopes if the team goes on as it has started.

Uncertainty about the intentions of several plStyers was apparent until the last moment. Turei, for instance, wa-s in the Grammar reserve list, but turned out as fullback for Grafton, for whom he played very finely. This was perhaps some form of retribution against Grammar, which played him out of place, as wing-threequarter, for the greater part of last season. * * * q PAEWAI ON THE JOB Paewai was elusive and clever at five-eighth for Grafton, and the Varsity rovers found him a perplexing proposition. Judge, behind the scrum, did not always sweep the ball away cleanly. Grafton has a bunch of very fine forwards, splendidly led by Wanoa, Finlayson, and the tireless Noakes, and the pack may develop into the strongest in the competition. With back play at a fairly even standard of uniformity in Auckland just now, strength forward may be a deciding factor in this season’s competition. * * * CASHMORE IN NAPIER N. Cashmore, Varsity half-back, is now in Napier, and is turning out for the High School Old Boys’ Club. Keene is not yet down from the North Auckland cattle farm where he has been spending the summer, but Varsity j hopes he will very soon be again lead- : ing the side. Minns, of last year’s ] Training College team, is playing with greater dash than ever, and Anderson, a convert to the Varsity pack, is another useful acquisition. * * * OLIVER IN FORM The outstanding feature of the Christchurch Rugby opening, -wit-

nessed by the writer on Saturday week, was the brilliance of C. Oliver, All Black cricketer and South Island Rugby rep. Playing 'for Merivale, Oliver was always dangerous, sometimes stranding all the opposing backs with his crisp dashes. The matches were played before a crowd of 7,000, which bore testimony to the popularity of Rugby in Christchurch. To accommodate Ranfurly Shield crowds a large new stand has been built at Lancaster Park. * * * Mclntosh hurt C. E. W. Mclntosh, the Scottish threequarter, whose expected appearance for Varsity was arousing a great deal of interest, could not turn out, on account of a knee injury suffered at practice. In training and practice appearances he had impressed as an exceptionally strong and determined runner, perhaps without the accustomed New Zealand faculty for backing up readily, but nevertheless so promising the students will welcome his reappearance.

WELLINGTON RUGBY Wellington Rugby opened a fortnight ago with desultory club matches which, though not part of the official series, attracted a good crowd. South, last year’s brilliant centre, who faded badly toward the end of a strenuous season, is back in Napier, and should be useful to Hawke’s Bay. Perhaps the best display in the Wellington opening matches was that of Ransom, the strong-running Varsity threequarter. Club matches for the main competitions began in Welington last Saturday. Napier, Wanganui and Taranaki were also with Auckland in opening on that day. HEAVY CASUALTY LIST In the . Ponsonby-Grammar game casualties, even for the first of the season when a heavy list can be expected, were unusually numerous, seven men—four from Grammar and three from Ponsonby—having to leave the field. This state of affairs, however, was not due to rough or unusually vigorous play, but in most cases to that first-of-the-season feeling when 30 players and a referee seem to constitute an overcrowded field. Even when the men are physically fit, getting in one another’s road is alwavs very easy at the start of the season. ♦ * * POPULAR FORWARD For Grammar, Walter Batty played a sterling game against Ponsonby, the* Grammar captain leading rush after rush into the blue and black territory. Batty is probably one of the most popular men in the senior competition and is constantly in the public eye. That he is not now on his way to South Africa is a matter of general, regret. There is some consolation, however, in the fact that the province will be able to call on his services this season when the Shield disputes again commence.