ELLERSLIE ROMPS HOME IN FAST, BUSTLING GAME

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 401, 9 July 1928, Page 6

ELLERSLIE ROMPS HOME IN FAST, BUSTLING GAME

CITY RUN OFF ITS FEET Ellerslie looked like a team of “waybacks’* when they stepped out on to the main area at Carlaw Park on Saturday- Several of them wore togs which looked as if they had not seen the inside of a wash-house for many weeks, and their “number-plates” would have defied the eagle eye of a traffic cop to decipher. Apart from this, the rugged racecourse side played bright and breezy football, putting any amount of vim and dash into its play. City showed flashes of its old-time brilliance, • but never looked like developing rearguard combination against a fast, hustling pack of forwards, who carried too many guns for the opposing rearguard. Forwards are still the dominating factor in either League or Rugby, and only the genius of a Lelgrosso or a Peckham could triumph over the fatal deficiencies of a pack unable to hold its opponents down to a reasonable basis of equality in tight and loose play. PACK NOT STRONG ENOUGH The best that can be said of City is that the team are triers all the time. The club has some good young stuff coming on, and if the pack only had a couple of big, raw-boned forwards such as Newton and Ellerslie possess in plenty, it would be a 50 per cent, better side. It would make Iladley and Hamilton, for instance, a couple of top-notch club players, instead of being, as at present, a pair who can just claim to be showing the way to the rest of the forwards when the game spreads out into open-field play. There are some useful souls in the City rearguard. Lacking experience as he does, Barchard has all the qualifications of a coming champion. He has a good pair of hands, kicks uncommonly well, and stands up to the hard stuff quite well. Amos, too,..supplies a much-needed strength in defence, which cannot disguise the fact that, with better opportunities, he would make a name for himself in any team. RUGGED ELLERSLIE PACK A more rugged style of game on a holding ground gave Ellerslie its easy win on Saturday. As yet, last year’s champion senior B team has a deal to learn in the finer points of combination, but it has good material to work on. Apart from one sturdy gentleman who was permitted by a complaisant official in charge to indulge in obstructive tactics to his heart’s content, the forwards are always willing to “give it a go” in , honest, hustling play. The try scored by Allen was a fine example of a forward’s dedetermination and dash when the odds ought to have been right against a score, provided certain City defenders had not discovered “urgent business elsewhere” when a determined-looking young man came hurtling down on them. S. Crewther was a tower of strength to the Great South Road contingent. He has speed and cleverness in all phases of play, and is quick to size up an opening. Littlewood showed a glimpse of his old form late in the game, and Hemingway had a day out with his goal-kicking.