League Rugby!

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 415, 25 July 1928, Page 11

League Rugby!

Notes and Comment.

With, the rep. season now in full swing, and the visit of the Englishmen looming near, club football in Auckland will take a back seat to the major fixtures till August 18. Even after that date when the result of every match will have an important bearing on the final resting place of championship honours, several prominent players will be absent in the South at the second and third tests. The great interest with which fans are looking forward to the final senior grade battles will have to be sustained over the intervening big match season, but it can lose nothing bv waiting. & y * * * Auckland’s Walk-over Auckland has always been regarded as the stronghold of the Rugby League Zealand, but just how strong the local men are this season was not generally realised till they triumphed over the Canterburyonians by 6b points to 26 at Carlaw Dark on Saturday. The visitors must be given credit for their game fight against such odds, but the fact remains that to compare the standard of the game in the two centres is to compare chalk with cheese.

Henry was an absentee from the Newton pack on Saturday week, humour has it that he does not propose playing the game again. * * * North v. South

. Tl } e . Inland team chosen to meet the North Island side at Carlaw -t ark next Saturday includes five of the Canterbury ___________

men who played against Auckland on Saturday: Davidson. Spillane. Woods, Woodgate and Collie. The North Island team will probably be announced after the South Auckland - Auckland match this afternoon, and it is reasonable to expect that there

will be a preponderance of local men on the side. In that case a win lor the North can be fairly confidently expected. Spillane, the brilliant Canterbury five-eighth, will captain the South Island side. * * * Englishmen in Australia With their tour in Australia now over, the touring English side will leave Sydney to-morrow by the R.M.M.S. Aorangi and is due to arrive in Auckland on Monday next. It has succeeded in winning the rubber, against the Cornstalks, test match results being: / First Test.—Won, 15-12. Second Test.—Won, 8-0. Third Test.—Lost, 14-21. The 1924 English team also brought the “ashes” of Australian League to New Zealand, and here lost them. Will it be able to hold them this time?

Great Battles Recalled The defeat of the Englishmen in 1924 in the first test by New Zealand came as a mild surprise—after a titanic forward battle. Another great struggle resulted in the second test, New Zealand winning again and taking the rubber from England. The Duller district can be depended upon to supply some hot forwards, and Auckland as ever will look after the rear division. It is whispered, however, that the “All Blacks” are likely to find this English side a tougher proposition than the men of 1924.

How Dufty Did It Bond, the Canterbury right-winger, was speeding down the line. He had already gained 25yds or so, and there was only Dufty be-

tween him and the line. When Bond was four yards off, Dufty, with his head, charged and fairly flung the light Canterbury man into touch. Dufty Is as safe as a church, they say. Whether that is or is not so, however, he is the type of player needed for the matches against

the Englishmen, who are themselves big hefty men, not frightened of taking or giving hard knocks.

A Vigorous Game is League Some time ago comment was made in these columns over thf disgraceful exhibition of the League code as a cur-tain-raiser to a club match at Carlaw Park. Richmond met City fourth graders as a preliminary to the AucklandCanterbury game / on Saturday, and a lively encounter resulted. If it was not good League, it provided the spectators with plenty of amusement —and that was something they did not get in the representative match. The pugilistic art. at which New Zealanders are hoping Tom Heeney will excel himself to-morrow, was much in evidence. Truly, a vigorous game, this League. • * * For North Island Team

The form of Jones and Timms, the South Auckland forwards, was no doubt watched carefully by the North Island selectors at Carlaw Park this afternoon as on the displays they gave when down here a few weeks ago they appeared a likely pair, and a repetition of that form would have given them a great chance of getting in one of the teams to play the Englishmen.

A Football Massacre So-called representative matches like the Canterbury game on Wednesday and the Buller match last year raise a big problem. Are they doing the game any good? If not can some other

means be devised whereby Auckland’s obligations to the Southern provinces may be adequately met without wasting a perfectly good Saturday afternoon on a futile “massacre of the innocents?” * * * As a Game—Valueless The Auckland Rugby League will have to face this difficult question sooner or later. There is no benefit to anybody in these one-sided games. The Canterbury team was so hopelessly outclassed and bewildered by the avalanche of points scored against it on Saturday that it could not possibly have learnt much from the game, except to have an uneasy feeling that it was being made a laughing stock. As for the Auckland team, it drifted into a lackadaisical display, which is the worst possible training for a dour struggle against the visiting Englishmen. Even the selectors could not possibly judge a player on the form shown in such a ridiculous game.

Finding a Way Out Possibly the best way out of it would be to play these matches during the mid-week, and continue with the club competitions on Saturday. Even now, the English visit will cause a big break in the club programme. There can only be one end to these so-called representative matches—the public will get so heartily sick of them that they will simply stay away. ♦ * * A Boomerang Effect That is the blunt truth about last Saturday. The alert and progressive body of men who control League football in Auckland probably realise that as well as anyone. They have placed the game in Auckland on a unique footing, both as regards playing strength and vigorous and up-to-date management. The very fact that on top of that they have put the broad interests of the code in less favoured parts of the Dominion before selfish provincial considerations has contributed to their own undoing. Truly a Gilbertian situation!