WHEN “MORRIE” BROWNLIE WAS DROPPED FROM ALL BLACKS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 441, 24 August 1928, Page 10

WHEN “MORRIE” BROWNLIE WAS DROPPED FROM ALL BLACKS

N.S.W. Rugby Visit Recalls Famous Rumpus of 1923—Memories of Lawton and Raymond —Two Catholic Priests Play For All Blacks —How Sinclair Won a Test Match —N.Z. Fullback Scored 23 Points in Two Appearances-—An Extraordinary Match in Dunedin.

A WAY back in 18S2, New South | Wales sent its first Rugby team to | New Zealand. l r or nearly fifty years, ! great enthusiasts on the other side like J. R. Henderson, C. E. Morgan and T. H. Bosward, have kept up the inter-

VETERAN TEAM MANAGER ]

colonial tradition, and the teams they brought have never failed in the highest test of sportsmanship, taking their wins in the same cheery spirit as their losses, and. goodness knows, they had plenty of the latter. But these fel-

lows never seemed to know when theywere beaten—there was the 1913 ceain which lost a string of matches on end, and then turned round and made mince-meat of New Zealand in the last test by 16 points to 5, and the 1921 team, which badly mauled a second best All Black team led by Teddy Roberts at Christchurch in the Springbok year,' by 17 points to 0. In “Pup” Raymond that team had one of the greatest wing-threequarters the Rugby game has known. It also included E. W. (“Slip”) Carr, famous Australian sprinter and record holder, whoso father was a member of the 1886 team which visited New Zealand. Forerunners of the famous Waratahs, the 1925 New South Wales team in New Zealand possessed the finest set of backs we have seen here since the war. In the past ten years, New Zealand | has had no first five-eighths equal to Tom Lawton, the star of that brilliant ! combination, and Reed, Morrissey and | Bowers were fit for any team, All ! Blacks and Springboks included. Had the side included a stronger lot of forwards, it would have been a great learn, and it would certainly not have gone down so heavily as it did when the big All Black forwards got to work in trie Test match at Eden Park in that year. It was the old story—brilliant backs impotent behind a beaten pack of forwards. The 1923 tour recalls the famous rumpus after the first Test in Dunedin. New Zealand won 19—9, but each side scored three tries, Sinclair winning the match by a great display at fullback, which included two penalty goals and two conversions. New South Wales was really unlucky on the run of play to have lost the match, and

so dissatisfied were the New Zealandselectors with the team’s showing that half the New Zealand side was “sacked.”

Those thrown overboard included three stars of the 1924 All Blacks, Brownlie, Mill and Steele. Even the reserves got it in the neck, Mackereth being dropped as one wag put it, “for playing a rotten game on the emergency bench!”

Naturally, the various provinces whose men were dropped wanted to know what it was all about. Hawke’s Bay, in the first flush of its Ranfurly Shield greatness, promptly raised a vigorous and vehement protest, and sarcastically pointed out that Gemmcll had been blithely chosen as front row by the selectors, who were apparently unaware of the fact that he had P 1 """" '

never played there

before!

Len Righton was another of the scapgoats. The burly Ponsonby secretary has had more than his share of the ups and downs of football, but he will always be remembered as one of Auckland's finest forwards and a great - hearted battler who never knew when he was beaten.

Curiously enough, practically everyone of those who were

dropped in Dunedin in 1923 after- 4 wards regained All Black status, |

4- since 1923 against the New South } Welshmen at Wellington next

even to Snodgrass, who, by an ex- j traordinary coincidence, will be i playing his first All Black match I

j Wednesday week. He and R. Loui den will have something to talk ! over!

Getting back to 1923, the second Testat Christchurch certainly silenced a good deal of the criticism which was levelled at the drastic action of the New Zealand won 34 —6, the All Black forwards overwhelming the Welshmen, while the indispensable Sinclair turned in his usual tally of goals—five conversions and a penalty. Sinclair played only two games for New Zealand in his all too brief ~ep. career, but in those two matches he scored 23 points, which must be pretty close to a record. Both by his kicking and wonderful work at fullback, he broke the hearts of the Welshmen that year. That second, test was interesting because it marked the appearance of a popular Catholic priest, Father McCarthy, for New Zealand as halfback. In 1921, too, Father m^m Kane, another muscular clergyman, took the field for the AlI Blacks against the New South Welshmen. j With two out of three tests “in the bag” after the match at Christchurch in 1923, the New Zealand selectors, with an eye to sorting out fresh talent for 1924, put in a “brand, spanking new team*' for the third test. It , won, 38 against a side which had rapidl} gone to pieces, following a sue-

-cession of defeats and a lot of bad luck on tour. But the most interesting feature of ■ that match was the bearing on the re-cord-breaking tour of England by the j All Blacks the following year. It was , later proved to be a triumph for the 1 selectors, on whom the dissentient pro- i vinces took a Gilbertian revenge at the next annual meeting by dropping the selectors, who had dropped their players! In that match, Lucas was at centre, Paewai five-eighth, Porter wing-forward, and Irvine, Cupples, Masters, White and Stewart in the pack. The whole eight of them went into the All Blacks for the British tour, and Cooke, then a rapidly-risen Auckland junior, was one of the emergencies for the match. While on the subject of New South Wales* teams, it may not be out of place to recall the most extraordinary match the writer has ever seen, or ever expects to see. Back in 1920, a Sydney University team, which included (if memory serves aright) such brilliant players as Raymond, Lawton and Sheehan, toured New Zealand. In the match against Otago University at Dunedin, Otago led at half time by 10 points to nil. But the game finished 45 to 10 in favour of Sydney University! It wap one of those staggering reversals of form which defied all attempts to analyse the game by ordinary standards of comparison. To add further to the general bewilderment that day, the Sydney-siders had played with the wind slightly in their favour in the first half. In the second, realising that they were up against it, they staked everything on an amazing demonstration of “neck-or-nothing” tactics. They flung the ball about from all angles and positions, and there was idways a man there by some divine in-

spiration ready to take it, travelling at top speed. Once, Raymond streakinc down the line, had his nether garments rudely torn off him by a last desperate Otago tackle. But he went on in a tremendous burst of speed, su-

JUMPING FOR IT

premely oblivious to his discomfit* • and scored a brilliant try. Then h - down suddenly, and the crowd roar Forty-five to ten! . A po ! nt a invrute in the second spell. It was the game of a lifetime. _

NO HALF HOLIDAY FOR CADDY BOYS Sergeant-Major Simons, caddymaster at the Manly Golf Club, was up against it last week. He was in a quandary where to find caddies to act for the Victorian, Tasmanian and New Zealand lady golfers, who were entertained at the Manly Golf Club. He applied to the local school and asked that caddy boys usually employed at the club be given a half holiday. The boys were more than willing to forego their education, but the schoolmaster was decidedly of the opposite frame of mind and refused the request point-blank. The ladies perforce had to carry their own clubs.

1 ..... . . . . . ; A STRENUOUS DANCE Dancing must have been a strenuous pastime in the old days, judging by a report of the first dance held in Timaru on June 7, 1564. The dance commenced at 8 p.m. and did not cease until 7 o’clock the next morning. The supper was a plentiful repast, but was not sufficient for some of the dancers. In those far-off days people out here had not heard of Dill's Best, that wonderful tobacco, which, first launched on the market as early as 1848, was being proclaimed in many parts of the world as “a mighty fine smoke.” If the Timaru male dancers had experienced a pipeful or two of Dill’s Best on the evening of their dance they would probably have gained considerable solace at not securing sufficient supper. 3

THE TEAM’S ITINERARY N.S.W. v. AUCKLAND, at Auckland Sat. Aug. 25 N.S.W.' v. WANGANUI, at Wanganui Wed. Aug. 29 N.S.W. v. HAWKE’S BAY. at Napier Sat. Sept. 1 N.S.W. v. NEW ZEALAND, at Wellington .. .. .. Wed. Sept. 4 N.S.W. v. NEW ZEALAND, at Dunedin Sat. Sept. 8 N.S.W. v. SOUTHLAND, at Invercargill Wed. Sept. 12 N.S.W. v. NEW ZEALAND, at Christchurch Sat. Sept. 15 N.S.W. v. NELSON-MARLBOROUGH, at Blenheim .. Wed. Sept. 19 N.S W. v. WELLINGTON, at Wellington Sat. Sept. 22 N.S.W. v. MANAWHENUA, at Palmerston Wed. Sept. 26