League Rugby:

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 457, 12 September 1928, Page 11

League Rugby:

Notes and Comment.

Next Saturday’s feature game at Carla w Park will be a representative fixture between Auckland and Otago. For tbe day Roope Rooster games will be abandoned. Quite a Problem The code has to be fostered in the j South Island, but at the same time the fact that an interesting knock-out competition in the Roope Rooster should be broken off at an interesting stage to give place to a rep. game against Otago may, to a certain extent, mean the sacrificing of some of the popularity of the code in Auckland. Canterbury, which was outclassed by Auckland, had no trouble in gaining a decisive victory over Otago last week. Of course, it is quite likely that Otago did not field its best side owing to the hard games which it had ahead; and when it meets Auckland on Saturday, especially when such players of the calibre of Eckhoff, Townsend and Blazey are in its ranks, they may make things a little more difficult than expected. A Good Trio Eckhoff, Townsend and Blazey are all well known to Auckland fans. Eckhoff, a very handy forward, was one of the most prominent members of the New Zealand pack which met the Englishmen in the third test at Christchurch. Townsend is an old Auckland senior player and is recognised as one of the finest hookers in the Dominion, while fullback Blazey certainly pleased the crowd in the North v. South Island game -when he .fought out a great duel with Dufty. Runners-up Again The Ponsonby first juniors met Newton in the final of the knock-out competition on Saturday and were unlucky enough to go under by S points to 7. A draw , would have been sufficient for them to clinch the competition. It is interesting to note that their coach, Billy Walsh, well known in League circles, has for three years in succession coached the team which has been runner-up. * Revel and Wilson, two Ponsonby third-grade players who turned out for the seniors against Hikurangi last Saturday, made a good showing and should be handy men next season when favoured with more experience. * * * The presence of Moisley made a great deal of difference to the Marist pack on Saturday. For several weeks previously he had been played ip the back division, where obviously he was not a success. When the New Zealand Leaguers visit Australia next year, will Dave Murray be down at the wharf to welcome them?—Not likely. * * * Where Tykes Scored With three of its regular 1 players on the absent list, Richmond put up a surprisingly good display on Saturday, and e ven surprised itself by running Marist so close. For a time in fact the maroons were decidedly in the ascendant, and often in the final stages of a great battle were all but over the green line. Taken all round, however, their game was very erratic, and this is where Marist scored. Great Footballing Families Two families, the Meyers r and the Cunninghams, contributed half the Hikurangi team, three men of each name playing. ‘“Ted” Meyer needed no introduction to many of the enthusiasts present, who had previously seen him in action on Eden Park last season. It is not generally known, however, that the Cunninghams are of the stock that gave the 1905 All Blacks their gf*eat lock. * * * Code's Beginnings in Auckland Chatting with “Opai” Asher the other day, when the erstwhile Carlaw Park custodian, and one-time New Zealand and Australian representative Leaguer, was in a particularly reminiscent mood, the writer had his mind refreshed with interesting tales of the beginnings of the code in this city. It was away back in the first decade of the present century that a few of the local enthusiasts of England’s Northern Union game decided to set the code afoot in. New Zealand. Opai told how he called a meeting at Parnell for the purpose of forming a club, aaii when the evening arrived the convener found that he was the only “supporter” present. Nothing deterred, however, he called another meeting, this time in the Waitemata Hotel, three others besides himself being present. Despite the apathy of the public, Opai went ahead with his club. It played its first three matches with seven men only, and put up the remarkable performance of drawing with North Shore, Newton and Ponsonby, nil all in three successive

matches. At the end of the season, Opai’s team had 11 players, and it ran out the champion team. In 1910 his side again won the championship. Those were the days when proper training facilities were hard to obtain, and Opai put his men through their drill in his own house. A Slur on the Code It seems almost incredible that Dave Murray— : the “popular Dave/’ who was treated to so much hospitality in New Zealand (in spite of the fact that we saw more of him as a baggage man than as a trainer), should stage such a remarkable turn of front on his arrival back in Sydney as to make unjustifiable remarks of an extremely detrimental nature to the code in the Dominion. Of all the ups and downs Rugby Deague had to face since its advent, it is doubtful if the Council of the New Zealand Deague has had such a slur cast upon it. It looks from the interview he gave to a Sydney paper, and which appeared in The Sun on Monday, as if Dave Murray knows little of what he is talk ing about. It migh be more charit able, to say tha his memory has le him down badly The test match a Christchurch wa: heralded in news papers throughou New Zealand a being one of tli cleanest game ever witnessed h big football. Fur- — ' thermore, Burgess, the big English forward, did not take the field at all. His nose was broken in the second test at Dunedin, but was not smashed to pulp, which is a* childish exaggeration. Before leaving Auckland on the Niagara- Burgess told a Sun man that the injury to his nose was not serious and he expected to be ready to take the field at Vancouver in an exhibition match. There was certainly a misunderstanding over rules of the game when the Englishmen played the first test in Auckland, but it is news to those officials closely in touch with the visitors to learn that they at first re r i fused to take the field after the spell. More incredible still is it for Dave | Murray to say: “If a New Zealand team was brought to Sydney it would be playing, curtain-raisers within three weeks/* Such a remark is futile and unreasonable. There was only a difference of five points in all three tests j against the Englishmen, while the fine performance put up by a New Zealand ! representative side in Australia on past occasions speaks for itself. Fair criticism from a fair critic is always appreciated, but Dave Murray, who told the writer himself that he was surprised at the high standard of play in New Zealand, is not altogether playing the game and doing justice to a code of football which has done much for him—that is, if he has been reported correctly in Australia.